Music Notation Software

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

I did not make that jump, still have something pre-2008. (Vers3 perhaps? It's been a while since I've fired it up.) Good to hear they're taking big steps.

I see. Well, IMO and just as food for thought, the oldest Finale version worth using nowadays is the 2004 one. Still very different compared with Finale 2008/09, but that version had big changes (specially in the keyboard layout) that are still prevalent. 2003 and older are antediluvian for me (YMMV, of course).

 

[erix]

i use TuxGuitar which is for free. Includes nearly all the features of Guitar Pro

PowerTab is another imitation of GP.
I personally use GP5, it is nice for bass notation.

 

[Richard Lindsey]

The best one for a given person will depend in large part on that person's specific needs. I know some serious people using Finale and some using Sibelius.

That said, not everybody needs everything the big-bucks programs have. Mozart is a decent choice IME.

If you're on Windows or Linux, there's a free program that will work for a lot of basic-to-moderate tasks, MuseScore.

http://musescore.org/

To my knowledge MuseScore doesn't (yet) support swing on playback. That's not a big deal for me, because I wouldn't depend on a notation program for that, but it might be a dealbreaker for others. (Though since it's free, it'd be hard to argue that the absence of this feature meant you weren't getting your money's worth....)

 

[EADG mx]

Can't remember exactly I just know that for guitar thing I was doing it was much better to use guitar pro.

Probably strumming patterns and stuff like that.

For strumming patterns, typically you'll want to use an alternate notation such as Rhythmic Notation and specify the chord names above the staff with the Chord Tool.

To my knowledge there really is nothing that PTE/GP can do that Finale can't - it's the other way around, actually.

 

[bajistaman]

Anyone knows how to put a mute note in finale notepad?

 

[Hawaii Islander]

I used LilyPond freeware to write a musical score for a college music class a few semesters ago. It doesn't do playback, but you can produce publisher quality sheet music with it.

 

[afromoose]

For strumming patterns, typically you'll want to use an alternate notation such as Rhythmic Notation and specify the chord names above the staff with the Chord Tool.

To my knowledge there really is nothing that PTE/GP can do that Finale can't - it's the other way around, actually.

Can you do it so it'll display the chord diagrams at the top, and then just have them as (for example) C7, without displaying the chord diagram every single time?

The other thing is can you stop finale from automatically changing the measure widths all the time? I find that really annoying!!

 

[BassChuck]

I just upgraded to Sibelius 6. Good stuff. I've used a bunch of them. The school where I teach bough Sibelius a few years ago and so I learned that instead of Finale. I have taken classes where Finale was used. Either is good. Sibelius might be a little more 'user friendly'. The difference is little.

 

[EADG mx]

Can you do it so it'll display the chord diagrams at the top, and then just have them as (for example) C7, without displaying the chord diagram every single time?

You can choose whether to display the chord diagrams or not (and where, and how often).

The other thing is can you stop finale from automatically changing the measure widths all the time? I find that really annoying!!

You can use the Fit Measures tool to set how many measures you want in any particular system.