Meanwhile, a generic text editor may get the job done in a pinch. word processing software: If you’re going to prepare a book or magazine for publication, you need a comprehensive design tool like Adobe’s InDesign, but that’s overkill for writing an article or story - Pages or MS Word are more appropriate choices. Notion doesn’t do that rather specialized trick, so I had to settle for this:īut overall, I was comfy with Notion’s compromises, and I’m happy with the look of my score. There were a few frustrations: For example, the original score uses the technique of beaming groups of notes across the bar lines to indicate phrasing, like so (pardon the crappy photo of the print score): (Easier than it sounds, because the entire movement is played pizzicato, so it already has a guitaristic feel.)Ĭheck it this PDf of my arrangement if you’re curious: Bartók: Allegretto Pizzicato (arranged for electric guitars).pdf Next I edited the score for guitar performance. The project took about eight hours, though I can picture an experienced user doing it in a fraction of the time. It was a bitch - but a great way to start learning the program. So I bought the overpriced Boosey & Hawkes score and input the entire thing into Notion by hand. There’s no electronic version of the score because, incredibly, this 85-year-old piece is still copyrighted. Here are some examples from my first Notion project, a transcription for guitar ensemble of the fourth movement of Béla Bartók’s String Quartet #4. The program offers less control over the fine details of your score’s appearance compared to Sibelius and Finale, but I found it easier and more efficient to operate in Notion’s simpler environment. You’ve probably guessed the punchline: Notion splits the difference. But that didn’t work out either - Logic notation features are just too klugey. Later, when I got heavily into Apple’s Logic, I decided to go with the program’s simplified notation tools. I was a Sibelius user for years, but never a skilled one. Most notation pros use them because they’re packed with features essential to “music engraving” (the archaic and pretentious term for the process of preparing music for publication).īut for some users - like, I dunno, me - that’s more power and complexity than needed just to capture and share ideas.
Two programs, Sibelius and Finale, dominate the music notation field. If you only plan to notate for guitar, the lower-priced Progression is probably all you need.)ġ. (Most also apply to Notion’s sister app, Progression, which compiles all of Notion’s fretted-instrument tools, but omits the orchestral stuff. This isn’t a full-fledged product review - just a few thoughts about a half-dozen features I dig. I’d like to share some initial impressions about Notion.
A new way to feign productivity in cafes!
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