Music notation software

    Music notation software has drastically changed the learning environment as well as other aspects of music making and reading.  In the past couple of years I have come to really appreciate this technology for it’s convenience and how it makes notating music more accessible to musicians and beginners everywhere.  From expert composers to band teachers and beginner musicians, digital notation can be a crucial part of the music making experience.  Although there are many different brands of software, I have only experienced a few and their potentials.
    The most common program used is probably Finale.  With this notation program users can compose, arrange, and listen to their notated work using a variety of instrumental MIDI sounds for their ensembles.  MIDI is the digital sound of a musical instrument, and a lot of these software programs come stock with their own instrumental sounds for many instruments. In the newer versions you can even scan pages and convert them into the software, making editing parts and scores for your band very simple.  If this technology were available to composers before the invention of the computer just imagine the possibilities!  Students, composers, and musicians can use this software to make their lives much easier. 
    A similar software called Sibelius works in the same way as Finale but may have some better instrumental playback sounds.  I became familiar with this software in a music theory class where we has the option of hand writing our musical arrangements or using notation software.  I chose to go the non-traditional way along with most of the class.  One perk of using the software is the option to change keys with the click of a button instead of completely re-writing the music.  On the downside, musicians loose the repetitive practice of re-writing parts over and over like our great predecessors once had to do.  Hand writing music is a skill like many others that requires a lot of practice, and during this process it gives the composer time to revise or get new ideas for the music. Using notation software the editing process can becomes shorter, and less time might be given to individual parts.  However all this saved time does present new possibilities such as freeing up time to complete more arrangements and make more music.  In my class experience, making more music was definitely valued more and this software came in handy. 
    Creating a score from scratch is another task made possible with this software.  For our final project we had to make an arrangement of our choice using a large ensemble.  Being able to listen back to each part individually and hear the music all together made composing much easier than the traditional way.  Before this software was around, using a piano and playing each part was most likely the only option unless you had access to musicians to sample what it sounds like.  On the computer screen you can see every instrument virtually in front of you and make changes to their parts; quite a difference from the traditional way and what a pleasure it was to work with.
      This software helped me learn many valuable skills about arranging music for small and large ensembles.  It gave me the experience to write music for instruments I otherwise would not have access to and get a sample of what it might sound like.  In the future I hope to use notation software for many more projects.  I was inspired by the ease of the programs to one day write out my own music for my school’s band or arrange popular repertoire for them to play.