Tip: Don’t use document scanning apps or tripod scanners with PlayScore. These degrade the image.
PlayScore is sold by
To manage or cancel a subscription, go to the store for your platform. You can reach the correct store through the Store button in the PlayScore mobile app. Alternatively, you can go straight to the store from the App Store or Google Play app on your device. On Windows, you can reach your account by clicking on the Start button. In the window that follows you should see your profile picture. Click the picture and then choose My Microsoft account. On the page that follows. click Subscriptions.
Refunds
PlayScore is available on 3 platforms
Apple iOS
Android
Windows
These are separate apps available under subscriptions offered by Apple, Google and Microsoft. Because of this we are not able to offer a common subscription.
However, because the free version of PlayScore will play back any PlayScore document, you can scan music on one platform but play it back on all three, all using a single subscription.
How to find the price you would pay on your device
You will see the prices for your region right there.
You won’t have to log in to anything or share personal information to see the prices.
Why don’t we show the prices here?
Because apps sell all over the world in many different currencies it is not possible for app developers to show a single price.
With PlayScore 2 you can play any good quality PDF score and export the results as MusicXML or MIDI.
To listen to any score from a free sheet music site or one you have purchased, view the score in Safari. Once you are looking at your score, all you have to do is tap the export icon
. You will see:
Copy to PlayScore 2
as an option. That’s it. As long as you have a Professional subscription PlayScore 2 will show you all the scores pages as thumbnails. Tap on any of the thumbnails to see it full size below.
Now select the pages you want to play: tap just above the first and just below the last. Then tap done.
Tip – Any purchased score will be fine, but not every score from every free sheet music site is good enough quality for optical recognition. So try selecting a single page at first so that you can listen to the results quickly. You can always tap the button upper right to make a new page selection.
If there are mistakes, try adjusting the speed/quality slider on the document settings (cogwheel 
).
If the score has transposing instruments turn on Auto Transposition (cogwheel ).
Free sheet music sites
International Music Score Library Project
Play a score from the IMSLP site
With PlayScore 2 you can play any good quality PDF score and export the results as MusicXML or MIDI.
To listen to one of the scores on the IMSLP site go to the IMSLP as you usually would in Safari, and find the score you want. Once you are looking at your score, all you have to do is tap the export icon. You will see: Copy to PlayScore 2 as an option. That’s it. PlayScore 2 will show you all the score’s pages as thumbnails. Tap on any of the thumbnails to see it full size below.
Now select the pages you want to play: tap just above the first and just below the last. Then tap done.
Tip – not all IMSLP scores are good enough quality for optical recognition. So try selecting a single page at first so that you can listen to the results quickly. You can always tap the button upper right to make a new page selection.
For many works IMSLP has several scores. In these cases, try the bottom one first. If that one is poor quality try another.
If there are mistakes, try adjusting the sampling slider on the document settings 
.
If the score has transposing instruments turn on Auto Transposition .
PlayScore 2 can find and play short pieces of music in a page of text as well as whole pages of music. The music has to be reasonably clear, but PlayScore can find them itself; you don’t need to mask out the text in any way. To give PlayScore a good view of a particular music example you can snap that area rather than the whole page. But photograph the whole example, never clip the music.
NB It is not a good idea to cut out a little section of with a photo editor. This doesn’t improve the resolution and will never be better that using the whole image as it is. If you do this, PlayScore may simply interpret it as a low resolution image.
The MIDI and MusicXML files generated by PlayScore 2 are for noncommercial use only. If you would like to make commercial use of PlayScore 2 files please contact us at support@organumconsulting.com.
Yes, PlayScore 2 can convert, play and export PDF scores directly. Just find the score in your browser and choose ‘send to PlayScore 2’ from the export menu. You can also import PDF scores directly from Dropbox, iCloud etc.
PlayScore 2 can play PDF scores directly and export them as MusicXML. On iPhones and iPads, just find them in Safari and chose Send to PlayScore 2. On Android devices, open the PDF in your browser and export to PlayScore 2.
In all versions of PlayScore provided you have a subscription, you can open a PDF score direct from the app.
To find free sheet music online try some of the sites below.
