Writing music

[C K Dexter Haven]

Is there some (inexpensive) program, similar to Word, say, that can be used to write music? I'm not trying to do complicated stuff, but I have some old handwritten music that I'd like to make look nice. And I've got a couple of "fake book" songs where I'd like to add specific chords etc. I'd like to have it all look "professional" rather than just use music paper and hand-written notes. And I don't want to spend a lot of money, because I'm not doing THAT much.

Any thought?

[Inner Stickler]

Finale Notepad (http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/default.aspx) is 10 bucks to download. When I was using it a few years ago notepad was free and there were some things that you could only do with the money version. I think switching time signatures in a piece was one, or if it wasn't I certainly never found out how to do it.

[iamnotbatman]

I use GarageBand (piano). It's cheap, but the staff/notation is mediocre. The plus is that you can play the composition back to you (also mediocre) to make sure you didn't screw up the notation.

[C K Dexter Haven]

Wow, that was fast! Thanks!!

[Pitchmeister]

Finale (http://www.finalemusic.com/NotePad/default.aspx) comes in lots of different versions, the cheapest of which is $10. Have a look what best fits your needs.

ETA: Curses, ninja'd by two people!

[raspberry hunter]

Lilypond (http://lilypond.org/) is free, and makes beautiful scores, but requires substantially more of a learning curve. I love having the control, though (I hated using Finale).

[Inner Stickler]

Mwahaha. I really don't have any more input. I haven't used finale in years, I don't know if it's gotten better, worse or stayed the same. I know that one of the more expensive versions is loaded on computers at school for the composition majors but I don't know if they use it or ditch it for other software.

Me, I write my music on parchment with a quill and inkpot. Makes it seem more real, you know?

[K364]

If you are a geeky programmer type, you'll love the challenge of lilypond. And, as raspberry hunter said, it produces beautiful scores. It has been designed since day one to created professional musical scores.

[MacSpon]

Lime (http://www.cerlsoundgroup.org/main.html) isn't bad.

[GorillaMan]

MuseScore (http://musescore.org/) is perhaps the best of the open-source point-and-click (as opposed to Lilypond) options.

[BigT]

Actually, Finale Notepad used to be freeware. I still have the latest free version, which isn't that much different from the current version*, and the EULA specifically indicates that I can share this version with absolutely anyone.

Plus, I'm not that big on Finale's practice of releasing new versions of their software every year that do little more than break compatibility with previous versions, and costs a significant fraction of that previous version's price.

So, since I can't find it anywhere else, I'll give you a direct link (http://trlkly.drivehq.com/downloads/NP2k8WinSetup.exe) to download it from one of my websites.

*It appears like dynamic markings are missing, but they are actually under the articulations tool. That and support for MusicXML are the only differences I found--hardly worth $10, IMHO. Three versions later, and the only reason to get it is if you already have another music program that writes in MusicXML, and you want to switch.

[C K Dexter Haven]

I've been trying MuseScore since it was free and I'm not really doing all that much. I gotta say, it's a little frustrating, even simple things (rests in mid-measure, f'rinstance) but I assume that's just because I'm new to it. Works reasonably well for my needs. Thanks all!

[Musicat]

I've been trying MuseScore since it was free and I'm not really doing all that much. I gotta say, it's a little frustrating, even simple things (rests in mid-measure, f'rinstance)...I haven't used that program, but I'm wondering what you are describing. Does it NOT put rests in the proper place (a whole rest would be proper in the middle of a measure)?

[C K Dexter Haven]

It's 4/4, and I want: half note, quarter rest, eighth rest, eighth note. Had a lot of trouble. It seems to want to put rests in where it thinks they should go to make the measure count out right, rather than where I want them to go.
If there's quarter note, quarter note, quarter rest, quarter note -- no prob.

[antonio107]

Mwahaha. I really don't have any more input. I haven't used finale in years, I don't know if it's gotten better, worse or stayed the same. I know that one of the more expensive versions is loaded on computers at school for the composition majors but I don't know if they use it or ditch it for other software.


When I stopped taking composition classes I stopped upgrading. My last version is '09, I think? Learning to use Finale is a lot like learning to sing from Modus Novus: the people who made it are more akin to scientists than musicians, and there's nothing natural or intuitive about it. Yet inspite of this, you somehow manage to master it after five or six deeply flawed orchestration assignments. :D

[fachverwirrt]

Ah, Modus Novus. I remember you fondly...

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

It's 4/4, and I want: half note, quarter rest, eighth rest, eighth note. Had a lot of trouble.

Why put two consecutive rests when you can just dot the quarter rest on beat three?

[C K Dexter Haven]

Why put two consecutive rests when you can just dot the quarter rest on beat three?I'm copying an existing score. I frankly wouldn't care what the rests were, I just had a damnable time trying to get note - rest - note within one measure. It kept trying to do it as note - note - rest, and nothing I could say or do would make it change it's mind.

[GorillaMan]

Although it fills the bar with rests automatically, you need to enter the rest you actually want manually before you can put the note after it - maybe that's where you're going wrong?

