JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Music Theory and Education Does anyone write notation by hand anymore?

Mike, are you talking just about the art of writing down the symbols etc or about knowing enough music theory to accurately notate a song or arrangement as it is supposed to sound?

Playing in midi music to a notation program doesn't always end up with properly transcribed music notation even with Finale. You usually have to go back over the music and painstakingly make corrections. You still have to have adequate knowledge of music theory and be familiar with the limitations and possibilities of the individual instruments to do it properly. Notation programs are not a substitute for music study but can actually be an aid to learn it more quickly. On the other hand, some of the features like automatic transposition etc. might lead someone to take the easy way out. But even the automatic transposition has its limitations. In some cases, accompaniment parts need to be rewritten because they don't sound right when simply raised or lowered.

In the case of the art of music calligraphy, I personally have never seen a handwritten score which is easier to read than an engraved copy, even when artfully done. To me it's just like handwriting. I appreciate good handwriting but a typed page is still easier to read and takes up less space than a handwritten page. Like handwriting, being able to transcribe quickly and legibly by hand comes in handy when a computer isn't handy, or for last minute changes before rehearsal and performance.

If you are talking about knowing how to properly transcribe music as it is supposed to sound, then I would say in most areas of popular music, fewer people know how to notate because they don't know how to read standard music. Many if not most compose and play by ear. Band music, (not rock and roll, country etc.) orchestral music, movie scores choir and religious music etc., still require the composer to know how to read and write standard notation.

When I first started composing religious music, all the publishers required sheet music. Most of the big liturgical publishers still do. OCP requires it and isn't even interested in recordings of the music. They call them optional, but a staff member told me they rarely listen to them. Music which is properly notated and has decent lyrics and suitable content is sorted out from all the submissions and then given to a committee which listens to the music played by real musicians.

GIA which is a major publishing house even warns people not to submit sheet music done with a notation program unless they really know what they are doing. (Probably because of the midi problem I mentioned before.)

Anyway, enough with those boring details. There are still plenty of composers and copyists who don't rely on midi input to notate music. You just won't find many of them in country, pop, rock etc. For me, I rely on the sheet music. My memory isn't what it used to be and to top it off if I don't notate what I intend to play, I end up with spontaneous variations which works OK in Jazz but not in congregational singing, LOL.