David William Hearn is the founder and lead designer of StaffPad, the revolutionary music composition app for pen-and-touch devices like Windows Surface and iPad. StaffPad automatically detects your musical handwriting and instantly converts it into music notation and plays it back using high-quality sound libraries. There’s a lot more to StaffPad, and David tells us all about it, including the StaffPad Reader, which instantly syncs tablets containing the parts to the score, allowing players to view and play changes in real-time. Many more advancements are on the way, and David gives us a few clues about what we can hope to see as StaffPad evolves on the cutting edge of music notation technology.

More on Scoring Notes: StaffPad wows with long-awaited iPad release and new free StaffPad Reader

StaffPad and Reader for iPad video review

An interview with David William Hearn, creator of StaffPad (from 2015)

Justin Tokke joins us on the show. Justin is the technical lead at the music publisher Carl Fischer, and you may also know him as the founder and admin of Music Engraving Tips, a web site and Facebook group with more than 20,000 members. Justin talks to us about his work in publishing, including everything from learning the ropes printing scores to the intricacies of digital distribution. We uncover the publishing mysteries of licenses, rights, and promotion, and what you should consider when publishing your music. We also learn about the origin of the Music Engraving Tips group and get Justin’s thoughts on where music notation software is headed.

Daniel Ray and Martin Keary from Musescore join the podcast. Martin tells us about making his popular Tantacrul videos and how those critiques of software programs eventually took him from Microsoft to being the head of design at Musescore. Daniel talks to us in his capacity as director of product strategy about the open-source community powering the product and the way Musescore aligns with the goals of Ultimate Guitar, which has acquired the software. Together we all have a collective nerd-out about the user experience, and find out the plan for what’s to come in Musescore 4.

Whether or not you’re a Musescore user, you’ll find this episode to be chock-full of discussion and opinions about how music notation software is designed, the quality of its output, and the trends in the industry.

Philip Rothman and David MacDonald host.

More on Scoring Notes: NAMM 2020: An interview with Musescore’s Daniel Ray

Sam Butler is the senior principal product manager for Sibelius. We talk with Sam about the challenges and opportunities of keeping Sibelius running through the pandemic and what it means for both professional and educational users. Sam tells us about the strategy of releasing more frequent Sibelius updates, what some of his favorite features are, and what they’ve got cooking up for the future. We discuss the new MIDI and MusicXML importing features and the ongoing partnership with Berklee College of Music to make Sibelius more accessible to sight-impaired users, and how this initiative benefits everyone using the software.

Plus: Sam does Dad duty live on the show.

Philip Rothman and David MacDonald host.

More on Scoring Notes: Sibelius development and accessibility, from the 2020 NAMM Show

Nicholas Buc is a composer, conductor, and arranger whose recent conducting engagements have taken him around the globe conducting live-to-picture concerts featuring the most beloved movie scores of our time. We discuss his career and the many ways that music preparation and technology can provide the score with the Midas touch in those high-stakes performances. Nick helps us avoid the phantom menace of notation pitfalls, giving us all a new hope in our quest for the holy grail of music engraving perfection. Philip Rothman and David MacDonald join Nick as we learn what it’s like to be part of his world.

Read more on Scoring Notes: Preparing David Newman’s Matilda score for live orchestra

Nick’s podcast: Art of the Score

Newzik started in 2015 as a music reader solution for iPad, and since then it has grown into a complete digital solution that serves musicians, publishers, orchestras and opera companies. CEO Raphaël Schumann discusses its recent developments and its bright future after raising €3 million in private investment.

How do you technologically revolutionize the long-established custom and practice of working with printed music that has been evolving for centuries? Cloud sharing, collaboration, and licensing are just some of the areas that Newzik must navigate as it continually innovates, aiming to make a seamless transition for customers to read, share, rent, purchase, and sell sheet music on digital devices.

For decades, Emily Grishman has been one of Broadway’s most sought-after copyists, and her list of credits includes the most acclaimed music and theatrical productions. We talk about her career and how the means and manner of producing music has changed along with advancements in the music notation software she uses every day. Come along with us as we learn what Emily has to say about the world of music copying, the process of getting the music from the composer’s pen to the player’s stands, and the tools she uses to achieve superior results.

Plus: the secret to being an expert in your music notation software of choice, everything you ever wanted to know about bar numbering schemes… and what not to do when working on a horror film score.

Further reading: Emily Grishman on Maestra Music

Photo credit: Jamie Maletz

We explore the latest updates to Dorico and Sibelius. Dorico 3.5 introduces pitch-before-duration input, figured bass, a line style editor, graphic slices, and much more, while Sibelius 2020.6 brings a more advanced MusicXML import method and a number of accessibility enhancements. Plus, an answer to the age-old question: When should you take the plunge and update your software? Philip Rothman and David MacDonald discuss.

Read more on Scoring Notes:

Dorico 3.5 review

Sibelius 2020.6 review

Scoring Notes Product Guide

Philip Rothman and David MacDonald discuss the essential elements of score preparation and production that make a difference in not only the perception of your music, but how it gets rehearsed and, ultimately, performed. Everything from rehearsal marks, placing cues, laying out your music, and page layout can be expertly fine-tuned by music notation software — but only if you know what results you’re looking to achieve in the first place.

Learn more: Score preparation and production blog post on Scoring Notes, with lots of links to other posts about how to achieve results in notation software.

Philip Rothman and David MacDonald officially inaugurate the Scoring Notes podcast. They reminisce about how they first got hooked on writing music with notation software, how they eventually became fascinated by the ever-changing developments in the programs and in the field, and why so many student compositions have a tempo of quarter note = 100 bpm. Also: The brief history of the Scoring Notes blog.