[Musicat]

Why put two consecutive rests when you can just dot the quarter rest on beat three?In 4/4 time, that would not be correct notation. A dotted quarter rest is reserved for sigs like 6/8, 12/8, where it represents a major beat. It is not used in 2/4, 4/4.

Why? Tradition, probably due to the desire to separate quarter-value beats, even though this is violated with notes (a dotted quarter or half is fine in that location in 4/4).

[BigT]

I've been trying MuseScore since it was free and I'm not really doing all that much. I gotta say, it's a little frustrating, even simple things (rests in mid-measure, f'rinstance) but I assume that's just because I'm new to it. Works reasonably well for my needs. Thanks all!

Do you have any trouble getting MuseScore to play back your music? Because I did.

That, and the fact that I used Finale way before MuseScore came out and can't convert my old sheet music, were the reasons I never got on board with it. Well, that and the fact that I found the above free 2008 edition of Finale Notebook.

Oh, and if anyone is having trouble with Finale, don't be afraid to ask. I find it pretty intuitive, especially the full versions that will just allow me to play everything into it using my trusty keyboard.

[jjimm]

I've tried using this stuff before, and I really wish someone would write one with usability in mind.

Here's my idea for actually laying down music:

1. Place notes by clicking on the score.
2. Or place notes by hitting the "Return" key. This duplicates the note you just placed.
3. When the note is highlighted, the up and down arrows move the note up and down the stave through the given key, or a chromatic scale by holding down the "Shift" keys.
4. The left and right buttons change the length of the note.
5. Place rests by hitting the "Space" key, or by hitting the "Space" key when a note is highlighted, to turn that note into a rest.
6. While a note is highlighted, hit the "period" button to add a dot.
7. Use the mouse to highlight a series of notes, then hit "S" to slur them.

That would be so easy to use. I should patent it.

[Musicat]

I've tried using this stuff before, and I really wish someone would write one with usability in mind.

Here's my idea for actually laying down music:

1. Place notes by clicking on the score.
2. Or place notes by hitting the "Return" key. This duplicates the note you just placed.
3. When the note is highlighted, the up and down arrows move the note up and down the stave through the given key, or a chromatic scale by holding down the "Shift" keys.
4. The left and right buttons change the length of the note.
5. Place rests by hitting the "Space" key, or by hitting the "Space" key when a note is highlighted, to turn that note into a rest.
6. While a note is highlighted, hit the "period" button to add a dot.
7. Use the mouse to highlight a series of notes, then hit "S" to slur them.

That would be so easy to use. I should patent it.I wrote a software program to do that in 1976.

Pitches were input from a digital keyboard, but only pitches. The value of the symbol (note, rest, whatever) was picked out from a typewriter-kind of keyboard with the symbols painted on. Press a half note with one hand and a C with the other, simultaneously or sequentially, and the symbol instantly appeared on the screen with the correct stem orientation, line/space, and accidental if appropriate, and the cursor moved to the next position.

One symbol, one key. One step easier than your proposal.

Sound like a good idea? We were able to produce music much faster than it could be played sometimes, since we didn't have to wait for the tempo, or we could take our time if it was complex. The fastest copy machine I've ever seen.

1976. We couldn't afford to complete the project and market it. Want one? First you build a time machine...

[GorillaMan]

Here's my idea for actually laying down music:

1. Place notes by clicking on the score.
2. Or place notes by hitting the "Return" key. This duplicates the note you just placed.
3. When the note is highlighted, the up and down arrows move the note up and down the stave through the given key, or a chromatic scale by holding down the "Shift" keys.
4. The left and right buttons change the length of the note.
5. Place rests by hitting the "Space" key, or by hitting the "Space" key when a note is highlighted, to turn that note into a rest.
6. While a note is highlighted, hit the "period" button to add a dot.
7. Use the mouse to highlight a series of notes, then hit "S" to slur them.
It's not that different from keyboard entry in Finale, for example. The Simple Entry tool lets you move pitches up and down with cursor keys and enter new notes with enter, or by hitting A/B/C..G, and uses the number pad to select durations. Tab enters a rest of the selected duration, R converts the note just entered to a rest. Then there's lot more (http://www.finalemusic.com/UserManuals/Finale2011mac/Content/Finale/Keyboard_Shortcuts_and_Special_Mouse_Clicks.htm#XREF_Simple_Entry_Tool_keycuts) keystrokes.

[jebradley]

Although not WYSIWYG, I don't think that you can beat Lilypond using the Jedit editor with it's Lilypond plugin (once you update it to the current beta).

With Jedit with the plugin, you write your score, push a button and it runs it in Lilypond, and then allows you to play the midi file and view the pdf of the score.

I find that I can enter the music faster with the keyboard than I can using the point and click. I was playing with Musescore, and if you happen to enter a half note rather that a quarter note and you've done a long string of notes, it will add a rest when you change it back, rather than shifting the remaining notes. And, the rest can be almost impossible to remove. If you change from a quarter note to a half note, it shifts things the other way.