The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Apologies if this has been asked before, but can anybody advise or recommend a free downloadable software program for writing notation. Anybody try Musescore,? and can you comment on ease of sharing printed scores via the net,
    With thanks in advance.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    Musescore is good. No tab which is fine with me. No chord diagrams, I wish they had that. Can print to pdf which is easy to share on the net. They also have a function for publishing musescore scores on their site.

    Tab and chord diagrams are suppose to be coming soon with their next release.

    MuseScore is similar to Sibelius in it's user interface. As they improve the product it's going to be hard for Finale and Sibelius to survive, imo. I'm a long time Sibelius user (and Finale user before that) and I've tested and used MuseScore a bit.

  4. #3

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    I tried MuseScore and found it fairly easy to use.

  5. #4

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    I use it a lot and like it.

    Version 2.0, now in beta, will have tab and chord diagrams, I believe. I think that will be handy, once it comes out.

  6. #5
    I'm really happy with it. I have short cut keystrokes posted prominently on the wall in my office at work. After using free software years ago, there's just no comparison. It's very robust.

    If you've got some patience, you can do tab with muse score's nightly build. It's the beta and isn't stable yet, but it has some features not yet available in the general release. Its icon is a cymbal...because cymbals crash.... :-)

  7. #6

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    Musescore

    Can you write Chords like Amaj7 , Dmin9 etc above the stave lead sheet style ?

    Will it save as a PDF ?

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by pingu
    Musescore

    Can you write Chords like Amaj7 , Dmin9 etc above the stave lead sheet style ?

    Will it save as a PDF ?
    Yeah. I want to think it even has the real book looking font if you want that.

  9. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by pingu
    Musescore

    Can you write Chords like Amaj7 , Dmin9 etc above the stave lead sheet style ?

    Will it save as a PDF ?
    Yes and yes.

    It has a function for adding a chord, click a note or rest in your score, hit ctrl K, type the chord. You can then click and drag the chord symbol for fine tuning the placement if you want.

    You can type anything you want for the chord symbol, for instance Dmolished or Egad even. But if you don't type a symbol that it recognizes and you later try to transpose your score it won't transpose those weird chord symbols (Egads transposed up a whole step will still be Egads, not F#gads). There is a learning process to know the chord symbol conventions... is it Cm7 or Cmi7 or C-7? I don't remember, maybe all three will work, maybe not.
    Last edited by fep; 11-05-2014 at 07:04 PM.

  10. #9

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    Many thanks to everybody for their information.
    I've downloaded it. Now to get to grips with it.
    I'd be glad to read any other comments or advice.
    Best Wishes.

  11. #10

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    My advice, start with the video tutorials and actually follow the steps yourself along with the video... hands-on. If you're like me you might want to go through some of those videos multiple times.

    There is also a forum if you hit a road-block.

  12. #11

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    I wrote about this in another thread, but I like Noteflight a lot. It is cloud based and very easy to use. You can have ten song for free.

    Noteflight - Online Music Notation Software

    I wrote this song last week (titled by my daughter).Cozy Bunny.pdf

  13. #12

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    I've been using MuseScore for a couple of years now. All my scores are done with it. They also have a very active forum. Any question is usually answered within a half hour.

    It's only quirk is when have two key signatures. There is no way to eliminate the key signatures from selected staves as in the Real Book appearance. But, you can make then invisible, leaving an annoying space. BTW, you don't want to discuss the Real Book appearance with the author. He's a traditionalist. Wants nothing to do with it. He does provide "Jazz" fonts.


    Here's a simple Public Domain Christmas song using MuseScore:


    Free Music Notation Software Downloads.-what-child-jpg

  14. #13

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    This thread should be a sticky.

  15. #14

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    Can it play the written music?

  16. #15

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    Yes. It will not play a chord symbol. It will play a chord as notes.

  17. #16

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    Can you build jazz chord easily in this program? I don't want to build it note by note.

  18. #17
    There are shortcuts for building chords onto given notes etc. Once you learn it, it's simple. Print the keystrokes and put them on the wall or in a notebook.

    Chords are built note by note. I don't understand why one would NOT want to know how to build them from notes.