[frankcastle]

Hello,

So I was visiting my father today and he is arranging tunes for classical guitar and he wants to make sheet music.

What options are out there? He has a PC laptop and an ipad.

As an aside he is the only person I know who has self taught himself calculus, Japanese and the guitar..... his first guitar was broken and he strung it with fishing string (partly due to poverty/availability).

Oh and being able to purchase a physical copy is probably best because he refuses to put his credit card number on the internet.

 

[Version_6]

Sibelius?

http://www.sibelius.com/home/index_flash.html

 

[ShawnF]

Sibelius is awesome. Get it. Get it now.

 

[Version_6]

 

[ShawnF]

 

[frankcastle]

Wow $600!!!!!!!!

My dad refuses to spend that kind of money on a classical guitar let alone software.

My fault I didn't realize it could get that expensive and should have specified the cheaper the better.

I just assumed that the word processor equivalent for sheet music would be much more affordable than that.

He's just arranging simple songs like Auld Lang Sine and We shall over come for a finger style play that is more interesting that just single notes.

 

[ShawnF]

Sibelius First is much cheaper. :yesway:

 

[frankcastle]

Thanks!

I will read up a bit on the topic to discuss with my dad.

My first impression is that Sibelius First would be like Microsoft Word while cheap or free programs are like Word Pad. Would that be a fair analogy?

SF would include a lot more features and borders on what a pro would use.

If I'm reading it correctly is it saying you can hook up a keyboard or guitar via midi and have the computer transcribe what you play?

 

[Version_6]

Thanks!

I will read up a bit on the topic to discuss with my dad.

My first impression is that Sibelius First would be like Microsoft Word while cheap or free programs are like Word Pad. Would that be a fair analogy?

SF would include a lot more features and borders on what a pro would use.

If I'm reading it correctly is it saying you can hook up a keyboard or guitar via midi and have the computer transcribe what you play?

Other option is Guitar Pro. It's a program that allows you to tab things via regular guitar tab BUT also allows you to output it via regular notation as well which is handy if you only know guitar tab and want to write for other instruments. It's very cheap and also available for iPad so he can work on the files on a PC then go out and about and continue working on them on the iPad. Plus it has full midi playback to allow listening to the composition which is cool. It's what I used as a young teen before the mass advent of DAWs and such.

 

[Cassidy]

Try this. MuseScore | Free music composition and notation software

I've not really used it, even though I've had it installed for quite some time (no need for me to notate anything these days). It looks awesome, from the five minutes I dicked with it.

There's also Finale, which a lot of people rave about. But I think they limit some of the cool features in the free version.

 

[Lopez]

Musescore and Noteflight are free.

 

[frankcastle]

Thanks guys!

I emailed him links to Sibelius First, Musescore and Guitar Pro.

I like that it gives him 3 price points and 3 approaches.

 

[Joey]

I've used noteflight and it's pretty good for a free program.

I actually prefer Finale to Sibelius, but they are both industry standards for this sort of thing and will both do a good job.

 

[ShawnF]

I actually prefer Finale to Sibelius, but they are both industry standards for this sort of thing and will both do a good job.

:squint:

I don't like Finale at all, but that's entirely because I've been using Sibelius since I was thirteen. Finale and Sibelius are like the Fender/Gibson of notation software.

 

[Lopez]

Nothing sounds like Sibelius.

 

[frankcastle]

Thanks everyone.

Just a follow up. My dad chose to buy Guitar Pro 6. OVer Sibelius First and the free programs recommended.

 

[sammyp]

Guitar pro is great!

 

[Louis94]

I learned on finale and it was easy