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- Past hour
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chopin started following The stem of a quarter note a bit too long ( actually very long)
- Today
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Prelude in F-sharp major
Yes, but not yet as I intended. To clarify my ideas, I have attached a version of your latest score with some annotations. I see that you have marked the notes where the other hand takes over. But the markings (m.g. and m.d.) aren’t very helpful for sight-readers, since the note is still written in the “wrong” staff. Sight-reading is about reading chords and intervals—not individual notes. Whenever a note of a chord or interval is written in the “wrong” staff, the recognition pattern that a sight-reader normally uses to identify a chord or interval is inherently lost, forcing the player to identify a single note and add it to the chord/interval being played, which slows down the process. Consequently, such situations require practice and/or memorization, which contradicts the approach of sight-reading and playing the piece “without practice.” Therefore, I very appreciate scores where the chords/intervals are notated as a complete pattern in that staff where it is to be played by the respective hand. I must admit, that such a score looks sometimes a bit „cluttered“ because of the „kneed beams“ and sometimes cross-staff note stems (producing sometimes problems for the collision resolving with dynamics, slurs etc), but if the player finally makes the respective annotations by hand in its score, the readability is reduced, too. Please do not take my comments as personal criticism of your score; rather, they are intended as general advice or as basis for discussion, since I often come across scores here in the forum—even from very experienced composers—that, while well-suited for analyzing voice leading, leave me with the uncomfortable feeling: “Has the composer ever played this piece himself, and did he pay sufficient attention to its playability?” AnnotatedScore.pdf
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ArielAr started following The stem of a quarter note a bit too long ( actually very long)
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Is the score supposed to scroll to the left as it is being played ?
It should work in booklet / page view but I will check. Linear view I haven't coded the scroll yet, whoops. I'll get on that.
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chopin started following Is the score supposed to scroll to the left as it is being played ?
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Is the score supposed to scroll to the left as it is being played ?
This might be the correct behaviour, but I need to ask. I see the notes being illuminated in green when it is their time to sound (beautiful!), but as soon as the score in the screen has been played, the music continues but the score is not scrolling. Neither in linear view or in page view. is this the expected behavior ? Ariel//
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ArielAr started following Is the score supposed to scroll to the left as it is being played ?
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My first reaction: where is the "play" button ?
Click on Mixer View, you will see the play button. However, the best user experience is to hover over the notes with your mouse and press spacebar. Also, I would zoom out a bit, click Booklet View, to get out of the default linear view (if you wish). