Finale Notepad...Is it any good?

systems??? oh gosh..haha never mind then. you explained the whole "stave" thing perfectly for me, cowboy. haha thank you.

Oh, I have another problem. How do you attach a finale notepad file here? I'm struggling with a composition and I want others to analyze it but I can't seem to upload it.

Originally Posted by happilyeverrandom

systems??? oh gosh..haha never mind then. you explained the whole "stave" thing perfectly for me, cowboy. haha thank you.

Oh, I have another problem. How do you attach a finale notepad file here? I'm struggling with a composition and I want others to analyze it but I can't seem to upload it.

Save it as a .MUS file (which is the default format) and upload it as provided for in the new topic screen

I'll just add my 2 cents-
When I first started composing, I used Finale Notepad. While it is, very limited, its not bad. However, I very soon was wanting something more. I researched the products and tried the demos and found that I like Sibelius a heck of a lot more. I found it a lot easier to get straight to the music and the page view is a lot clearer. With the student discount, it wasn't that unaffordable and my work output pretty much quadrupled. A professional program is definately worth it, in my opinion. And if you do decide to go for a full fledged product, I would suggest not taking anyone's word for it. Try them out, see which one works best for you.
Just my thoughts, take them for what you will.

Writing by hand always is a possibility too. (And I know many professionally published scores in handwriting that look great.) Lots of my pieces have never found their way into the computer. And many of my teachers don't even know how to use a music notation program

You know a pretty descent notation software for $60 is Score Writer from Genie soft. Cake walk used to cary it but they sold it to geniesoft. They now have Score writer 4. I had score writer 1 and I loved it. I now Have finale 2007 and it's great and all but there are things I miss from Score writer. So I think it'll be right up your alley of what you are looking for.Music Notation Software from GenieSoft

The best thing about notepad is, it's free to download. It can do most basic things but lacks when trying to put together a score.