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 Free music notation software?
Author: Curinfinwe 
Date:   2008-11-22 02:39

Does anyone know of any good ones, that I could download. The clarinet ensemble at school desperately needs Christmas music, and I've taken it upon myself to arrange some. Even if there's something with a trial period, that's fine; I only need it to do a few songs.
Thanks!

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: davidsampson 
Date:   2008-11-22 02:47

Finale notepad is or used to be free. It should be able to do what you need it to.

If you are good at professional typesetting or computer programming, look up GNU Lilypond. Its free, its more powerful (and more typographically proper) than just about any other program but: A) Its not WYSIWYG, that is to say, you type what you want in a file, and then compile the file which produces a PDF. You cannot see what its going to look like before you compile it. B) There is no built in playback ability, though you can output to midi.

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: hans 
Date:   2008-11-22 03:23

I think Midisoft offers a free version of their Forte program:

http://www.midisoft.com/idd/

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: feadog79 
Date:   2008-11-22 03:49

try MuseScore (www.musescore.org).

Available for Windows and Linux (my OS of choice). Easy to use, and far more powerful than Finale Notepad.

J. Wilson

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: tictactux 2017
Date:   2008-11-22 07:32

> try MuseScore (www.musescore.org).

Didn't know that one. Just spent half an hour playing around with it. Nice, really.

--
Ben

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: Curinfinwe 
Date:   2008-11-22 15:17

I've downloaded Musescore, and I've been having some difficulties. Is it possible to copy and past bars, and how do you put in dynamics?

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: Curinfinwe 
Date:   2008-11-22 15:35

And also, how can I get it to play back?

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: Tony Beck 
Date:   2008-11-22 15:50

I really like Lilypond. You have to have a little computer programmer in you to use it, but the prints are very nice and it's free. The documentation is excellent and they are constantly adding new features.

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: Curinfinwe 
Date:   2008-11-22 16:01

Well, I don't have any computer programmer in me.

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: pewd 
Date:   2008-11-22 19:28

Finale Notepad is no longer free

http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/

- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: MichaelR 
Date:   2008-11-22 20:27

I strongly second the recommendation for Lilypond. There are front ends available to eliminate the need to have a bit of programmer in you. The output is beautiful and you have a huge amount of control over the finished PDFs.

Denemo is one available for Windows, assuming you are a Windows user.

Example: We had split out the individual parts for Sleeping Beauty Waltz from a free (8note.com) piano score for a recital. The person who was in charge made hand written individual pieces. I typeset mine in Lilypond, my teacher set hers with Finale. She, however, couldn't get it to fit on one page. I reset hers for her and adjusted the staff size to ensure it easily fit on one page.

--
Michael of Portland, OR
Be Appropriate and Follow Your Curiosity

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: mrn 
Date:   2008-11-22 21:44

I use Lilypond (I also like computer programming). I don't know much about the other programs out there, but it seems to me that once you get the hang of it, entering notes in a text editor, like you do in Lilypond (if you don't use a front end program), is probably faster than using a GUI.

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: feadog79 
Date:   2008-11-23 20:12

"I've downloaded Musescore, and I've been having some difficulties. Is it possible to copy and past bars, and how do you put in dynamics?"

I haven't had any difficulty copying and pasting bars...double click a bar to select it, ctrl-c to copy. Choose the location you want to put it, ctrl-v to paste.
To get at all the options for dynamics and more, select the Display menu, then choose Palette. You'll get a sidebar with all kinds of tools.

To adjust playback settings, go to the Edit menu, then Preferences. Select the tab labelled I/O (input/output) to adjust the device that plays sound back.

J. Wilson

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: feadog79 
Date:   2008-11-23 20:15

"I really like Lilypond. You have to have a little computer programmer in you to use it, but the prints are very nice and it's free. The documentation is excellent and they are constantly adding new features."

I've used Lilypond as well. The print quality is nothing short of excellent, but it is sometimes nice to have a good GUI. Musescore is actually capable of exporting in Lilypond format; you might want to check it out.

J. Wilson

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: stevensfo 
Date:   2008-11-24 12:16

-- "Musescore is actually capable of exporting in Lilypond format; you might want to check it out." --

In this case, maybe it's a good way of learning how to use Lilypond. I learned a lot about html simply by examining the code used on websites.

Is there a simple, easy to understand manual or tutorial for Lilypond? When I tried it a few years ago, I gave up after a few hours.

Steve

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: skygardener 
Date:   2008-11-24 12:59

To the OP. If you are a student you can get the full version Finale (and also Sibelius, I think) for a very good discount. If you plan to go into arranging or composing, it is a good investment. I still use my (then new) Finale 2002 regularly.

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: mrn 
Date:   2008-11-24 19:19

I have been playing around with Musescore since reading about it here on the BBoard. While it looks like it has the potential to be a very useful program, the export features seem to need some serious work to function properly. In particular, the Lilypond export feature needs a lot of work. It converts dotted notes into non-dotted notes and doesn't quite know how to handle grace notes and piano staffs properly, for instance. Since these are rather obvious and "silly" bugs, hopefully they should be fixed in fairly short order.

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: MichaelR 
Date:   2008-11-24 21:06

stevensfo wrote:
> Is there a simple, easy to understand manual or tutorial for
> Lilypond? When I tried it a few years ago, I gave up after a
> few hours.

Last year a group formed to re-write the documentation. They did an excellent job. You might try again.

They have a tutorial at:
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.10/Documentation/user/lilypond/Tutorial
Samples at:
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.10/examples

As to learning from the output of a GUI...most create Lilypond files with absolute note names. It's easier for a program to work with. Humans use relative note names, which is easier for humans to read and type. The difference being whether each note has its octave explicitly identified or if it is defined relative to the previous note.

--
Michael of Portland, OR
Be Appropriate and Follow Your Curiosity

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 Re: Free music notation software?
Author: tictactux 2017
Date:   2008-11-24 23:30

If you have a question, drop me a note.

I was handed the zillionth copy of the hundredth copy of the tenth copy of some score and decided to re-set it in lilypond instead of torturing the copier or scanner to 'improve' that mushy march. The learning curve may be a bit steep, but you won't believe how much you can learn about a piece if you have to disassemble and reassemble it. ("Hey! That phrase looks familiar! Didn't I have that one in Bar 3142?")
Meanwhile I have enough expertise to include all the rehearsal marks and other 'embellishments' (such as ff or rall.). If my band buddies were serious about paying me for my time, I could make a halfway decent living just with re-typesetting worn sheet music (we'll skip the copyright discussion this time, won't we?)

--
Ben

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