It needs to be cheap, as the title states, and easy…high school band was a long time ago. I just want something I can tinker around with, make some incidental music for home videos, and make sure I’m not working for a living when I’m actually the world’s next great composer.
Thanks.
-rainy
It’s shareware, available for unlimited time, but it is so worth the $20.00.
Wow, that looks awesome. Thanks for the recommendation. One question, I see that the more powerful version is also shareware for only $20 as well. Should I just get it to start with, or is it better for a newbie to start on the lesser featured version?
-rainy
Finale Music has a free download called Finale Notepad. I use it to make readable chord charts but it does have a play back feature.
You can find it at www.finalemusic.com along with their other software which ranges in price from $49 to $600.
I’ve also used Cakewalk and Band in a Box. Cakewalk I used for writing midi sequences and Band in a box has the play back feature that makes it useful for listening to chord charts and making sure the changes are what I want. Neither of those is exactly cheap but I was able to get a copy of BiaB on ebay for around $60.
Thanks. Great screen name by the way!
It’s pretty beta-quality, and it’s primarily for guitar, but I’ve found Pwer Tab good for general-use stuff as well. I believe it has an option to turn off the guitar staff.
Oh, and it’s free. 
This is hubby’s hobby, not mine, but from what he’s said, I think the Demo version is free to try forever, but giving them $20.00 will let you try out more of the features. Upgrades are free. 
I’m astonished to find anyone who can use Finale Notepad to actually do anything useful. (And this is coming from someone who uses Finale itself regularly)