Comment by Trapdoor2 on September 1, 2012 at 17:05

Got it. "Carry On" has been on my "to TAB" list for too long...

Thanks!

Comment by Mike Moss on September 1, 2012 at 18:01

Good idea Marc, "Carry On" is a great solo which really deserves to be accessible to the wider banjo public.

BTW, here's my piano accompaniment, if anyone wants it: http://www.mediafire.com/?w3q4gve22ofwok7

Comment by thereallyniceman on September 2, 2012 at 11:15

Thanks Mike, it is a good idea producing the intro for banjo.  Often banjo solos have piano introductions, but we poor “home alone” banjo players don’t have a pianist and have to start playing part way in!

Here’s a tip about your notation score. When I produce scores with two voices I make note “sticks up” for Voice1 and “sticks down” for Voice2.  This makes it easier to count the bar. Your first two bars of the Intro look like they have 6 beats as all the sticks are pointing Down.  JMHO

I like Alfred Kirby compositions and am working on Joy Dance myself at the moment, which is a fun lively piece.

 

You can hear Mike playing Kirby’s “Carry On” in the JUKEBOX or watch him in VIDEOS... and very good it is too!

Comment by Mike Moss on September 2, 2012 at 11:40

Thanks Ian, my notation software is a bit awkward but I'll try to find a way to make it change the stems according to the voices (what it usually does is change the colour, making voice 1 black and voice 2 red)

Joy Dance is a good one, I'm looking forward to listening to your recording!

Comment by Steve Harrison on September 2, 2012 at 11:44

Hi Ian, which way the tails point I think is more down to the peculiarities of the software used. I use Finale Printmusic and the tails default to opposite directions when using layers. The only problem is that when I don't want that to happen, I can't change it! It could be interesting and helpful to have discussion about the various types of music software used by our members....Steve.

Comment by thereallyniceman on September 2, 2012 at 13:37

I guess that Steve is the ”expert” on entering notation on here as he has done so many arrangements for the MUSIC LIBRARY!

 

I use Gvox Encore V5 for Mac and have used the software for many years so just about know how to use about 10% of its facilities!

The trouble with all these notation software packages they seem overly complicated with functions that are rarely, if ever, used.

 

Now I am used to it (and have read the manuals 100 times) I find it fairly easy, but time consuming, to produce quite reasonable scores.  Flipping notes up or down is any voice is really easy and only takes a simple select and then CTRL-U  or CTRL-D.

Short cut keys make life easy CTRL-S  is sharpen CTRL-F is flatten  etc etc.

 

Here I have re-entered Mike’s intro in Encore 5 to show how it works.

I selected a single stave with 4 measures per staff and then selected half common time and finally the Key signature Eflat (3 flats).  I then entered notes in VOICE 1 (All notes are “sticks down”)

Then I switched to VOICE2 and entered the notes. You will see that VOICE 1 greys out and VOICE 2 overlaps. (The notes are also “sticks down”)

I now selected all VOICE 1 and flipped all notes Up (CTRL-U)

 

I don’t like that as the sticks look confusing in the ledger lines above the staff, so I flipped them down again (CTRL-D) in VOICE 1 and Up (CTRL-U) in VOICE 2

 

It looks better, so now I added the string indications and finally selected ALL VOICES to make them show.

I could move the rests, just by dragging them anywhere I want, or flip individual notes to tidy things up.

 

  I tried “Finale” notation software recently (This is the big brother of Print Music that Steve uses) but find it very awkward compared to Encore, but maybe that is because I am not familiar with it.

Comment by Trapdoor2 on September 2, 2012 at 16:22

I use TablEdit. Changing flag directions is easy but putting in the voice-rests is a PITA. My personal default is to throw all flags down for everything, simply because TablEdit places the indicators for things like snaps and slurs (pull-off or hammer-on) just above the notes and if you have the flag up, all you get is a tie; flag down and you get "p-o" or "h-o".

Otherwise, it seems to handle voices reasonably well on its own. What it doesn't do well is textural stuff like positions or string assignments (of course, that's really in the TAB). I cannot, as in Ian's example above, add string assignments under the notation. Position notes (like 7P or 7PB) have to go above the staff and stringing dashes (to indicate their use over some distance) is trial-and-error. Again, this is a TAB program, so there's no need for such stuff...the notation is there and useful but it takes a secondary place to the TAB.

I understand that FINALE is being discontinued. Anybody hear that?

 

Comment by Steve Harrison on September 2, 2012 at 21:06

I haven't heard anything about Finale's future, most entries on the web seem to be positive. It may be  that Makemusic Inc, the parent company, could be considering a replacement but I that's just a guess. Since 2003, I've used Finale Printmusic and I'm currently on the latest edition 2011. Printmusic  is best described as to the full Finale suite what Photoshop elements is to the full edition of Photoshop. It's basically a trimmed down version giving all the  tools required to put down and edit scores. It's easy to use and has a very good on line instruction manual. Any issues that can't be fixed by the manual can be addressed by Makemusic's online support and you usually get a reply with the answers within one working day. I suppose the best software is the software you know best and as such I've not tried anything else with which to make comparisons.

Comment by Steve Harrison on September 3, 2012 at 20:29

Withe reference to Marc's earlier comment about Finale being discontinued, it is Finale Allegro that is no longer available. From what I've managed to glean from the web, Allegro was another cut down version of the full Finale music suite.

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