What software to use for notation?

[Vigilante]

Sup fellas, I wanted to ask what everybody uses for plain-jane music notation. Simply stuff. Hope I got the right forum cause I didn't know what category to put it in.

Let me rephrase the question. I need something for church. Right now, we have singers, guitar, piano, bass. And our only music is just a Word doc which looks something like this:

------------------------------------------------
C G Am F
Blessed be Your name in the land that is plentiful.
C G F
Where your streams of abundance flow, blessed be your name.
-------------------------------------------------------

As you can see, it's way way simplistic. The guitar/singers do alright because the chord names are so close to the words it makes it easy.
But this is not the best way for a bass player or piano player to go along. I would think the bass should have a desent bass line and the piano should at least have the melody. But at the same time it needs the chords for the guitar players/singers.

I downloaded Finale Notpad, which is cool and everything. But on one hand, it may be to much. I'm wondering if all I need is a single staff, with a melody and the words, with chords at the top. I'm really not sure.

What do you suppose is the best way to do notation like this, and what programs would be best? Is Finale Notepad pretty good to start with? Though like I said, when the words are sepparated by a whole staff and THEN you have the chord name, it makes it harder to them to sing and play guitar at the same time when they are sepparated like that.

What can I do to make it easier for everybody?
thx

[mshilarious]

To be honest, there are a probably a dozen published hymnals that have exactly what you want.

Here is one:

http://www.ocp.org/en/products/worship/11248.php

Note how there are keyboard and guitar accompaniment versions, as well as hymnals for the congregation.

Anyway, there are probably very similar books designed exactly for your denomination. Do some shopping.

[leddy]

Finale is great, but it can be overkill when you just need a chord chart. Band In The Box works well for those situations when you need something quick.

[TommyJ1112]

Hey man, I've been working with contemporary church bands for about 12 years now, so I know exactly what your talking about.

Like mshilarious mentioned, there are resources already printed or available to download (for a slight fee). Since you quoted Matt Redman's "Blessed Be", I would point you towards WorshipTogether.com which publishes Matt's songs, as well as Chris Tomlin, Tim Hughes, Delerious?, and most of the "big name" modern praise and worship songs. Their song book collections are very useful, or you can download individual songs (in your choice of key!).

One of the problems you are probably facing with song books though, is that it may take 8 pages for one song, which is hardly practical for anyone to use in a live setting. So, I have found it usefull to use Finale to type up lead sheets for the songs so they only take up one or two pages.

Typical lead sheets have one staff with the melody line (I'll ocassionaly write in some of the harmonies or lead lines if appropriate too), lyrics underneath, chords on top (maybe two sets of chords if I know the guitar player will be using a capo).

Finale Notepad will let you do exactly that... easily (and free is always good). And the nice thing about having your tunes in a program like Finale (as opposed to Word), is that you can easily change the key of the song when you realize your singers can't hit certain notes

You don't need to write out a bass line, your bass player probably won't look at it anyways (and if they can't laydown an effective bassline from just the chords, then they have no business playing at all in public). And the idea that a guitar player can't read the chord symbols, notation and lyrics at the same time is kind of laughable (at least, given this genre of music). Seriously, there is no reason for them to whine about that, it's hard to make it ANY easier than that.

If you want, send me an email or PM or something, and I can show you some examples of what I've done the bands I've been working with.

[lumbago]

http://www.noteworthysoftware.com

The best value in its class, compact and stable.

[sears]

The best value is the free Lilypond. It's script-based and not a GUI but its output looks professional. I love it and so does everyone who has to read my music.

[mshilarious]

Originally Posted by TommyJ1112

You don't need to write out a bass line, your bass player probably won't look at it anyways (and if they can't laydown an effective bassline from just the chords, then they have no business playing at all in public). And the idea that a guitar player can't read the chord symbols, notation and lyrics at the same time is kind of laughable (at least, given this genre of music). Seriously, there is no reason for them to whine about that, it's hard to make it ANY easier than that.

This is a classic paragraph 'Tis all true

[Jamous]

Here is a set of options worth looking into.
http://www.myriad-online.com/en/index.htm

[TimOBrien]

Yup, I used Melody Assistant ($20) for years and now have moved up to the full Harmony Assistant ($70) from http://myriad-online.com

Tons o' features. Too darn cheap; don't know why more people aren't using it....

Demos on their website you can play with.

[Nick98338]

Originally Posted by Vigilante

------------------------------------------------
C G Am F
Blessed be Your name in the land that is plentiful.
C G F
Where your streams of abundance flow, blessed be your name.
-------------------------------------------------------

My group does both "full" music for the keyboard player and a Word document, very similar to yours, for guitar, bass, and singers. Each person gets what they need. We usually start by finding the full sheet music, since that is usually the hardest to get hold of. In some cases, we drop out the keyboard music all together. Then the keyboard player just sings.