Notation/Scoring software and apps?

[Alan Sharkis]

My accordion teacher and I have recently had several discussions regarding music notation. I've never been good at it with paper and pencil, but he has learned professional music copying, so he's quite good at it. Both of us recognize the value of traditional music notation software (Sibelius, Finale, Overture, etc.,) and use it, although I'm more dependent on it.

My teacher just got an iPad Pro, so he's looking seriously at iOS-based apps for music notation, including the newer ones that will convert hand-written music notation to printed music as it is entered on the iPad. I'm firmly entrenched in the Windows world. As such, there are no options for me. Since I already own three desktop computers, and the Windows-based tablet that I also own isn't capable of running the one Windows-based app (Staffpad for Surface Pro), I'm not about to spend money on new hardware.

Still, I'm curious to hear from any of you who are familiar with tablet-based music notation apps and would like to share your experiences with them.

Alan

 

[losthobos]

I have windows phone with the app OneNote built in...for shopping lists etc
Recently they updated the photo part of the phone claiming you could photograph an image (id hoped a sheet of hand written music) and if you saved to OneNote it would convert to an Adobe pdf file
As yet I've failed to get it to work....but if someone knows how I'm sure you could do it on your windows tablet too
Living in hope...

 

[Alan Sharkis]

I just found a Windows program that will work. It's from MagicScore and it's called One Touch Composer. It's an old program, but it works just fine. No handwriting-to-printed music, no hiding notes (handy when printing music in AAA notation), no chord symbols, and certainly no accordion registration symbols, but enough export choices to bring a file created in One Touch Composer into something like Sibelius, where these features can be added.

 

[JeffJetton]

After using Finale, then switching to Sibelius, I am now a staunch fan of MuseScore.

You could run MuseScore on a tablet if that tablet ran full-fledged Windows (like a Surface tablet). iPad and Android folks would have to use the app version, which really only displays/plays existing MuseScore files. Its not really designed for creating them.

Another option is Noteflight, which is a web-based, cloud-hosted notation tool. Not as full-featured as MuseScore, but you should be able to use it on any modern device that has a web browser.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

After using Finale, then switching to Sibelius, I am now a staunch fan of MuseScore.

You could run MuseScore on a tablet if that tablet ran full-fledged Windows (like a Surface tablet). iPad and Android folks would have to use the app version, which really only displays/plays existing MuseScore files. Its not really designed for creating them.

Another option is Noteflight, which is a web-based, cloud-hosted notation tool. Not as full-featured as MuseScore, but you should be able to use it on any modern device that has a web browser.

Thanks, Jeff. I had already thought of those options.

I have MuseScore running on one of my desktop computers, along with Notion 5, Overture 5, and Sibelius|First. (Lets just say I wanted to do a comparison.) But either theyre all so packed with features that are accessed from pull-downs and palettes that thered hardly be room on my tablet to enter/edit anything, or they use more ROM and/or disk space than my tablet can handle. What I have now solves those problems.

Im also not a big fan of anything cloud-based, so NoteFlight is out.

Thanks again.

Alan

 

[Alan Sharkis]

After using Finale, then switching to Sibelius, I am now a staunch fan of MuseScore.

You could run MuseScore on a tablet if that tablet ran full-fledged Windows (like a Surface tablet). iPad and Android folks would have to use the app version, which really only displays/plays existing MuseScore files. Its not really designed for creating them.

Another option is Noteflight, which is a web-based, cloud-hosted notation tool. Not as full-featured as MuseScore, but you should be able to use it on any modern device that has a web browser.

Thanks, Jeff. I had already thought of those options.

I have MuseScore running on one of my desktop computers, along with Notion 5, Overture 5, and Sibelius|First. (Lets just say I wanted to do a comparison.) But either theyre all so packed with features that are accessed from pull-downs and palettes that thered hardly be room on my tablet to enter/edit anything, or they use more ROM and/or disk space than my tablet can handle. What I have now solves those problems.

Im also not a big fan of anything cloud-based, so NoteFlight is out.

Thanks again.

