The computer-based music making tools that have become available over the past two decades have empowered musicians to record and produce top-notch, professional-sounding songs on their own at home, but have the tools used in writing music improved over the same period of time? Absolutely. Welcome to music notation software.

Complex Language

If you want to show somebody how to play a piece of music you’ve created, there are really only two ways to do it. Simple pieces can be modeled by singing or playing them, but with more complex music the most efficient way to explain your entire musical idea is to use music notation. Music notation is a complex language, capable of articulating countless directions and different musical ideas. Besides pitch, rhythm, and phrasing, music notation allows a composer to tell a musician (or many musicians) when to breathe, how loud they should play in relation to other musicians, and other instructions.

Until recently, composers studied a form of calligraphy to create legible scores. If a mark was off by a 16^th of an inch, a note could be construed as something completely different and unintended. Imagine producing something that a hundred people in an orchestra need to read and understand – any confusion in the score would result in a discussion that could waste the valuable time of the entire orchestra. It was incredibly time consuming to create accurate scores, and if any changes had to be made to any section, all parts following that section had to be completely rewritten by hand – a task that could take weeks.

Real Power

Music notation software changed all that. It can be used to compose and arrange music for a full orchestra, a single instrument, and anything in between. Songwriters use notation software to write the chords, melodies, and lyrics to their songs; band directors use the software to create practice exercises for the band; and general music teachers use music notation software to generate worksheets for music theory. Jonathan Feist, Professor of Berkleemusic’s online extension school course Writing Music with Finale, and editor of Finale: An Easy Guide to Music Notation has been using notation software since it was introduced in the 1980s.

“I spend a lot of time working with handwritten scores, and no matter how well they are written there are always questions,” he says. “The real power of notation software is in simplifying the critical yet mundane tasks you need to know to increase legibility. Once you have the hang of it, things go a lot more quickly. The editing, copying parts, transposition – it really save a tremendous amount of time.”

Basic Features

The biggest asset of notation software is that it allows users to complete phenomenally complex work with a couple of mouse clicks. Some of the basic features are also the most powerful. Copying and pasting, playback, and transposition are just a few.

Copying and Pasting is a big time-saver, and a real simple thing to do. Notation software allows you to copy and past repetitious measures instead of rewriting the music one note at a time.

Playback allows you to essentially “proofread” what you’ve just notated. You can assign an instrument sound to your notation to hear what you’ve written, and if you’ve accidentally written an incorrect note, you can hear your mistake before your piece goes out into the world.

Transposition allows you to put a piece of music in a higher or lower key, making it easier for someone to sing or play. Instead of handwriting your piece out in a new key, you can transpose your music with a few mouse clicks.

How Do I Start?

Anyone that can read music, and has a basic understanding of computers is capable of using notation software. However, like any powerful program, it might take the casual user years to master the multitude of tricks and shortcuts available.

Berkleemusic’s instructor-led Writing Music with Finale online course allows people from around the world to study the music notation software Finale with a Berklee expert. “When you look at the documentation that come with notation applications, all they do is show the features of the program,” says instructor Jonathan Feist. ”My course looks at notation from a musical perspective, how one writes a melody using Finale, for example. Every week students complete a different project, focusing on how to complete the project in Finale rather than what Finale can do. Using notation software efficiently is critical skill to anyone who writes or teaches music.”

Can I Try It For Free?

Yes. The two most widely used notation applications are Finale and Sibelius. Both offer downloads of their software that you can test drive for free.

Finale NotePad:

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

For Mac and Windows. A free, scaled-down version of Finale that allows you to save your notation files.

 Sibelius:

http://www.sibelius.com/download/

For Mac and Windows. A free, full-version of Sibelius that allows you to save your notation files.

This article first appeared in Making Music magazine. Visit them online.