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Hi all,
I'm trying to transcribe something using Finale Notepad 2005 and it seems to be (or I am) incapable of getting it to notate a series of notes --I'm sure there's a name for this, but I don't know it-- where the first note is payed and held, the second note, played and held...until you have a chord sounding.

It won't let me place a rest over a played note, nor can I tie two non-adjacent notes. Does anyone know whether this is because I have the cheap (read: free) version of Finale? Is there any not-too-expensive softawre that can handle this sort of construction? In the less-expensive notation programs (I'd like to buy one that can OCR scanned scores) are there commonly-used notations that can't be done?

Thanks for any input.

I think it's because you have the free version of Finale. I haven't worked with it much but found myself frustrated by a lot of things with it, primarily the fact that it doesn't allow grace notes (which seems like a major limitation to me!) I guess it makes sense that the program designers wouldn't want to make the free version too good, otherwise nobody would buy the real thing. :p

I know that many people recommend the upgraded (= not cheap) version of Finale, as well as Sibelius. You might get more input if you post this in the composer's forum, where you'll find lots of people who use these programs.

Thanks, Monica, you're probably right. I got aroung the grace note issue by using 32nd notes and shortening the longest note in the measure by that value, but it was a pain!

I've got a demo version of Smartscore on the go now, but the editing comands are less intuitive, so I'll have to spend a couple of hours trying to figure it out. The upside is that it will let me place rests above chord tones to make the kind of open chords that Notepad was balking at.

My eldest just came home with his school band book (alto sax). It has a CD-ROM that contains the newest version of Notepad. In the end I'll buy something, maybe Printmusic, which seems to offer the best price/features compromise. I'll mosey on over to the Composer's Corner to see if there are any review.

The constraints that Finale put on you to make each measure technically accurate definitely impact creating more complicated measures. In the bottom left hand corner of the window there are four numbered buttons. These represent musical layers in the notation. It will be complex, but you should be able to manipulate the notation using a layer for each voice and get pretty close to how you want it notated.

For the chord, I assume you are trying to attach the symbol to roll the chord? I don't know if you can do that with the free version.

I use MidiSoft's Worship Studio:
Worship Studio

It's pretty full featured, tho you do sometimes, with very complex music, have to use the voice layers to get the notation exactly as you want it. There hasn't really been anything I haven't been able to do, and it is easy enough to use that I sometimes will notate just a measure or two of something I am trying to work out, just to hear how it sounds.

I you need to assign each note to a different voice... remember that piano is one of the few instruments that can play multiple voice lines.

Each voice's music line will have to conform precisely with the time signature requirements for the measure. You'll have to pad the front of your 2nd and 3rd notes with rests. These "front" rests aren't typically shown in standard piano notation.

You switch voices (up to 4) using those numbered boxes in the lower left-hand corner, by the Page box. Each voice is a different color, which helps you lay it out. In mind, the first voice is black, 2nd voice is red, third is, I think, blue.

Here's an example of what it would look like for a C major triad. In this case, you build the chord on each beat, and note is then held until the end of the measure. I don't think the colors copied over well, though, but hopefully you'll get the idea.



Oops, I realize that this is what Dean was saying up above.

That's exactly what you would have to do in Worship Studio. Once you've done it once or twice, it becomes easy to visualize and figure out. Does Finale then let you go back and delete those extra rests? I can do that in WS. Just makes the printed score a bit easier to read- less cluttered.

Thanks. That's precisely what I'm trying to do. I'll look for "layers".

In "Composer's Lounge", the relatively inexpensive (~$100 Canadian) PrintMusic (Finale) has been endorsed, so I'll eventually pick it up.

I'm thinking that before I waste too much time on this particular trnascription, I'll try writing the music *gasp, shudder* by hand.

And spend the time saved actually trying to play it. :p