programm for writing music

[luigi scatto]

Please anybody can tell me an easy programm to download (possibly free...) to write music? I need it mainly to transcribe jazz quitar solos . I have a legal version of Band in a BOX but I find the music wrtitng device compliaceted....
luigi

[kenbennett]

Finale Notepad is only $9.95

It used to be free, and it had some limitations. I upgraded to Finale Printmusic about 3 years ago. I think it was about $100.

[M-ster]

Someone recently referred us to Impro-Visor. It's free and may meet your needs.

Welcome to Impro-Visor

[kenbennett]

Originally Posted by M-ster

Someone recently referred us to Impro-Visor. It's free and may meet your needs.

Welcome to Impro-Visor

Impro-Visor looks promising. I'll take it for a spin. I love recommending open source code.

[luigi scatto]

impro visor looks good. I have to study it. ken do u find it friendly?
another question. is anybody who knows band in a box as a programm to write music? I am trying to identify the less time consumer... coz I prefer to invest time in music rather than studying pc programms....
thanx
L.

[jazzbender]

Luigi - I have use Sibelius G7 for a few years. It is very user friendly and has many useful features. It's been discontinued, but if the regular Sibelius program is as easy to use it will be worth it. I agree, time is better spent on studying music, not programs.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Originally Posted by M-ster

Someone recently referred us to Impro-Visor. It's free and may meet your needs.

Welcome to Impro-Visor

I played around with TuxGuitar for a bit (it's free, too), but it was too tab-centric. You entered notes by clicking on a fretboard (or keyboard). The annoying thing is that I couldn't find a way to toggle between enharmonic note choice -- if the key was C or a sharp key it assumed all accidentals were sharps. Grrr!

Before I download Impro-Visor, could you tell me if the user has better control over enharmonic note choice?

[reventlov]

You may find Musescore is well worth checking out

MuseScore | Free music composition & notation software

[FatJeff]

Here's another free (online) notation program.

Noteflight - Online Music Notation Software

[kenbennett]

Originally Posted by luigi scatto

impro visor looks good. I have to study it. ken do u find it friendly?
another question. is anybody who knows band in a box as a programm to write music? I am trying to identify the less time consumer... coz I prefer to invest time in music rather than studying pc programms....
thanx
L.

I played with it for a little while last night.

I don't like the click method of entering notes. It's a little slow. In Finale you just click on the kind of note or rest that you want then click on the staff where you want it.

Impro-Visor takes your first note as a whole note. Then if you add another note, it recalculates the the time values, subtracting the second note from the first, and redrawing the screen. They have a text method of entering notes, but that's another system you have to learn.

Impro-Visor seems to be for single note lines only. If you try to add another note above or below a note you already have, it replaces the first note with the second one. I guess it's fine for lead sheets and writing out single-note solo lines.

I might try some of the other suggested programs. I'll keep using Finale, but it would be cool to have a good free one to recommend.

[kenbennett]

Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles

I played around with TuxGuitar for a bit (it's free, too), but it was too tab-centric. You entered notes by clicking on a fretboard (or keyboard). The annoying thing is that I couldn't find a way to toggle between enharmonic note choice -- if the key was C or a sharp key it assumed all accidentals were sharps. Grrr!

Before I download Impro-Visor, could you tell me if the user has better control over enharmonic note choice?

Yes, it does. I think you can select a note, then hit a certain key, and it toggles to the enharmonic. If you enter the notes as text, you can specify how you want the note displayed as write the text.

[kenbennett]

Originally Posted by FatJeff

Here's another free (online) notation program.

Noteflight - Online Music Notation Software

This looks interesting. Have you used it?

OK. Noteflight looks very good. You can write whole scores with as many staves as you want for different instruments.

The interface is very good, better in some ways than Finale. I'd have to get used to it, but I like it better than Impro-Visor already.

I tried changing key and time sigs, copy and pasting measures, editing notes...

Some cons: The free version only allows you to write 25 scores. Even the paid version only allows 250 scores. And you pay $49 per year. I paid $79 for Finale Printmusic, and it's for life with no end to the number of charts.

I do like it though.

[luigi scatto]

how about the notation program in band in a box. is it user friendly?

[kenbennett]

Originally Posted by luigi scatto

how about the notation program in band in a box. is it user friendly?

I don't have BIAB and have never tried it out. I could ask some friends. Or some of the members here already know.