that is simple to use?

Better than cheap, it's free: http://musescore.org/

And awesome!

Other choices are cut down versions of Finale or Sibelius, but with the recent trouble the industry seems to be going, I think that it's dangerous to enter such waters.

Finally, there's NOTION, but personally I never liked the end result in notation (the sounds are much better though)...

Up to you!

http://www.noteflight.com

I like this, it is free too and save your files online. It is very easy to use.

Thank you both! It's for my daughter, she wants to enter a school contest and write something, but it would be more fun if it was a computer program vs pencil and paper (and easier to read).

hmmm... not too sure about that. I can see why a contest might prefer a computer generated score, but on the other hand the magic of a well written manuscript is something that one cannot surpass with any software.

I will repeat that the computer generated score will look more 'professional' but I just thought of throwing in the extra idea... Plus it will leave much more room in her time, in order to work on the actual music, rather than learning the software.

Finally, if I may offer, I (and others probably) would be glad to offer some feedback to your daughter, before (or after in case it's not allowed) the competition...

Good luck!

She has a couple more weeks before school starts, and since she still isn't back to her activities in full force, it will give her something new to discover.

I'm not sure how she wants to do it, last year she said she wished she could do the music writing part but didn't know enough. At her age, they don't require it to be written out at all, she can just send in an CD. But she is a mess around kind of kid and if it were written I can see her going back to it and making lots of changes over time.

It will be interesting to see what she comes up with. Once the deadline has closed, I think she would be willing to share. It won't be a masterpiece, she has only been playing for a year. She is very techie and gravitates to computers. Thanks again for the suggestions!!!

Depending on what she does and doesn't know about notation, the software may not help her. For example, she has to know what line or space a given pitch goes on, and she has to decide which note durations express the rhythm she comes up with. The software can't do this for her.

Some features that may be a help: MuseScore (and maybe others) does have a playback feature, so she can check if what she wrote matches what she intended. It also enforces the correct number of beats in a bar for the given meter, so she won't have the problem of unbalanced measures that don't match the meter. (You can explicitly change meter mid-piece, but you have to do it explicitly.)

I use Noteworthy Composer exclusively.

The trial version does pretty much everything; I bought the real one out of guilt because I use it so much.

I've played with Finale and have a couple of the simpler versions but all have limitations NWC doesn't. I highly recommend it.

Is there one suitable for Android phones? Just thought its nice to be able to write down music to my Samsung Galaxy Note on the go as it comes with S pen etc...

Thank you all! Her entry is sent off. Noteflight was the easiest for her to figure out and she really enjoyed the process of making her music "real".

I have used Finale for years, and while I hate it with a white hot heat that cannot be measured, because it is very difficult, changes dramatically with every version, and is horribly nonintuitive, at the end of the day I am able to achieve whatever I need to with it, and I have not seen anything better. So I keep using it. But I still hate it (with a white hot heat that cannot be measured).

It's VERY simple, but if anyone wants to hear it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ik8ZlIqWco

I'm the ANYONE.

You know what? Yes it IS simple, but yes it works. It's got form, it's got a reason to exist actually! So very well done to Amy and yourself!

Plus she looks extra cute with the red flower on the hair!

LOL! Thank you for listening to it! She was very pleased with making it. The photo was her first recital because youtube won't let you just put up a .wav - it had to be a video so I threw the photo on it. Now that she knows how the program works, it will be used again, she just thought it was all fun.

I didn't reply in this thread as someone had already suggested Noteflight (which is what I use,) but I was wondering if you were going to post a recording of the piece. I'm glad you did.
I liked it. I liked the flow and I would be proud if any of my students composed a song like that after just over a year. Brava!

She did a great job!

Thank you all for the nice comments, she was happy to hear them.

Nice work!! (And awesome boots in the photo, too!)

Just to let you all know I just got this message:

This is to let you know your daughter has been selected to move on to the next round of judging at the District Level for Music.

Congrats to your daughter! This will be an encouragement to her to continue composing.

YAY! Well done daughter! And well done mom! Well done all round!