This is my opinion about pmx: You can not without it. Its true you have to know the musixtexcommands (but you only have to read the manual when the problems arise). The pmx-manual supposes that you know musixtex. I think most of the novel users will have problems when starting with pmx. When the musiccode is not the same as in the examples its likely to make errors and then read subtile errormessages such as 'inputconversion error, unit -5 ....' They should post a detailled description of music they want (or the start of the musixtexcode) en then ask a guru to translate in pmx. Once made the first code it becomes all (very) simple. People ask me why i use musixtex or pmx and not a wysiwyg programm. The answer is: I have no reason, but its fascinating. And i have not seen a more perfect output as with musixtex. greatings
