Music Notation Software -- Any Recommendations?

Poststructural Pub
1

I play the tinwhistle (but that’s not really important for my question). 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.)

2

Hi,

I use these kind of software a lot myself.
I think the very best program is Sibelius. It´s a dream to worke 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 ||

3

ABC is a good way to go. Editing, testing, changing is light years faster. The files are small and can be emailed or posted. There is an online utility at concertina
http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html

So other folks can hear the tune and also print out dots, without having the same software you have. Any word processor or text editor can be used to type out ABCs. The format takes maybe half an hour to learn for those who know dots. Key changes are not so easy, but that isn’t that important for whistle tunes. There are thousands of archived ABC tunes online. ABC isn’t so good for full arrangements or guitar tabs or orchestral scores. Very good for melody lines for the whistle or flute.