Alan[/quote]

OK, heres quite an update! I bought a 12.9 iPad Pro when my wife and I got new phones for a great price. Im trying the free version of Touch Notation by Kawai on it. If I like it. Ill buy the full version. If not, I guess Ill go for something like Notion for iPad. Meanwhile, whats to become of the Windows tablet? Well, my wife has first dibs on it. so Ill say no more.

Alan

 

[harmonikadave]

hi all, i'm back on the forum after a four year break. i asked a few questions back then and got great answers. i'm not sure if i'm in the right place to ask this question but i'm sure someone will redirect me if need be. i have used sibelius for about eight years. it does the job for me. mostly lead sheets but occasionally larger arrangements for bands. my question is how can i attach M m 7 and dim to the bass chords using sibelius? i have been using the "add fingering to notes" plugin. it's a time consuming work around. wondering if there is a better way.

cheers dave (melbourne, australia)

 

[debra]

hi all, i'm back on the forum after a four year break. i asked a few questions back then and got great answers. i'm not sure if i'm in the right place to ask this question but i'm sure someone will redirect me if need be. i have used sibelius for about eight years. it does the job for me. mostly lead sheets but occasionally larger arrangements for bands. my question is how can i attach M m 7 and dim to the bass chords using sibelius? i have been using the "add fingering to notes" plugin. it's a time consuming work around. wondering if there is a better way.

cheers dave (melbourne, australia)

I don't know Sibelius (I used Capella for many years and now Musescore which is free) but I suggest you try adding bass notation as if it were lyrics. All music notation software lets you add (and move around) lyrics. This will also adapt note spacing if needed to make room for some of the larger chord notations if needed.

 

[saundersbp]

I use flat.io

It's entirely browser based and also integrates with Google drive. Very shallow learning curve too!

 

[Deleted member 48]

I have tried ScoreCloud and MuseScore.
And some pitch analysis software like AudioScore.

But the only hardware I usually use is a pencil and paper. I'm faster in handwriting and numbered music notation.

There still is no single software system integrating all in one: OMR, optical music recognition, pitch analysis, automatic sheet music notation, automatic conversion to numbered music notation, artificial Intelligence support,...

I've read on the internet about the apps ScorePad and StaffPad.
StaffPad is software for handwritten OMR.

 

[JeffJetton]

I don't know Sibelius (I used Capella for many years and now Musescore which is free) but I suggest you try adding bass notation as if it were lyrics. All music notation software lets you add (and move around) lyrics. This will also adapt note spacing if needed to make room for some of the larger chord notations if needed.

In MuseScore I just add regular (non-lyric) text to the note. I would imagine you can also do this in Sibelius?

 

[Zevy]

I use Finale and the chord function can be easily adapted for accordion notation.

 

[harmonikadave]

I don't know Sibelius (I used Capella for many years and now Musescore which is free) but I suggest you try adding bass notation as if it were lyrics. All music notation software lets you add (and move around) lyrics. This will also adapt note spacing if needed to make room for some of the larger chord notations if needed.

thank you very much paul. this works better than the fingering option. i will suggest to sibelius they include a stradella bass chord option. would be great to hear the chords in playback also. thanks again. cheers dave

 

[harmonikadave]

In MuseScore I just add regular (non-lyric) text to the note. I would imagine you can also do this in Sibelius?

hi jeff, thanks for your help. i tried using plain text for the bass chord notation. it works but it is still a time consuming operation. zevy suggested using the chord input function. this works the best as i can zip through the whole piece attaching notation without having to reselect each note and the operation each time. just have to cope with these chords showing in red on the screen. they print out fine. cheers dave

 

[harmonikadave]

I use Finale and the chord function can be easily adapted for accordion notation.

hi zevy, of course, i should have thought to use the chord input function. it works well. input is much easier than other work arounds. the chords show as red but i can cope with this as they print out fine. thanks heaps for that. cheers dave

 

[Zevy]

hi zevy, of course, i should have thought to use the chord input function. it works well. input is much easier than other work arounds. the chords show as red but i can cope with this as they print out fine. thanks heaps for that. cheers dave

Dave - the best part is that you can hide the prefix of the chord so that it only shows as "M" or "m" or "7". Diminished symbols can be dealt with as well. And they will play back and will stay attached to the music even if you move it around. If you enter chords as text, you may run into trouble.