IMSLP – The International Music Score Library Project
8notes.com – Free Sheet Music & Lessons
Free-scores.com – Free music scores
The Mutopia Project – Open source Contemporary and Classical instrumental music
MuseScore – Download and print free sheet music for piano, guitar, flute and more
PlayScore 2 can create MIDI files from multi-page and PDF scores.
NB we recommend MusicXML rather than MIDI whenever possible.
See MIDI and MusicXML files
PlayScore operates entirely on your device and does not send your music, or anything about your use of the app anywhere.
Some apps work by contacting a central server, PlayScore is not one of those apps.
The only time your music will leave your device is when you deliberately export it.
We also do not require you to sign into the app or collect any information about you.
PlayScore does not show any advertisements.
No. When you create a new PlayScore document with the camera or a PDF score, the document you create is stored on your device. You can send it to someone else using Export, but there is no central place PlayScore documents are held; they are kept on your device and nowhere else.
Subject to some exceptions, it is against the law to make copies of music that is in copyright. This could apply to some uses of PlayScore and PlayScore 2, just as it would if you photocopied an in-copyright piece. Music copyright law is complex and varies between jurisdictions.
Yes, with PlayScore 2 you have 23 high quality instruments to choose from. You can also have a different instrument on every staff.
PlayScore 2 can create MusicXML files from multi-page and PDF scores. Text and lyrics in the score can be exported along with the music. Dynamics, articulation, ornaments etc are also exported.
See ‘MIDI and MusicXML files’ on the How to Use page.
Optical Music Recognition (OMR) is the application of machine vision and other techniques to convert music notation into an electronic form. Once so converted the music can be played, edited, printed and analysed.
OMR has been an active research topic for several decades but only now has it reached the point where it can be used by anyone in an app.
At Organum we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of OMR. In his keynote address at the WoRMS 2021 conference, our founder Anthony Wilkes talked about some new OMR techniques being built into PlayScore 2.
Yes, PlayScore 2 can create multiple-page playing scores and can play PDF scores too.
With PlayScore 2 you can scan sheet music straight into notation programs like MuseScore, Dorico, Sibelius, Logic Pro, Noteflight, Flat and SeeScore.
Just scan the music or import a PDF score and export the MusicXML to your notation program.
If you want to export text such as lyrics and guitar chords as well as the music, go to Document settings and turn on Lyrics and text.
Yes, if you need to set the tempo to an exact metronome mark it helps to switch to landscape orientation for a moment. You can also roll your finger on the knob for fine adjustment.
Yes, just tap the clock symbol 
lower left and set the ‘tick’ button. You can also adjust the tick volume.
PlayScore’s metronome is more musical than a regular one. Because PlayScore knows the time signature, it can tap strong and weak beats according to where you are in the measure. And if the music changes time, the metronome changes with it.
Yes, tap the clock symbol second from the left at the bottom of the play screen.
Yes, you can share PlayScore 2 documents that you have created. Anyone can play and interact with them free just by downloading the free PlayScore 2 app. No subscription needed.
Yes. But if it’s a photo and the more staffs there are, the harder it is to get a good picture. PlayScore works well using the device camera for music up to five or 6 staves, often more. But in difficult cases, you can always import a picture downloaded or captured using a scanner.
There is no limit to the number of staves in a system if the image is good, for example, in a good quality PDF score. However playback quality may deteriorate above 12 staves or so. MusicXML export is not affected.
If your score has transposing instruments, remember to set auto-transpose (Document settings). For details please see Transposing instruments and transposition.
No. PlayScore is designed for music, not guitar tab. However music printed with a staff of music and one of tab joined together will sometimes play if the tab staff is covered up with a mask in the app. See Guitar tab in the help for details.
Yes, you can process photos, PDF scores, and JPG or TIF images. But remember that a high quality image is essential. If a JPG image is less than 1 megabyte, it is probably low resolution and may play poorly.
Yes. In portrait orientation, you can easily photograph any page of sheet music – always snap the whole paper page, not part of it. Use landscape for very wide music. If you have a subscription, you can create documents with many pages.
Phones nearly always have better cameras than tablets so, if you have a phone and a tablet of similar quality, try the phone first. If you have an iPhone 5 or above or a mid/high-end Android smartphone, you should get excellent results.
