Music Notation Software -- Any Recommendations?

[Bubbie]

I play the tinwhistle. I'm trying to find some Windows software that will let me put music notation (dots) on my computer and make changes to the notation if needed. If the software can also transpose from one key to the other, that would be nice (but not required).

Do you know of any software that would meet my needs? If you've used the product, what do you think of it? Thanks in advance for any help/advice you can give to me.

Bubbie

(This is a generic post so I cross-posted it on the tinwhistle, flute, stringed, ITM and pub forums.)

[Pyroh]

I use freeware called Anvil Studio - it´s great, simple to use, you can slow a tune down, it can transpose and all that. I sincerely recommend that...

[OBrien]

Finale Notepad is a good one. It's free, but you can pay for an upgrade. I've found that the free version does everything I need- change tempo, transpose, playback, print, etc.

[jemtheflute]

If you just want to get melody lines in standard notation, ABC is the way to go - and there are some pretty sophisticated bits of software for it now - check it out at abcnotation.org.uk. It is worth finding out about because most of the online resources for traditional tunes use it. It is also (once you get used to it, which doesn't take long) a very quick way of getting a single line up into very presentable standard notation - using abc2win or abcedit, in particular, and abcMus lets you mess about with midi playback etc. The notation images generated in these programs can be copied and pasted fairly readily too. If you get familiar with it, it's handy too as a shorthand for cues/aides-memoires or for jotting down a tune someone is giving you when you haven't any staved manuscript paper to hand - any scrap of paper will do! There's an excellent tutorial here.

For fancier stuff, Finale or Melody/Harmony Assistant are OK, but awkward, I have found. At least they have freeware versions. I have little experience of it, but Sibelius is the top-line software for conventional score writing - but you have to pay for it, unless you can get it via an educational establishment.

[JordanII]

Finale Notepad is good.

[ISU Trout Bum]

Hi Bubbie,

Take a look at "Band in a Box" (http://www.pgmusic.com/). It does all that, and a whole, whole lot more. I absolutely love the program (and I've probably only figured out about 10% of it! )

As well, there is a great site for "Celtic Tunes" where you can download literally 100's of Band in a Box jigs, reels, hornpipes, etc. It's found at: http://www.alfwarnock.info/alfs/biab.php

Hope this helps!

[MagicSailor]

Hi

Take a look at "Band in a Box" (http://www.pgmusic.com/).

But.... they want money for it

Regards,

Owen Morgan

Yacht Magic
Anchored in the lagoon, St Maarten

My new blog.
Click here for my latest reported position. (Use the satellite view.)

[straycat82]

Greetings,

The only software I've ever tried is called Noteworthy Composer. I use that now and then but I'm not typically that concerned with the dots so I don't use it much. It has worked fine for me though.

[Bubbie]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'm going to look into each of them over the week end. The people on this site are great! I hope to return the favor after I learn a thing or two myself.

[pancelticpiper]

I hate hate HATE (do you want to know how I really feel?) ABC notation. With standard notation you can glance at a tune and instantly know how it goes, the whole "arc" of it, whether it progresses smoothly or by leaps or arpeggios etc. ABC reduces tunes into a mass of letters, and has had to come up with contrived, cockamamy ways of indicating note values etc. I can only imagine that it was devised by people too lazy or stupid to learn how to read music. Using ABC when we have an established, elegant, efficient way of writing music makes no sense. And to add to the absurdity people have had to come up with all sorts of software to try to convert this primitive system into normal notation. In the same amount of time it took to devise all of this, all the people involved could have learned to read real music. To make a quick notation of a phrase I jot five parallel lines on a piece of paper in a couple seconds. Not rocket science.

[Guidus]

I hate hate HATE (do you want to know how I really feel?) ABC notation.

well... I surely respect your opinion, but may I suggest that perhaps you're missing the point? As far as I know, nobody ever suggested that ABC notation should replace standard notation; it's merely a way - let me add a bit of emphasis, a great way - to write music using a computer. To the best of my knowledge, people only use it to produce music in standard notation (e.g. using abcm2ps) and/or MIDI files.

As a side note: I used to be a music typist a few years ago, and I must say that entering music using an ASCII-based method (be it ABC, PMW, PMX or whatever) is by far the fastest way to produce a score. Just my .02 E.

[jemtheflute]

I second Guido here, although without his depth of experience. I partially agree with Pan about people bothering to learn to read standard music notation, though, and about its elegance and efficiency as a dedicated purpose communication system. However, it remains the case that many perfectly competent instrumentalists find it impenetrable.

The original point of ABC was not to be an alternative music notation for the player, as such, not to re-invent the wheel. The fact that there may now already be, and in future most probably will be, people who can sight read from it, is a byproduct. Its purpose was to provide a quick and approachable way of recording music on a computer in small (memory consuming) files that could be readily converted into standard notation. No-one has yet, so far as I know, invented a true music notation font/keyboard that will let one type a piece of music out direct using only a typewriter keyboard interface with the computer and similar memory size and file manipulation facilities as an ordinary alphanumeric text. I'm sure such a thing could be done, but it hasn't, so far as I know. All the software that can convert a performance on a musical keyboard into a notation does so via sound and images - very handily too, I'm sure, but using far bigger computer capacity. I have very little experience of such, so can't evaluate them, only say that I know they're there. Finale. Melody Assistant et al all work by rather laboriously placing notes on staves with a mouse and, even with practice, are slow to use. That is the strength of ABC - it is quick and easy to learn its protocols and conventions - even for folks who struggle with ordinary written music, and then very quick and easy to use.

