Noteworthy+Composer+2

GENERAL INFORMATION
 * NoteWorthy Composer 2
 * Author:
 *  [|NoteWorthy Software]
 * Copyright 2008
 * Windows XP, Vista, 7, ME, 98
 * Midi Keyboard
 * Grade/Age (Early Childhood Early Elementary, Late Elementary, Junior HS/Middle School, High School, Adult)
 * Theory, Composition

TEACHER SUPPORT NoteWorthy Software keeps [|NWC Classroom] which contains general ideas for using the program in the classroom, recommendations from educators who use to product, and a guide to setting up a MIDI keyboard with the program.

There is also a forum community devoted to the program and its uses. [|NoteWorthy Composer Forum]

INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT The program is essentially music notation software. It has applications for composition, arranging, and theory, as well as for creating. importing, and editing MIDI files. It can be used for such tasks as creating aural aids, displaying scores on screen for analysis as they play back, and creating transposed parts for ensemble pieces.

[|APPLICABLE NATIONAL STANDARDS] 4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines. 5. Reading and notating music. 6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN AND PEDAGOGICAL SOUNDNESS The program makes sense, but is less user friendly than Sibelius, in which everything is interactive. To create or delete content, one generally needs to know the appropriate menu or button. Markings and notes are not selectable by clicking on them, though some things can be highlighted. The graphics are very utilitarian. Everything shown simply reflects what the user has created. The program does not distract with any useless bells and whistles in an attempt to be cute. Navigation is somewhat lacking. There is no standard page view, only a scrolling view, and when the composition gets longer, there is no easy way to get to a specific place.

Still, the program is generally accessible to those who can read and notate music by hand. It won't teach the skill of notation itself, nor is it conceptually harder than notating by hand.

RECORD KEEPING NoteWorthy Software provides [|links] to pages of users who make NWC files of their work available on their own sites, and a [|"Hall of Fame"] of users who have created significant content with or concerning how to use NWC

OVERALL EVALUATION The program's main purpose is for music notation, along the same lines as Finale and Sibelius. In general, the program has quite a lot of possibilities, but not as many as Finale and Sibelius. Obscure notational graphics or unusual technique markings may not be available. The program is also older looking, more compact, and less flexible in terms of input. On the plus side, it avoids Sibelius's tendency to consume huge amounts of RAM and crash and is much more compact than Finale as well. It runs quickly and smoothly in conjunction with other programs on a single computer. The downside is that the program very much looks and feels like Windows 95 era technology. It supports MIDI keyboard use, but not simple note entry with a mouse, only a computer keyboard. Compositional markings are also anchored, as with Finale, but the anchors are not selectable. One needs to attempt to put the cursor in the right place and delete them like text, which can lead to problems when a lot of markings are close together.

NoteWorthy Composer's MIDI import function is much less rigorous, and therefore much more useful, than those of Finale and Sibelius. It will generally round off notes to the expected values chosen by the user and note create bizarre tuplets and such to reflect rhythmic inexactitude of user entered content. The program also supports real time MIDI entry, though in this case, it is about as useless as in any other notation program.

The program is also much cheaper than Finale or Sibelius, costing $50 for the full version. This is probably justified, as it is useful, but not as good or nearly as polished as its main competitors. Still, for the most part, it gets the job done, although there may be some frustration involved, and it doesn't break the bank for an individual or more casual user.
 * Rating -- ***

created by: Matthew Wascher