Re: Composition using Notation Software

RVG wrote:
Finale is great for classical music, but not so for jazz where, apart
for the melody, the rest needs some indication of style and the
musicians know what's expected from them from a simple chord chart with
tempo and swing/even rythm. Even for the piano, except in tunes where
the melody is actually mixed in the harmony (George Shearing's style), I
leave the left hand part up to the interpreter: (s)he can play a bass
pedal or the classical swing rythm+chord, etc. I myself try to play my
own compositions in several styles that are just different angles of
approach to the same pattern of melody + harmony.
Considering that, as the composer, once the tune is written I'm only its
first reader, my own interpretation is not canonical: it's just one way
of experiencing a sound game among other possibilities. That's also why
I release everything under Creative Commons licence: I want people to
enjoy my music any way they can without money constraints. Either they
play an instrument and the scores are there for free, or they don't (or
don't feel like playing) and they can just download or listen to the
albums online.

I haven't found any real limitations in Finale when it comes to WRITING jazz. But there are big holes when it comes to Finale playing back what you've written. If you're writing notes, it can interpret them just fine and add swing where you tell it to. But I'm not aware of any way, when you're writing ad libs and fills, of getting it to actually play anything - unless you actually write out notes for it to play (which can be hidden), but that's very time consuming and also requires that you be able to figure out exactly what a musician actually might play, which can be difficult if you're writing - say - a drum part and you're not a drummer!

I've started to compose a string quartet some months ago with Finale,
and it took me like two weeks to write the first minute... of an adagio.
So I'm not in a hurry to consider writing something allegro with the
amount of notes it involves.

That sounds high! I wonder whether you're really using Finale in the most efficient manner possible. I've finished the first movement of a symphony using Finale, and it lasts about 15 minutes and has a lot more than four parts, but it didn't take me 30 weeks to write it (at least, not if you're thinking of 40-hour work weeks)!


Bob

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