Ukulele, Guitar, and Music Notation Software

I cleaned out one of my music folders today.  The one that I use primarily for beginner uke workshops.  I recycled about two pounds of paper.  I feel bad about the waste, but it's kind of what happens when you are a uke instructor.  People constantly "give" you more and more music.  Most of which is either not good for what you are doing or has a lot of errors.

The plus side is that now the folder is clean again and only contains what I use to teach.  The next step is a further redesign of the course (which I've already sketched out).  This will put me in front of the computer making lead sheets and chord diagrams along with writing out exercises and organizing things that way.

Just as an FYI, I thought it would be good to describe what I use for all this mess.  The unfortunate thing is that most software for music is expensive.  I would love to own a copy of Sibelius or another high end notation software, but I'd also like to pay off debt, feed my family, and put gas in my car.  I have cobbled together a modest collection of software that does about 90% of what I want.

Neck Diagrams

This is a great software that isn't crazy expensive.  It does a few things like designing page layouts and helping to create books of music work.  What it excels at (and is about the only good thing out there for) is making neck diagrams and charts.  The biggest downside is that it has no notation or tabbing ability.  But, you can easily import images of tab and notation and organize it on the page.

Noteflight.com

Noteflight.com is such an awesome community notation website.  It is a very powerful tool for creating notation music charts.  Lots of variables to make layout look good.  It is limited in some of the layout and that there is no ukulele tablature nor is there any chord diagrams.  But, you can sign up for a free version to get you started or pay a monthly fee for unlimited access.



Guitar Pro 6

This is probably the best compromise between the need for chord diagrams in a score, music notation, tablature, and multiple instruments.  It's extremely powerful and rather easy to use compared to some of the other notation softwares out there.  And it doesn't break the bank by comparison.  Sure, it's limited (just like everything is).  The biggest negatives are in text size of lyrics and the slash notation not being available in the standard notation (minor pet peeve of mine).  Overall, though, it's great.

Things I Would Like

If there are any developers out there that want to make a musician happy, here are a few things that lack in most software that I really wish I had:

• Ability to take notation with chords and lyrics and create a lyrics and chords only lead sheet.  I think this is a feature in some software, but it is very lacking in most.
• Drag and drop stuff around.  Let me tell you where I want to put that chord diagram!!!
• Line by line exporting.  It would make it so much easier to write a music book if I could just export a line at a time to a small image file.
• Fully customizable tablature.  Some do this, most limit to guitar and/or bass.  Even when you have customization in some, it's limited to some "standard" tunings.
• Capo ability.  We all use them, let me notate it.

There are more out there, but for the most part, this is what I use.  Add in the occasional use of word processing software and image software and that makes up the majority of my creative music suite.  And I got all of mine for much less than the $500 price tag of the big notation softwares.