Finale For Composers

Much has changed with Finale since my first edition of "Finale for Composers". It has taken me several years to write this second edition. With a new version of Finale every year, it was difficult to stay current. In a nutshell, there are a now fewer tools, but the tools that remain are more powerful and perform multiple functions. No longer do you have to use two or three tools to accomplish a common task. You are able do the same thing more quickly and more efficiently with the same tool. You may even think that the tools have become smarter. Almost all tools now have contextual menus which change based on what is selected. You access these menus by right clicking if you have a two-button mouse or by option-clicking on the Mac. Commonly used functions such as changing the key or time signature can be easily accomplished with one right click on the mouse. The other major upgrade in Finale is the addition of the Garritan Instruments. No longer are you stuck with the wimpy QuickTime sounds nor do you have to connect to an external synthesizer. With each new edition, the playback has become better and better. After countless hours of using Finale, hundreds of phone calls from musicians asking for help in Finale, and numerous lectures in the classroom teaching Finale at Carnegie Mellon University, I finally took the advice of my many colleagues, clients, friends, and students and set out to write a book on Finale. But not just any book... a book that focuses on Finale as a tool for composers. In order to get the most out of this book, I would suggest that you have at least a basic knowledge of the workings of Finale. While I will cover the more elusive features, which many users may not know, I occasionally have omitted some of the more basic skills. These skills can be easily learned from the user guide. In the beginning, Coda created Finale and it was good. Well okay, it was good but very few people realized its potential at first. The interface was clunky with a different type of click needed to accomplish various tasks command-click for this, shift-click for that, and option-click for who remembers what. And the learning curve was steeper than Mount Everest, making it all the more appealing to me. I love a challenge and no program, no matter how difficult, was going to get the better of me. So after a few weeks of fooling around with the thing, reading all of the manuals, watching the video, and hours of trial and error, I became a Finale aficionado. From that point on, I jumped right in for every upgrade they offered. I even switched between Mac and PC a few times just for good measure and used it on everything from my old Mac SE/30 to my current 2.4 GHz Quad Core 2 Duo running Vista Ultimate 64 bit. I have used Finale to print everything from simple rhythmic patterns for Eurhythmics exercises to full-blown Symphonies and Operas that were performed by professional orchestras as well as everything in between. Finale has helped me when I needed to quickly arrange a hymn for my limited voice church choir, and has brought me enough clients to start a side business as a music copyist. You may have laughed earlier when I said that Finale has changed my life, but I believe that Finale has made all of these things possible for me. I would be at a very different place in my life if it were not for Finale. Now I would like to share my success in using Finale with you in this book so you can see what it can do for you.

Finale offers all the notation tools required to craft virtually any composition. Unfortunately, the imaginative ways these tools are used sometimes becomes an elaborate composition in itself! Composing with Finale shows you the essentials you’ll need in order to make the most of this program’s incredible power. Studying Finale from a compositional perspective eases the learning curve overall, transforming Finale into an extension of your imagination. Instead of describing procedures most beneficial to copyists and engravers, this book isolates the methods crucial to working with a composition in progress— how to efficiently translate directly from your mind to the score.Far from a “point-and-click” guide, Composing with Finale will help you compose more music with one of the most advanced music-composition tools on the market.

Easy-to-follow instructions help you to create publisher-quality music notation; learn to use the tools of Finale while writing your own music and arrangements; get started immediately with hundreds of professional templates, partially completed notation files, and libraries available on the companion website (www.FINALEBOOK.com); print transposed parts from scores automatically; write standard notation, guitar tablature, drum set parts, and more with this comprehensive hands-on tutorial. Teachers can create warm-up and practice exercises; write their own compositions, arrangements and method books; and simplify parts for students. --From publisher's description.

