Musescore for music education
Recently I had a conversation with one of Musescore's developers about participation in the new Musescore.com. Also, I have received several inquires about why the Musescore scores I create (such as http://musescore.org/sites/musescore.org/files/LockAndKey.mscz, which was used in the XP close/reload bug affair) are so strange. So I thought I'd share some thoughts about using Musescore for music education.
First, some background: I only write piano music. All of the material I create is intended as a teaching tool for people either learning to play piano music or for music educators for use in music appreciation, music theory, music history, etc.
I always create Musescore scores in what I call "new style" notation. When such a score is played by a synthesizer (as we have in Musescore) using a high quality sound font the result is a more-or-less reasonable facsimile of what the music would sound like if played by a "real" performer. This is done so a music student can use the score to play along with one hand while the computer plays the other, or so that a music educator can "take the music apart" and show, for example, how the sound of the music makes an intended mood.
However, students need to have the music in conventional notation. So to produce this product, I simply export the Musescore score as midi, then import it in some standard midi software, such as the (free) Notation Player, to convert the midi to standard notation. Most students who use my scores don't want to learn to read new-style notation as I write it, but rather conventional notation, such as that produced by Notation Player. (Importing a Musescore "new style" midi export back into Musescore doesn't produce a satisfactory result.)
To illustrate this difference, I have at http://ormusic.home.comcast.net/HSNN.png the first page of a transcription in new style notation, and at http://ormusic.home.comcast.net/HSSN.png the same music in standard style notation produced by Notation Player.
So to convert the "LockAndKey" example to standard notation, export it as a midi, load the midi into midi software (such as Notation Player) and print.
Comments
If I'm following your workflow, I understand that the "new style" notation is never used as a notation piece but just a playback or audio piece right? If it's the case, then I would propose the following workflow that easier to me, and doesn't require proprietary software. Please forgive me and explain if I miss the point.
Another way, maybe for later, MuseScore has since 0.9.6 the beginning of a piano roll where it will be possible to edit the start and end time of each note. For example, you could delay the second 8th note of a beat to sound like the last 16th of a quintuplet etc... So editing the "normal" MIDI into a "humanized" version. Not sure the piano roll in MuseScore is at this level yet but any sequencer should be able to do this.
In reply to If I'm following your by [DELETED] 5
"If I'm following your work flow, I understand that the "new style" notation is never used as a notation piece but just a playback or audio piece right?" - Yep, that's right.
"Play the score as intended with a MIDI keyboard" Well, that's the hard part. Some of these songs are really tough to play, even at a slow tempo (Some of those early pianists must have had hands like a gorilla.). What I'm trying to produce is a model, albeit without the nuance that a real performer would put in. I can knock out a 8-10 page transcription in "new style" in a day or two - much less time than doing midi edits. And keeping the music in Musescore means I can make edits to make the piece less difficult (or even more difficult!), if required.
I'm OK as a piano player, but I would have to do a lot of edits of the midi to produce as good a result as the procedure I've outlined. And as for proprietary software, I assume that Musescore will (shortly? ultimately?) be as capable of importing midi as well as Notation Player is.
Just checking you are aware of the "swing" and "shuffle" playback options in the play panel?
In reply to Just checking you are aware by David Bolton
Yep, I'm aware of them. Neither gives enough to make the music sound like it should sound. To see for yourself, put the Notation Player version I mention in my initial post into Musescore, play it with either the "swing" and "shuffle" playback and compare it to the sound from the original version.