I do both hand notation and Finale. I compose at the piano and do most of the sketching there. I find that allows me to focus on music, not techology. Then I go to the puter and work things out there. I do not have a large midi keyboard so I use either a mini or just use the qwerty keyboard (which i've gotten pretty good at). Finale can be really tricky when it comes to all the nuances that make up a piece of music. it takes 2 seconds to draw a crescedo.....and 16 undo attempts on finale.

I really like using finale to score and playback what I've written. I usually do that for my choral pieces.

I don't write lyrics at the computer either. I just find it to be uncreative for me.

DAve

http://www.myspace.com/davidderbes
http://www.soundclick.com/davidderbes
http://www.davidderbes.blogspot.com