Using Notation Software To Compose

Hey guys, this is my first post here, and I was wondering if you use Finale or Sibelius to compose, or if you just use your piano/ respective instrument. I am wondering because my composition teacher basically flipped out at me today for composing with notation software and told me I should distance myself from it, and this is very difficult for me for various reasons. Any insight would be helpful

Like really, if anyone has any input, I'd love to hear. I spent about 6 hours today in a room with a piano and wouldn't come up with anything, went home feeling like I decided to go to school for the wrong thing. any input would be cool

Compose using any tool you wish. There's nothing wrong with using software during your writing process; why limit yourself from any available technology that might be beneficial? The instant playback can be useful for some people to get real-time feedback on the sound/structure structure of a piece, however, don't rely on playback as a replacement for solid theory and ear-traning skills.

The ability to hear inside your head what's going on without the aid of an instrument, or the computer is something that can be gained little by little with effort and experience...

That said, the piano/instrument/computer are all tools that help you hear what you're composing. They are not there to compose instead of you! If you have problems composing this is not because of the tools you're using but because of how your mind works right now.

You need to build some confidence. Try something out and then post it here (for example). People will offer valuable feedback and you can take what you feel is worth taking... Then try again, and again. You can't fly before you learn how to run and you can't run before you learn how to walk, and you can't walk before you learn how to crawl and you can't really crawl if you don't know how to breathe...

I have been composing for a while now, and I have actually been among the winners of a small international competition, so I'm not exactly new to ideas of theory or form, and I consider myself to be quite the decent contrapunt. These things being said, I use the software primarily to help me hear my ideas in a more concrete way than if I were just plunking it our on a piano and writing it down, i.e., it helps me to understand what kind of harmonies and contrapuntal lines I want and the direction in which i think they should go. I'm trying to distance myself from the technology, but that seems to be difficult for some reason. But thanks for the input

I freely admit that I am reliant on notation software to write music. It is very difficult for me to write music (aside from jotting down basic theme and simple harmonies) without the instant playback.

AH does it really matter? I mean Bach and some old timers thought it terrible to compose using the piano - term was Knights of the Keyboard (a pun of course of the many hnights belaboring over a piano keyboard to grasp blindly at something to compose).

Many composers relied on algorithms (a set of procedures) to compose and that is why you have stylistic periods. Tell your teacher he or she is a not very smart unless by a crutch she or he means you are mistaking the sound of the "virtual" instruments for real ones - well yes then she is or he is correct.

Oh and ask your teacher this - what would she say about someone who says has written many great works (whatever that means) using the computer, a figure from piano improv or from a violin, and sheer musical daydreaming? Has the work suddenly devalued because of the means used? To me that is like saying if you were using a newly invented form of steel which offered benefits never before had but you refuse to use it because it may become a "crutch". To carry this metaphor further, the steel still has to be molded by you - no matter what you use.

Honestly, sometimes music teachers can make the whole act of compositional creation utterly overly difficult or complicated. You should ask YOUR teacher not to use paper and pencil , nor piano , and write something with the computer. Wonder if he or she could even create a decent composition - because that is the fallacy of her argument - the premise is assumed that software music notation automatically carries a high risk of writing bad music for some vague reason it is a crutch - well I IV V I, I II6 V7 - I and a whole host of harmonic templates (as well as species counterpoint) are "crutches" we rely to create what is considered "good" music. With this in mind, why not ask your teacher to write music with NO crutches - no harmonic template is to be suggested at all, no contrapuntal rules are to be suggested, and his or her crutch of piano or pen and paper abandoned.

Once again the only time computer software is faulty is if you mistake the virtual sounds and performance for real sound produced by humans.

Note I put good in quotes.

I IV V I is good music?

even though this post is dying, and this is completely off subject, yes, if used correctly, I-IV-V-I is good music. in fact, if we take out the IV, the majority of western art music before 1908 can be summed up as short or long cycles that boil down to I-V-I. I think it is unfair to disregard the importance (and the wonderful qualities) of the simplest harmonies, because these are the harmonies that resonate with humanity most