Chapter 11. Producing Printed Scores

Whether you're just creating a simple lead sheet with lyrics and chords or a full-blown orchestral composition, scores are an essential tool for communicating musical ideas to live players. Notation software is designed for creating and editing scores and printing them on paper.

Essentials

Producing Printed Scores

Following the sequential process of producing a score and understanding some basic notation strategies can help you create the score you want. We'll look at the available tools and how to best use them:

• What notation software does, and how to choose the right tool for the job

• Starting a score with templates and quick-start features

• Methods for entering notes with a QWERTY keyboard, MIDI, scanning, or audio

• Assembling a score, laying out the page, and extracting parts

• Playing back your music

• Sharing files with other applications and users

Essential Terms

• Lead sheet

• Split/split point

• Input quantization vs. display quantization

• Tablature; guitar frames

• Parts; part extraction

• Cues; multi-bar rests

• SoundFonts/DLS

• MusicXML

Where to Start

Try entering and editing a basic score, like a lead sheet, using a dedicated notation product. If you don't have notation software, try the free notation tool Mac/Windows Finale Notepad (www.finalenotepad.com); it's limited, but provides a good introduction to notation tools.