April 30, 2007
April 2007 Issue
From Songwriting Software Plus
To help your songwriting with a focus on the benefits of innovative software, tools, resources and programs for your songwriting craft and career.
What's
New On Songwriting Software Plus? Click here to
What's New For You.
NEW - Check out our Blog by clicking here:
Recent Entries: Site page updates, Program that puts chords to your melodies.
Click here to search Songwriting Software Plus or the Web via Google.
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Make your songwriting easier, more creative and more impactful - lyrically and musically - with our best selling, easy-to-ride, workhorse program! Hop onto Lyricist - the word and chord processor geared for musicians and songwriters that continues to make songwriting easier and more creative - now in version 3. Lyricist sports an easy interface, supports rich text, has chord charting (switch between guitar, piano or the Nashville Number System), key transposer, song arranger (just chords - no lyrics) - all at the click of a mouse. Also enjoy a built in spell checker, thesaurus, rhyming dictionary, a media file launch, plus the ability to organize songs into album categories, export to RTF (Rich-Text) files, and even email your songs in an instant. Lyricist is all the essential tools for writing and polishing lyrics and creating chord lead sheets. Check it all out by clicking here - and enjoy special Lyricist savings! |
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| Contents: |
Hello
First up: Editor's
Note from the laptop of Robert
Curtis,
your songwriter in residence at Songwriting Software Plus.
Followed by Items:
1. Music
Writing - Pups To Big Dogs
2. This Month's Notable Quote
3. Songwriting Software
Plus Software Superstars
Editor's Note:
This issue tackles one of the most often asked about types of programs at Songwriting Software Plus and among the best sellers at the site - music writing programs.
Although many great songwriters or even musicians for that matter do not read and or write music there is often a place where some type of written music is called for - be it basic chord based lead sheet all the way to arrangements written out for each member of a band.
Depending on your level of ability there are various programs that can help everyone from the very beginner to the most classically trained musician.
For my own purposes I have usually gotten by just using chord based lead sheets for presenting my songs to song producers. Typically I would also perform a rendition of the song (to express the melody and harmony) as I'd sing along with a basic keyboard harmony part.
To see an example of some new full fledged songs that started out as simple chords and melody you can check out some of my latest co-writes, for which I principally wrote the chords and melody, at my still fledgeling Broadjam site by clicking here.
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| Item 1 |
Music Writing - Pups To Big Dogs
There are three types of music writing programs that range in orientation from helping the musically naive to the accomplished composer.
For the total newbie, or puppy, there are programs that can take a sung melody line and create readable musical notes for you, a written rendition of your melody.
For the more more musically advanced there are chord based programs that allow you to create chord based lead sheets that may also include a written melody line.
And for the accomplished composer and musically adept at notation there are the big dog programs that allow you the ability to write out parts for an entire orchestra.
Auto-Scoring Music Programs
Auto-scoring programs can take your singing or playing on your guitar or piano and notate what you've played into the program.
Programs like Digital Ear and IntelliScore convert your singing or whistling or played guitar or piano - or any instrument - into a midi file that can then be loaded into a notation or sequencer program or simply played back in the program itself over and over.
Once you've sung your song's melody into Digital Ear or IntelliScore let's say, you can then load that midi file into notation programs like Play Music, Finale or Sibelius and or sequencer programs like Cubase or Cakewalk's Sonar Home Studio or Logic.
When you have your melody established a next component typically to come along will be your harmony, or chords, and that leads us to chord oriented software.
Chord Based Lead Sheet Programs
Now that you have your melody either recorded and noted in one of the above programs or simply just ingrained in your memory you're ready to add chords.
Here's
where a program like Lyricist
comes in handy. Lyricist, though great for aiding the lyric writing process
is also designed to help you create chord based lead sheets - for piano
and guitar - and includes the Nashville Number system too.
Two other chord based lead sheet programs that are geared more towards song production are Band-in-a-Box and Power Tracks from PG Music.
With Band-in-a-Box or Power Tracks you can print out chord based lead sheets but their lyric entry is only exacting to any entered melody. Or you can leave out the notation of an exact melody, hand write in your lyrics, and sing your melody as you know it along to your chord based lead sheet.
Compositional Based Programs
For exact written renditions of your songs you need a lot more capability and that is provided by what are commonly referred to as notation programs.
These
programs are almost a necessity when you're writing music possibly for
a band, a choir or an orchestra and also for musical theatre where a piano-vocal
score is needed.
An entry level program that compares to much more expensive notation programs is Play Music.
Play Music will create notation from basic mouse click entries all the way to midi instrument input and it rates high among users for ease of use and capability.
Another lower cost program that has earned several 5 star awards from sites like TuCows.com is MagicScore Maestro.
The heavyweights and also the most expensive are the programs Finale and Sibelius. They're both quite a bit more costly but are unrivaled for their features and both have heavy hitter users throughout the music industry.
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| For Inspiration And Thought On Your Path To More Songwriting Success: |
"Live
out of your imagination, not your history."
-- Stephen Covey
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| Songwriting Software Plus Software Superstars: |
Lyric Writing (Windows and Macs):
Lyricist
- the premiere indispensable and affordable lyric and lead sheet music
writing program.
Performing Songwriter Magazine said this about Lyricist - "...what it does, it does well." March/April 2004
Click
here for all the benefits Lyricist gives your songwriting and enjoy the
Songwriting Software Plus discount - save $5.00. Or
try it FREE for 30 days. CD or download.
MasterWriter
- the most comprehensive program for writing lyrics with a recorder
for melodies and preprogrammed grooves.
Used by hit songwriters Gwen Stefani, Rob Thomas, Jimmy Webb, Kenny Loggins, Trent Reznor, Clint Black, Jeffrey Steele, and many more. Windows and Mac compatible.
Click here to read more about MasterWriter and save big with Songwriting Software Plus. Or try it FREE for 30 days. CD or download.
Music Writing (for Windows):
Play
Music - the easiest, most bang for the buck, music notation program
around. Out top selling notation program. Click
here to see why.
Music Recording (for Windows)
Mixcraft
- easy, affordable, and quite capable, recording software. Just
released in version 3.
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| For your support consideration: |
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| Information & Credits |
Songwriting Software Express
is published monthly by Songwriting
Software Plus: Robert
Curtis, Editor.
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