Find Finale and Sibelius Information FAST
Have you noticed that a typical internet search doesn’t always produce relevant results for music notation? For instance, if you do a Yahoo, Bing or Google search for “articulation”, you’ll get dozens of results, with none of them related to Finale or Sibelius, and only a handful related to music . . .
‘NET SEARCH (see sidebar) is a useful resource that can help.
Vertical Spacing Between Staves in a Score & Working @ 100%
Q: What is the ideal space between staves in a score? I know this can vary but I would like to make the systems as big as possible without too much crowding.
A: The ideal distance between staves is based on the number of staves, the page size and the system size / number of systems on the page – as you’ve discovered, it varies; each situation is a little bit different.
A good starting point for understanding vertical staff spacing might be to consider the braced Grand Staff. In the Grand Staff, the ledger line on middle C is, for all intents and purposes, a staff line. The braced grand staff functions as is a bridge between the two different clefs.
As you move the treble and bass clef staves closer together, there will be a point when the middle C ledger line is directly centered; there are two staff spaces between the clefs, with one staff space above and one below middle C:
Tim Davies Orchestration Blog “deBreved”
I wanted to let you know about a great new orchestration resource for composers and orchestrators; a blog recently started by my friend and colleague Tim Davies. Tim is a successful Hollywood orchestrator who has orchestrated and conducted scores for a number of feature films, television shows, video games, & cinematic trailers.
How to do what JW Rhythm and Meter (Plugin) does in Sibelius
After reading Robert’s post about the JW Rhythm and Meter plugin for Finale, I decided to figure out what you could do in Sibelius to accomplish the same results…
Featured Finale Plugin – JW Meter and Rhythm
UPDATED 4/19/13
I was recently asked to rebar an extended section of a score containing various time signatures 4/4, 2/4, 3/4 into 3/2 time. Fortunately, what could have been a hugely labor intensive and messy operation became a whole lot easier in Finale, thanks to Jari Williamsson’s “JW Meter and Rhythm” plugin. This plugin consolidates quite a number of useful operations related to meter and rhythm into one suite.
Featured Finale Plugin – JW Staff Polyphony
If you are a longtime Finale user, chances are you know who Jari Williamsson is. Jari has maintained the Finaletips.nu site for a number of years and is a prolific Finale plugin author.
One of Jari’s latest offerings is an amazing multi-purpose music notation plug-in for tasks related to exploding music, merging music, working with layers, chord voicings and more called JW Staff Polyphony.
It’s Official : MakeMusic Acquired by LaunchEquity
March 13, 2013 - MakeMusic announced today that the company will indeed by acquired by LaunchEquity, with the transaction closing in the second quarter of 2013.
In July, 2012, MakeMusic received a proposal from LaunchEquity Partners, LLC to acquire the operating assets of MakeMusic, excluding cash, and assume the related liabilities of MakeMusic, free and clear of all liens and encumbrances, for $13.5 million.
Makemusic software products include Finale, Smartmusic, Garritan & MusicXML.
Here is the official press release from the MakeMusic website:
Lyric Phrasing
I frequently receive vocal scores which have slurring that seems to be at odds with the lyrics themselves:
Essentially, this boils down to too many conflicting symbols being used simultaneously to represent similar instructions. A little historical context might help break down why we seem compelled to use these conflicting instructions for phrasing in vocal music: