Piano Guidance
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Is MuseScore or noteflight better?

Whilst Noteflight is a great piece of software and well worth your attention, I feel it does fall through the cracks a little. If you want a feature loaded program that's free, then it's probably better to use Musescore without any restrictions.

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Where do you keep sheet music?

Choose a specific shelf or cabinet as a dedicated spot for storing and organizing sheet music. Place an empty organizer or file tray nearby to use...

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Sibelius has been the industry standard music writing software for decades and there’s one good reason for that.

It’s outstanding.

Whether you want to create a comprehensive full score, a quick guitar chart with notation and TAB or even a lead sheet for your next jazz gig, Sibelius is likely to be the best tool for the job. For example, you can view and edit your score in portrait mode or in panoramic mode. Panoramic mode turns your score into one endless long line which saves you having to constantly scroll from the bottom of one page to the next as you would in portrait mode. Sibelius also has special features that allow you to easily add lyrics, chord symbols, chord diagrams for guitarists, dynamics and playing instructions in seconds through the use of its incredibly comprehensive key command system. One of the drawbacks of Sibelius is that the key commands used to enter notes still need you to have an alphanumeric keypad to use it to its full potential, but you can easily find apps online for both Android and IOS which will turn your phone into one. All scores in Sibelius can be transposed in seconds, parts can be separated into individual scores in an instant, and for teachers who want to export just a few bars to use in their teaching material there’s the option to do that too. Because Sibelius has been around for such a long time the developers have had the time to refine and perfect it to the level that other new softwares simply haven’t yet reached. And nowhere is that more evident than the pricing structure. In years gone by Sibelius used to offer a student version at around $100/£80 and a full version which was several hundred. Sadly this priced many students out of owning a copy because it was simply too expensive. However, Avid (the developers of Sibelius) have recently switched to a subscription model which allows you to pay monthly, quarterly or yearly and you can own the full version of Sibelius for around $10/£10 a month. Or you can get a special offer at the moment on a 1-year licence here. You receive all the latest updates as they come out, you get access to the vibrant online community of users and composers, and you can add extra plugins to expand on Sibelius’ already endless capabilities. Whilst it’s not free, it’s worth strongly considering if you’re a keen student and have aspirations of becoming a professional, because if you learn Sibelius now then you’ll know how to use a tool that will help you get work in the future. And when you consider that Noteflight comes to roughly $9/£7 a month, you really see the value in having the industry leading software for only a little bit more. When it comes to scoring and music writing, there’s nothing better than Sibelius.

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What is the hardest instrument to master?

The 11 Hardest Musical Instruments to Learn Violin. The violin is a wooden stringed instrument that's part of a larger family of similar...

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Is MuseScore a good app?

Though there are many known notation programs on the market, we've done our research and found Musescore to be the best of the best. So, if you are looking for the perfect music composing software and scorewriter to start writing your beautiful musical compositions, Musescore is just the application for you.

Written by Ramsey Brown.

Just like how an actor reads a script to play a role, musicians often read sheet music (or a score of music) in order to play their instruments. Music notation let’s a musical performer know what notes to play, how fast or slow to play them, and gives overall instructions on performing the piece of music. Any good music composer understands that the key to setting music onto paper is precise efficiency. Music notation is a very mature and complex skill that requires much labor -- that is until now. Luckily, technology always finds a way to make difficult tasks easier. With advancements in music notation software, creating high quality sheet music is now easier than ever. Though there are many known notation programs on the market, we’ve done our research and found Musescore to be the best of the best. So, if you are looking for the perfect music composing software and scorewriter to start writing your beautiful musical compositions, Musescore is just the application for you. Their interface offers amazing features that easily gives them a competitive edge over other music notation programs. If you’re wondering what exactly Musescore is and how it works, then you’ve clicked on the right article. We’re going to review Musescore’s features, the paid pro version, pricing, and the pros and cons of the online music composing and sharing platform.

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