It can be used as a primary medium of record and for easy communication of such records at low computer cost, and also to generate very acceptable standard notation image output. The last is what I chiefly use it for. I used to write out tunes and sets by hand, usually to reasonable calligraphic standards, when I wanted a master copy for my own records or to offer to others. I would then multiply it by photocopying, or more recently by scanning an image and then sending it via e-mail etc. The handwritten route was quite satisfying to do, and I haven't totally abandoned it, but it is very time-consuming and the masters are then as vulnerable as any paper-and-ink document. I now tend to use ABC, either notations I have acquired from elsewhere, or notating it myself. I can then use the excellent software available to do things like play the notation back, and, most usefully, to convert it to normal music dots that I can read - output at a standard of legibility and presentation at least equal to my calligraphy and far more handy! There is no need to store those images permanently as they can quickly and easily be regenerated from the ABC, and those easily and quickly typed files can readily be communicated to others.

I would never suggest ABC as an adequate substitute for learning to read normal notation, but it is handy for those who can't, and it is an extremely useful tool for those who can. An old friend of mine - a very fine fiddler - who is classicaly trained to degree level, was formerly very dismissive of it in similar terms to Pan. He now quite happily uses it in ways similar to those I have been trying to explain.

[falkbeer]

Hi,

I use these kind of software a lot myself.
I think the very best program is Sibelius. It´s a dream to work with! Beethoven would have killed for this program! You can use it for anything - just a simple tune or a symphony. And the prints out prints looks professional. However, it takes time to learn and is quite expensive to buy. And it´s slow work. If your goal is to write down just a tune and perhaps some chords ABC Navigator 2.0 is a very good choise too! Easy to learn and work with. And it´s fast! You use the keyboard to input the notes! (CDEFGAB). And its free! And if you want to share your tunes with other whistlers it´s the tool to use. ABC is the most popular format for any kind of folkmusic on the web. You can also transpose in ABC format, but not as easily as in Sibelius. You´ve got to use a word processor and substitute the individual notes. (let A = B etc.), but since there are only 7 tone names in the western scale it will go fast enough!

Here is an example of what ABC looks like:

X:33
T:33. Gammal fäbodpsalm
C:Oskar Lindberg / trad
Q:"Larghetto"
L:1/8
M:C
K:Amin
E^G | "am" A3B A^G Ac | "E7" B3 ^G E2EG | "am" A3BA2^F2 |
"em" G6E^G | "am" A3G "A7" EF GA | "dm" F3ED2C2 | "F6" D6E2 | "E7" E6 :||
B2 | "am" c3d cB Ac | "E7" B3cB2^G2 | "am" A3B cB cA | "E" B6E^G |
"am" A3B A=G Ac| "em" B3G E2G2| "F" A4AG F2| "C" {EF}G6EG|
"am" A3G "A7" EF GA | "dm" F3ED2C2 | "F6" D6E2 | "E" E6 ||

[falkbeer]

I hate hate HATE (do you want to know how I really feel?) ABC notation. With standard notation you can glance at a tune and instantly know how it goes, the whole "arc" of it, whether it progresses smoothly or by leaps or arpeggios etc. ABC reduces tunes into a mass of letters, and has had to come up with contrived, cockamamy ways of indicating note values etc. I can only imagine that it was devised by people too lazy or stupid to learn how to read music. Using ABC when we have an established, elegant, efficient way of writing music makes no sense. And to add to the absurdity people have had to come up with all sorts of software to try to convert this primitive system into normal notation. In the same amount of time it took to devise all of this, all the people involved could have learned to read real music. To make a quick notation of a phrase I jot five parallel lines on a piece of paper in a couple seconds. Not rocket science.

Well, the source code from ABC is at least readable. Take a look att the source code from Sibelius and try to make anything from that:

SIBELIUS )ê : N÷šKV s1Á/nN>ø-£}/…ÂÎsvz èR·¡
â Àgn8BFðõvž7eïáƇ²J½ìÿ´Tëìu©Gs€æ1 ¿Šøaa ×jAofë-¯UEœg82éPéGw#†F$
(Ñ4*Òä00

[Tootler]

...
The original point of ABC was not to be an alternative music notation for the player, as such, not to re-invent the wheel ... Its purpose was to provide a quick and approachable way of recording music on a computer in small (memory consuming) files that could be readily converted into standard notation.
...

ABC was invented by Chris Walshaw as a quick and easy way of writing down tunes he had learnt when hitch hiking round Europe. The computer application came later and it was then he formalised the notation.

He explains this himself on the abc website http://www.walshaw.plus.com/abc/history.html

Geoff