If you have a piece in your notation software and you want a sight-reading app to actually understand it, the format you need is MusicXML. PDFs will not do. Screenshots will not do. The file your software calls “the score” will not do, because every notation app has its own proprietary format and they do not read each other’s. MusicXML is the lingua franca, and almost every major notation editor speaks it.
This is a practical guide to getting that file out, app by app, and then doing something useful with it. If you just want the menu path for your software, jump to the relevant section. The rest is context.
What MusicXML is, and why every serious piano practice tool uses it
MusicXML is an open exchange format for sheet music. It was developed by Recordare in the early 2000s and is now maintained by the W3C. Almost every serious notation editor reads and writes it.
The reason it matters is the difference between an image and a structure. A PDF of a score is a picture of music: the software showing it to you knows where the ink is on the page, but it has no idea that the black dot in bar three is a C in the right hand. MusicXML is structured. Pitches, rhythms, dynamics, articulations, lyrics, fingerings, time signatures: each one is its own addressable thing in the file, which means code can actually reason about the music rather than just display it.
That structure is what allows a sight-reading app to compare what you played with what was on the page in real time. Without it, the app can show you a score, but it has no way to tell whether you got the notes right. So if you want to bring your own music into a tool like SightReader, MusicXML is the file you need.
Export from MuseScore 4
File menu → Export → choose MusicXML, then “Compressed (.mxl)” or “Uncompressed (.musicxml)“.
MuseScore 4 is the current version at the time of writing, and the export dialog is straightforward. Both formats contain exactly the same musical information; the compressed one is smaller and is what you should pick by default. The uncompressed .musicxml is plain text, which is occasionally useful if you want to inspect or edit the XML by hand, but for ordinary use the compressed file is fine.
MuseScore 3 is similar, but the menu lives at File → Export rather than the newer Export panel and the dialog looks slightly different. If your screen does not match the description above, check which version you are on (Help → About MuseScore).
MuseScore is free and open source, so if you have been given a score in some other format and need to convert it, installing MuseScore and re-exporting is often the path of least resistance.
Export from Sibelius
File menu → Export → MusicXML, then choose “Compressed” or “Uncompressed”.
Sibelius defaults to the uncompressed .musicxml option, which is fine; the compressed .mxl is also offered if you want a smaller file. Either one will work in any tool that accepts MusicXML.
If you do a lot of round-tripping between Sibelius and other apps, it is worth knowing about the “Round-trip MusicXML” plugin available from Sibelius’s plugin downloads. It improves fidelity on the way out, particularly for things like layout and engraving instructions that the standard exporter sometimes drops. For sight-reading purposes you almost certainly do not need it; the notes themselves come through cleanly with the default exporter.
Export from Finale
File menu → Export → MusicXML.
Finale is a slightly awkward case in 2026. MakeMusic announced in August 2024 that they were retiring Finale: no further updates, no new sales, and a discount offered to existing users to crossgrade to Dorico. Existing Finale installations continue to work, and the MusicXML export still does what it has always done.
If you have an active Finale installation and a score you want to export, the menu path above gets you there. The exporter has been mature for years and produces clean files.
If you are starting fresh and choosing notation software in 2026, Finale is probably not the one to pick. Dorico and MuseScore are the most credible options for new users; both export MusicXML reliably, and both are actively developed. MakeMusic’s own crossgrade pointed Finale users at Dorico, which is a reasonable hint.
Export from Dorico
File menu → Export → MusicXML, then pick “Compressed MusicXML” if offered.
Dorico has some of the strongest MusicXML round-trip support in the category, partly because the same team built both ends of it (Daniel Spreadbury, Dorico’s product manager, was previously at Sibelius and is closely involved with the MusicXML standard itself). Files exported from Dorico tend to come out clean, with most articulations, dynamics, and slurs preserved.
The compressed option is usually the right default for the same reason it is in MuseScore: smaller file, identical content.
Get a .mxl from MuseScore.com
On the score page, click “Download” and pick MusicXML from the format dropdown.
If you do not have the score in your own notation software, MuseScore.com is a community library of user-uploaded scores, and most of them can be downloaded as MusicXML. You will need a free MuseScore.com account, and some scores require a paid Pro subscription to download.
Two caveats. First, MuseScore.com scores are user-uploaded, which means quality varies; popular pieces have multiple versions of varying accuracy, so it is worth scanning the score on screen before you commit. Second, many MuseScore.com uploads are covers or arrangements rather than the original work; check the licensing if you intend to use the score for anything beyond personal practice.
For public-domain repertoire, IMSLP is often a better starting point than MuseScore.com, but IMSLP is a PDF library rather than a MusicXML one, so you will usually need to open the PDF in a notation editor and re-export. The MusicXML conversion in modern editors is good but not perfect; expect to spend a few minutes correcting obvious errors.
What to do with the file
Once you have a .musicxml or .mxl, you can bring it into SightReader from the upload page. Drag the file onto the drop zone or click to pick it from your file browser. The server parses the file, makes it available in your library, and you can sight-read it immediately with real-time MIDI feedback.
Uploaded pieces stay private to your account by default; nobody else can see or play them. They sit alongside the public library in your own listing, so you can mix your own scores into a daily practice habit without having to think about it.
Both .musicxml and .mxl are accepted directly. There is no need to unzip or convert anything before uploading.
Common problems
A few things tend to go wrong on first upload, and they almost all have boring fixes.
The first is the choice between .mxl and .musicxml. The two formats contain identical musical data; an .mxl file is just a zip containing a single .musicxml file inside it. SightReader accepts both, and you should not need to convert between them. If one of them fails to parse, try the other; the export from your notation app may have produced a file that is technically valid but unusual in some way, and the alternative format sometimes round-trips more cleanly.
The second is multi-movement files. Some scores contain several movements in a single file, with internal section breaks. SightReader treats the whole file as a single piece, which means a three-movement sonata becomes one library entry that takes fifteen minutes to play. This is rarely what you want for sight-reading practice, which works best in short, focused chunks. The cleanest fix is to split the file in your notation app before exporting: open the score, save a copy per movement, and export each one separately. Each will then appear as its own library entry, with its own progress tracking.
The third is the difference between parts and full scores. A MusicXML file can contain a single instrument’s part, or a full score with every instrument on its own stave. Both will upload and display, but the practice experience is different. A single piano part is the ideal case: every stave on screen is something your hands should be playing. A full multi-instrument score, such as a string quartet with the piano part included, will show all of the staves; SightReader will only treat the piano staves as practisable, but the rest of the instruments will still be visible on the page, which can be distracting. If you have the option, export just the piano part rather than the full conductor’s score.
There are other edge cases, including unusual time signatures, dense ossia passages, and exotic articulations, but the three above account for the great majority of “why does my upload look weird” questions. If you hit something stranger, the uncompressed .musicxml format is plain XML and can be opened in any text editor, which is sometimes enough to spot what your notation software did on the way out.
That is the whole pipeline. Export from your software, upload the file, sight-read the result. The proprietary formats do not talk to each other, but they all talk to MusicXML, and every serious notation editor knows where the export menu is.
