At 12:51 PM -0500 5/1/02, Don Hart wrote: >on 5/1/02 11:51 AM, John Howell at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >> And no, that isn't the only reason my department head is considering >> switching, although it's the proximate one. Too many students are making >> too many complaints about not being able to figure out how to use Finale. >> That's a fairly basic problem. >> >> John > > >I would be curious to know how other university music departments (I think >we have a few other representatives that participate on this list) handle >the learning curve in Finale. Does everyone else view it being as daunting >a process as John and Va. Tech do? I have no accurate concept of how >difficult that curve really is because I've used the program since version >1.0. I was up and running (including learning the Mac) with speedy note >midi entry in about a week, but the ability to configure a layout took quite >a while to learn (and in certain situations can still be a challenge). I'd >say it's apples and oranges anyway, as different as the program is now. > >Here in Nashville, Blair School of Music (Vanderbilt) makes both Sibelius >and Finale available in a composer's lab. The music business program at >Belmont University offers a course (at least it used to) on how to use >Finale. In these two departments, I don't as yet believe it has come down >to choosing one program over the other. > >Don Hart
Here at western Washington University there is no department policy. Both programs are available, and my impression is that many students choose Finale. They learn it remarkably quickly, on a superficial level. However, everyone of them stops far short of what I consider to be minimally acceptable in terms of layout and general readability. That's the problem inherent in the use of software to do what used to be done by hand. I still think that the software is, overall, a great help to me personally. Chuck -- Chuck Israels 230 North Garden Terrace Bellingham WA 98225-5836 (360) 671-3402 fax (360) 676-6055 [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
