Eric Whitacre on Notation Software!

You do know there are ways of avoiding this right? One such would be to create a new symbol with the symbols already there.

Justin -

Yes I was aware you could create new symbols - thanks for the reminder.

I didn't do so as clarinet fingering markings can get quite intricate and have variations. So, I choose to stick with the ones Sibelius had. The nightmare was each fingering varied so it was easier to to select a prior one and cut/paste and edit it. Click my screen name and look for the score of my clarient variations the 1st variation and you'll see.

I always start out by writing by hand. I sketch everything out and make sure I know what the composition is going to do on paper before I go into actually writing it (I'm talking about main pitch materials, motives, etc). After than I compose through piano and computer.

Oh, and don't even get me started on 1st/2nd/3rd endings. I hate repeat endings SOOOOOO much... flames, flames on the side of my face... breathing... heaving breaths. (extra points if you know where that's from...)

Clue! Great movie.

I started composing before I really knew anything about writing notation. I learned the basics in the early programs I used (Rhapsody, Mozart and then Finale and Sibelius), then started to move to pencil and paper. My first 3 years in college, I was writing everything down. Then I started writing an orchestra piece and was finding the amount of work writing out the music was definitely limiting my creativity. So I moved it into Sibelius and now I write only my large pieces at the computer, and chamber music and such on paper. I find both methods have pros and cons, but neither should be forced onto students.

I think that everything Eric Whitacre says has its reasons. I pretty much agree with everything he has said.

Now, I don't think that this means that software notation programs are a bad thing. I think they are a very good thing if used correctly. I think there is a point in using pencil and paper. I think there are also good points for using software notation programs. It is probably ultimately up to each composer to decide when the best time for himself to use each application is. I would say that the final draft is an excellent application for the software notation program. And maybe the pencil and paper, as Whitacre says, is great for that first draft where you want to have that overview of exactly what you want the piece to be. Probably as long as you have your idea in your head and you get the whole thing down in some form then you can begin to use the software notation program. Sometimes I do think that the programs interfere with the direction of your piece.

I will agree with Whitacre about the imagination part of what he was saying. I have noticed in my own time spent writing music that I can play something improvising on the piano or I can have a phrase of music just pop up and go through my head. Usually, I immediately tend towards figuring the notes and key and time signature and rhythm out on the piano and then I usually go straight to Finale and input the new phrase or idea. And of course I hit the playback button. Sometimes I think that use of playback too soon and too often really does hamper what the piece could be. I will assert that the playback is not what the piece really is. The playback cannot interpret the music you have written. It also cannot be expressive and musical. Sometimes the playback will inadvertantly emphasize the wrong note in a chord or take away the emphasis on your cello when the cello is supposed to be the solo instrument. The playback can screw with a lot of different things. Now, I think that when you use the playback you hear what it wants to do with it. After you have heard that once or twice or a number of times then you start gradually forgetting what it is that your imagination was cooking up. You start hearing the piece in your mind like the computer wants it rather than it ought to be.

I always at least start writing my pieces by hand. For me, writing directly into software stifles my productivity somewhat. It's not that I'm bad with computers, but when using paper and pencil I can write everything down just how I want, in exactly the place I want it on the paper. Eventually I will end up putting my music into notation software, primarily because it's a whole lot easier to just print up individual parts than to write them all by hand.

There are good arguments on either side, and i couldnt read through all the replies, but has anyone brought up this point- if one is composing a melody that they want to write down and store without even fudging with paper or note-by-note Finale, they could use something to record that melody instead. Recording on a USB Keyboard, a little doodle on piano, or even singing that melody could help someone put down those notes even when they don't have time to compose all of it. It really works for me because I get inspired by weird things in the middle of a movie or whatever. But then again, i have a microphoned computer and a USB Keyboard, so i'm well equipped for this. But the computer translates the keyboards notes directly into Finale, so thats where I'm more stationed.

I suppose this isnt really an argument, more like an interjection. Back to debating!

There are good arguments on either side, and i couldnt read through all the replies, but has anyone brought up this point- if one is composing a melody that they want to write down and store without even fudging with paper or note-by-note Finale, they could use something to record that melody instead. Recording on a USB Keyboard, a little doodle on piano, or even singing that melody could help someone put down those notes even when they don't have time to compose all of it. It really works for me because I get inspired by weird things in the middle of a movie or whatever. But then again, i have a microphoned computer and a USB Keyboard, so i'm well equipped for this. But the computer translates the keyboards notes directly into Finale, so thats where I'm more stationed.

I suppose this isnt really an argument, more like an interjection. Back to debating!

No, I do not think that anyone has brought that up. I am glad you mentioned it though. I use that technique sometimes. I have a cheap little voice recorder and I use it to record something that I eventually create or find in an improvisation or whatever. That helps because I am not really the faster at figuring out how to notate my idea. The recording helps to preserve the original idea. If I don't do that then something the process of figuring out the notation can morph my idea into something that I did not want it to be.

Heh... I'm unable to imagine any sound from reading a score unless I have heard it before and am able to recognise it. I am also unable to pass music from my head into paper since I need the piano as an intermediary, and I often get carried away from the vague chaos that is the sound in my head by the playing itself. The fingers live by themselves and things come out for no reason but thoughtless improvisation. I still believe I've never heard any sound in my head when it's about new things, and instead I just feel emotions I "think" or "feel" they sound like something. It's always too vague.

I am therefore fully dependant on software to be able to compose for anything other than solo piano, and even so, there's stuff I can't do on the piano (besides being unable to play a piece without mistakes). That is terribly frustrating because I need to hear a piece entirely well played from the beginning until the point from which I must go on to picture the rest.

If I had no software, I wouldn't have been able to compose anything I have to date, because of my inability to play it or picture a full inexistant work in my head.

Yup, I'm a half-assed composer. xD