Looking for a Freeware or inexpensive Windows program to do very basic musical composition. Just the basics of staves, bass, treble, notes, etc. PDf or whatever as the File construct and be able to print it. No interface with piano. No sharing across the internet. Just a basic editor.

Jon ...
Woodbury Mn

(Soon to be CA93 owner ... )

MuseScore is considerably beyond just the basics, it is quite full-featured. Not quite and daunting to learn for a beginner as some of the $500+ big-time software but still does take a little start-up time to get comfortable with note entry. And the cost is zero, hard to beat. Quality stuff.

I'm using LilyPond. While using Windows Frescobaldi could be an option as a frontend to LilyPond. I'm using LilyPond on my Macs with jEdit for the score entry.

The way how to enter notes and scores in LilyPond might look complicated and unusual at the beginning, but from my perspective this tool is just incredible and offers all the options I could dream of.

+1 for MuseScore. I had to transcribe a theme, and looking for a free sofware found MuseScore. There are a few things of the interface here and there that I don't fully like, and it takes some time to get used to it, but besides that, it's a nice software for editing scores.

Regards,
Kurt.-

Muse Score is a very easy to learn and use freeware that is loaded with features including auto transpose and cord labels that can be placed over the measures. You can use any midi keyboard or your CA93 or pc keyboard to input the notes. I love it for taking a midi to sheet score in just seconds. You can also automatically note name for those needing easy play like score.
http://musescore.org/

+1 for Muse-score. By a long way the best freebie download and better than some of the $20-50 alternatives. Some of the options can be a bit intimidating at first but persevere because the page layout controls are really excellent which sets it apart from other software.