(Book). Tom Harrison's book How to Become a Film Composer gives up-and-coming composers the inspiration, information and the tools necessary to succeed in today's music for media industry. Harrison has spent years working on the front line in Hollywood, where he has held key positions on music teams for some of the world's most successful television shows. His own music can be heard all over television on projects ranging from Dateline NBC and The Voice to NBC Golf tournaments, WWW Monday Night Raw and beyond. How to Become a Film Composer begins with breaking down how to approach music in a dramatic context and how to cultivate your own unique sound. Next, Harrison covers the technical computer skills needed to work in this digital era of music production and finally provides a thorough guide to building a successful career. Whether you are a young student or a seasoned musician, if you want to learn more about what it takes to become a film composer, this is the book for you.

(Berklee Guide). Learn the nuances of music notation, and create professional looking scores. This reference presents a comprehensive look at contemporary music notation. You will learn the meaning and stylistic practices for many types of notation that are currently in common use, from traditional staffs to lead sheets to guitar tablature. It discusses hundreds of notation symbols, as well as general guidelines for writing music. Berklee College of Music brings together teachers and students from all over the world, and we use notation in a great variety of ways. This book presents our perspectives on notation: what we have found to be the most commonly used practices in today's music industry, and what seems to be serving our community best. It includes a foreword by Matthew Nicholl, who was a long-time chair of Berklee's Contemporary Writing and Production Department. Whether you find yourself in a Nashville recording studio, Hollywood sound stage, grand concert hall, worship choir loft, or elementary school auditorium, this book will help you to create readable, professional, publication-quality notation. Beyond understanding the standard rules and definitions, you will learn to make appropriate choices for your own work, and generally how to achieve clarity and consistency in your notation so that it best serves your music.

Behind Bars is the indispensable reference book for composers, arrangers, teachers and students of composition, editors, and music processors. In the most thorough and painstakingly researched book to be published since the 1980s, specialist music editor Elaine Gould provides a comprehensive grounding in notational principles. This full eBook version is in fixed-layout format to ensure layout and image quality is consistent with the original hardback edition. Behind Bars covers everything from basic rules, conventions and themes to complex instrumental techniques, empowering the reader to prepare music with total clarity and precision. With the advent of computer technology, it has never been more important for musicians to have ready access to principles of best practice in this dynamic field, and this book will support the endeavours of software users and devotees of hand-copying alike. The author's understanding of, and passion for, her subject has resulted in a book that is not only practical but also compellingly readable. This seminal and all-encompassing guide encourages new standards of excellence and accuracy and, at 704 pages, it is supported by 1,500 music examples of published scores from Bach to Xenakis. This is the full eBook version of the original hardback edition.

Coretta Scott King Award winner A young girl’s beloved uncle is a talented barber without a shop who never gives up on his dream in this richly illustrated, stirring picture book. Everyone has a favorite relative. For Sarah Jean, it’s her Uncle Jed. Living in the segregated South of the 1920s, where most people are sharecroppers, Uncle Jed is the only black barber in the county and has to travel all over the county to cut his customers’ hair. He lives for the day when he could open his very own barbershop. But there are a lot of setbacks along the way. Will Uncle Jed ever be able to open a shiny new shop?

There′s dreadful news from the symphony hall-the composer is dead! If you have ever heard an orchestra play, then you know that musicians are most certainly guilty of something. Where exactly were the violins on the night in question? Did anyone see the harp? Is the trumpet protesting a bit too boisterously? In this perplexing murder mystery, everyone seems to have a motive, everyone has an alibi, and nearly everyone is a musical instrument. But the composer is still dead. Perhaps you can solve the crime yourself. Join the Inspector as he interrogates all the unusual suspects. Then listen to the accompanying audio recording featuring Lemony Snicket and the music of Nathaniel Stookey performed by the San Francisco Symphony. Hear for yourself exactly what took place on that fateful, well-orchestrated evening.

A collection of over 200 great Bluegrass, Old Time, Country and Gospel standards. Melodies are presented with standard notation and tablature along with lyrics and chords.Learn to play songs written and recorded by the giants of traditional American music: Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs, Ralph Stanley, the Osborne Brothers, Jimmy Martin, Doc Watson and many more. Also included: Step-by-Step instruction on how to transpose any song to any key!The two CDs include recordings of EVERY song in the book.