Mike, Before computers I anotated all my songs as lead sheets by hand. When I was working that way I always had difficulty getting the lyrics placed properly as syllables under each note because my handwriting isn't very good. I do have books of lead sheets written by hand. Now I rarely write in anything by hand. I use Finale to make my lead sheets. It not only gives a better picture of the song but it eliminates collision of lyrics, which was my problem when writing by hand. For short sections of a new song I will sometimes write in the notes by hand, but later convert them by Finale. I practically never transpose an entire piece of music anymore without using Finale, using it permits me to make an immediate change to the new key. Beside being able to listen to it in the new key. I still do write every composition down as a lead sheet because I believe that that's the true way to "write" a song. Frank V.

Softkrome