Music-Writing Software
With the development of the home computer and word-processing programs, printing presses and publishing houses lost their monopoly over print media. The same is true of musical notation. Now, you can format scores to look as clean and articulate as the published materials that come out of even the most advanced publishing houses: all in the comfort of your own living room.
No longer do you have to scribble notes by hand on staff paper or hire assistants to copy and transpose parts. Score-writing software such as Finale and Sibelius make it possible for musicians to format their music with the same kind of accuracy and professional appearance as a topnotch publishing house.
Both Finale and Sibelius contain score-writing or sheet music templates. With a click of the mouse, you can choose the staff paper of your liking. For example, you can select a piano staff, a four-piece jazz combo staff, or a modern orchestra staff. You can also customize your own score-writing templates. Once you choose your staff, you then select a key and time signature. You may also indicate tempo. After this, you begin inputting notes either through a keypad, keyboard shortcuts, or a MIDI hookup. When inputting notes through an interface, you simply play a keyboard, or other MIDI instrument, and the notes appear on the page. For example, much of the notation in this book was written using Sibelius's Flexi-time (real-time) input.
Transposition is the process of shifting from one key to another key. A piano is a nontransposing instrument. It plays in so-called “concert” pitch. However, some instruments, like the B-flat trumpet, are transposing instruments. When a B-flat trumpeter reads a middle C, she's really playing a concert B-flat.
MIDI technology is getting more and more advanced. However, at this stage, you still need to edit notes input through MIDI hookups so that a performer can read them without unnecessary complications. Sometimes the software accurately captures your music. Other times, it requires some manual editing. However, both Sibelius and Finale are rapidly becoming more “intelligent.” Even at this stage, they make score writing infinitely faster than pen, ink, and paper.
One of the reasons for this is Sibelius's and Finale's ability to transpose music for you. They both also offer excellent sound libraries to play back your music. This helps you proofread with your ears as well as your eyes. No longer do you have to imagine what your score will sound like. With these playback features, you can now hear mistakes that your eyes might miss. Further, playback options are improving every year as sound samples evolve to include greater musical expression and nuance. There's no telling how far this software will evolve.
