Easiest Learning Curve

[Steve Marcus]

I'm planning to write a composition for brass choir, percussion (including timpani), organ, and chorus (with piano reduction for rehearsal only). Standard notation; nothing out of the ordinary.

What Windows-based software that offers MIDI playback and either piano or QWERTY keyboard entry has the easiest, fastest learning curve?

Thanks,

Steve

[Chuck Jackson]

Everyone is going to cringe, but this software is "Chuck-Proof" and is SO easy that my nearly computer illiterate wife learned it in 15 minutes:

Encore


Not fancy, not expensive, easy to use.

Flame away.

Chuck"who is learning Sibelius7, the software not the symphony, at this moment and finds it a slow go"Jackson

[PMeuph]

Chuck"who is learning Sibelius7, the software not the symphony, at this moment and finds it a slow go"Jackson

You are learning the symphony too, as it plays every time you use the software!!!


I am going to say Sibelius, but it is somewhat expensive. I use it on Mac and I assume that the settings are somewhat similar on Windows.

Here are my pointers:

-I enter pitches with the left hand typing on the keyboard and rhythms with the right using the keypad.
-Accidentals are part of the keypad
-Anything that is "motivic," I copy and paste and then adjust the individual pitches with the arrows
-If you select a measure and press the up arrow it will move a measure up by a step
-Command + up/down arrow transposes by an octave in the direction specified (I imagine it is alt+arrow or ctrl+ arrow in Windows)
-The transition between all the different aspects to input is really quick. If I forget a dynamic and an articulation it is quick and painless to enter it.

So, if your music is quite repetitive, Sibelius might make it easy for you. However, I think a pro copy is around $600, a church or educational license is half of that. You can decide how much yo need it. If this is only for one composition, it might be worthwhile to get someone else to engrave it for you.

[TubaRay]

I would agree that Encore is fairly easy. I have switched to Finale(actually Printwhatever), which I found reasonably easy to learn, and make the process go faster.

[Conn 2J CC]

I agree about Encore, but in my case, I use MusicTime Deluxe, the watered down version of Encore. I've scored a lot of arrangements for school and church groups plus personal use with MusicTime Deluxe, and love it. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, but it could certainly do what you're describing. And, on GVOX's website (http://www.gvox.com" target="_blank" target="_blank), Encore is listed at $400 while MusicTime Deluxe is listed at $130. Both of those prices would be for full version downloads with backup CDs. You might want to check out the demo versions of both on GVOX's website too.