Free Finale

[barbara-brundage]

For those looking for notation software, I just received a notice from Finale that they’ve gone back to offering Finale Notepad for free (it was ten dollars for the past few years). At that price, it’s well worth it if you’re looking for something basic:

http://www.finalemusic.com/NotePad/default.aspx

[tony-morosco]

Of course finale is kind of like crack. They hand out the free samples, then the next thing you know you’re shelling out hundreds of dollars for the most up-to-date full version because the free stuff just isn’t enough anymore.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I would not get sucked in. There are free softwares like LilyPond, unless you prefer the look of Finale to others. Even though it is flexible, I don’t like the finished look. Score is the favored program for copying by publishers.

[Sidney Dharmavaram]

How does Finale compare to Sibelius in terms of harp notation?

[barbara-brundage]

Well, there’s nothing you can do in Sibelius you can’t do in Finale, but I’m not sure what all is in notepad these days. I expect that if you download the free finale font pack you can do pedal diagrams (those are done with the Engraver H font), and I would have said you can’t easily do lever notation diamonds except that I see that they say that the current version can do percussion notation, so maybe. A muffle symbol is the letter p in the Tamburo font.

[barbara-brundage]

What wouldn’t be easy to do in notepad (and it’s not so simple in full finale either) is angled placing brackets.

[tony-morosco]

What Barbara said. Also, I still have a set of the Salzedo fonts that let you do all of the speical Salzedo effects notation as well as pedal diagrams. I don’t know if it is still available, but I’m sure if someone wanted to look hard enough they could find a copy. It also has the diamonds for lever changes.

[barbara-brundage]

The diamonds are in the articulations already, as harmonics for violins et al. Sorry, forgot to mention that. I’m just not sure that notepad will allow you to increase the size enough to make them easily readable.

[barbara-brundage]

Forgot to mention that I prefer to use articulations rather than a font for the diamonds because it’s easier to keep them in place. One-character text blocks tend to slip around a tiny bit, but a tiny bit is a lot when it’s on a staff.

[patricia-jaeger]

Sibelius notation software permits Harp Pedaling and also Harp Pedal Diagrams, under its Plug-In category. Are you aware that if you are a teacher at some institution you can acquire the Educational version of Sibelius at less expense? Harp brackets are easily made by clicking Create, and then Lines, and choosing a simple line, after first selecting the note on the staff where the bracket would begin. This line is now stretchable and can become diagonal anywhere, if you wish. The ends can be closed by another tiny line extended downward from the ends of the main one.

[barbara-brundage]

> Are you aware that if you are a teacher at some institution you can acquire the Educational version of Sibelius at less expense?

Also true for finale, and both have student pricing also.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I have been able to create most of the Salzedo notation and other harp notation in sibelius by combining various symbols and lines, but it takes some time. I have tried to get them to add harp notation, but it was not included in the last upgrade. I don’t know if the last upgrade improved anything relevant to the harp. I won’t buy it unless it does. Sibelius has a more elegant look, a better flow in its elements, except for slurs, but they are supposed to have been improved. The final results look very professional.

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