If you are using the camera screen, tap the ? 
button and swipe through the tips for taking a perfect sheet music photo.
We are always ready to help at support@organumconsulting.com.
PlayScore 2 will work on any supported Apple/iOS device (iOS 8 or later) and any Android device with a good camera. No camera less than 5 megapixel (MP) is suitable, but the MP is not always a good guide as some high MP cameras nonetheless take poor photographs. Most high-end devices will give good results. Tablets sometimes have poor cameras.
If your device gives poor results look at the swipe help on the camera screen. Often better light will solve the problem.
Even on a device with a poor camera will still work for PDF scores.
Always try out the app free on your device before subscribing – it uses exactly the same music recognition engine. And feel free to contact us at support@organumconsulting.com.
In PlayScore 2, you can create playable documents with many pages. But you can only do this if you have a subscription. If you don’t have a subscription, every photo you take on the Play Screen replaces the last photo you took.
Assuming you have a subscription, tap the camera on the Documents screen to take the first picture. When you have captured the picture, PlayScore 2 will take you to the Play Screen. There, you will find a camera button 
bottom right. The picture you take when you tap this button is added on to the end of your PlayScore 2 Playable Document.
Recapture or delete the page in view by swiping left (right on Android).
Rearrange pages by tapping the button top right.
Rotate a page by twisting with two fingers.
To play and export multi-measure rests go to Document settings and turn on Lyrics and text.
To export text such as lyrics and guitar chords go to Document settings and turn on Lyrics and text.
You also need Lyrics and text to recognise multi-measure rests and D.S., D.C and CODA.
If when you choose export the MusicXML option is greyed, the reason is one of the following:
PlayScore is very accurate so long as you have a good camera and as long as the photo is good! If you have a good camera but are getting poor results, the answer is something to do with the photo. Try the following:
NB: Use a phone if possible – phones have better cameras than tablets.
If one shot isn’t very good take another. It can take a little trial and error to learn a good technique.
If your score is not playing well, one of these adjustments can often fix the problem.
Error correction – this is an auto-correction feature that can spot mistakes in a score or or recognition errors. In most music it works well, but in some music where there are false relations (notes played together on the same degree of the scale but with a different accidentals) Error correction may try to ‘correct’ these. If this happens, turn the setting off.
Sampling/PDF process quality (PDF scores only) this allows you to alter how the music is processed. Essentially this setting determines how densely the image is sampled. Some scores translate better at a lower or a higher setting and it is worth trying different settings for best results. For poor quality scores it is sometimes possible to find a ‘sweet spot’ where the music sounds best. For dense scores containing many staves results may be better at the + end of the scale.
Image this control can be used to compensate when an image or parts of it are very faint, or very black. The dark end of the scale(left) makes the image darker, the right lighter.
PlayScore 2 automatically adjusts to compensate for a wide range of image exposure, even when there are shadows. But in extreme cases this control can be helpful.
faint scores – scores produced by certain early music editors can have staff lines that are very faint compared to other objects. Other types of score have stems and lines so thin that render faint in the PDF. For faint scores generally try moving the slider left towards the dark end.
dark scores – where a score has an over-exposed look with thick lines and symbols merging into one another, try moving the slider to the right.
Solo parts
If you scan a solo part for a transposing instrument in PlayScore it will play in the written key by default. To hear the music at concert pitch you should set the transposition on the Play and MIDI settings screen. For example for a Bb clarinet set the transposition to -2.
Tip: selecting an instrument from the dropdown only affects the timbre. It does not set a transposition.
Music with an accompaniment or ensemble music
If your music has instruments with different key signatures, for example Bb clarinet and piano, turn on Auto-transpose under the Document settings. PlayScore will then adjust everything so that the instruments sound right together.
In some cases PlayScore can pick up information from instrument name text to the left of a staff. For example, the instrument name can tell PlayScore that a double bass plays an octave lower, or a picadillo an octave higher than the written key
To make PlayScore pick up transposing information from instrument names in the score turn on Lyrics and text in the Document settings.
For more information on transposing instruments, especially ensembles involving transposing brass, see Transposing instruments and transposition.