CheesyMoo

I use LilyPond almost exclusively. It took me a while to get started, but now I can quickly engrave things faster than using Sibelius or Finale (I never remember where all the crap in those drop down menus is). LilyPond is particuraly useful to me as I do a lot of algorithmic composition or graphical scores, so being able to generate new parts efficiently with some simple scripts is deseriable. I have recently started using LilyPond within LaTeX allowing me to easily add instructions and place music fragments within articles, lessons, etc... Having said that, LilyPond is still a bit of a mess, but I prefer open source software to paying, and I am faster at typing that hunting around menus for some semantic equivalent of what I want to do.

I think the use of Markov change is well done as the note choice and timing created an interesting melody. The piece grew nicely from the initial tones and when the drums kicked in it definitely began to be noticeably Indian in nature, which is also evident from your explanation. On my initial listen I was concerned only with the timbre, but after putting on my headphones in lieu of my cheap Dell speakers I was much more impressed with the drone notes when they were properly amplified. Very impressive project and a good idea. I hope to see the development continue, wherein the user would be able to play with the final product, or at least hear different versions of the same piece. *applause*

I don't believe there are too many making giant leaps forward in pushing the definitions of music. The borders have not been pushed, they have been removed. This does not limit anyones ability to create music, based on archaic systems or physical limitations, it allows people to create any kind of sound they want. The only progress we will see for sometime is new timbres being created. We understand what produces the phenomenon of sound and therefore music. Obviously any pitches can be used, the only limits are the ranges of human hearing. We can put these pitches in any order, occurring at any point in time, this is basically limited to when you define the beginning or end of your piece, anything can happen in between. Timbres are limited only by imagination and experimentation, they lose uniqueness when our ear interprets it as white noise, a seemingly random sound or just highly complex tone. I feel the most impressive strides in music will be made with texture that will be created, and plenty already have been. No doubt new sonic sculptures are being made currently on a myriad of mediums. There are countless ways to create new atmospheres of sound and express the endless ideas of man. Music has been completely dissembled into its bare pieces, now the composer is able to pick which tools he wishes to craft his aural architecture. Defining one's own style based on the resources made available by past generations will allow more avenues of music to be discovered. We have new breakthroughs in music, it happens with basically every band. They are an amalgam of different sounds, usually unique to their own group. Similarities are often seen and this is why artists will say they are a funk/blues/reggae band or a post-industrial-neo-doom or perhaps a grind/hard/goat/apple-core band... the permutations of existing genres and new coined terms is also endless... whether any of these are desirable is a matter of opinion. As for a list of musicians that I feel are forging their own way into the ether of music: Non-horse - acting as a DJ using cassette tapes he creates mind-blowing psychedelic effects, with circuit-bent hardware and field recordings of a nefarious nature, this is worth checking out. The Skaters in a similar fashion to Non-horse/G lucas crane, these guys twist knobs and fluctuate air in a distorted chaotic fashion, yielding very interesting. There are plenty of other artists, but in an attempt to not sound like a jerk listing off underground musicians I will stop there. With what I know about music and the current state of the world, I feel things are bubbling below the surface, not yet noticed until the majority of people stop looking in the same direction for entertainment. While society is homogenized in one direction, a detritus is created due to the run-off. This is where the new inventiveness will come from.

Actually I figured it out, you need to hit Ctrl + Alt + P and then choose the appropriate note heads under the 'note' menu, and the 'x' note head will make the cymbal noises.

The only way I know how to make it work correctly is to input it with a MIDI device, unfortunately I don't have one right now and I have to finish this score in 4 days in order to apply to music school! Kinda sucks for me.

Zappa

I'm sure this question has been asked countless times, but I guess I'm gonna just reiterate it.... So how does one go about getting a score published for use, by say, school bands? If I had a bunch of pieces written for a middle school concert ensemble, what would be the necessary steps to get that published and used by schools? What about etudes for solo instruments or small ensembles? Any help at all would be appreciated, I'm not considering doing this as my only means of support, but it seems like if I already have the music written, it wouldn't hurt to make money off of it.

I was too lazy to read this whole thread but it sounds like you could be talking about a Theremin... it's an electronic instrument with antenas and all sorts of gizmos that makes sounds you would here in a sci-fi movie... look it up and check it out because I know they use those a lot in movies.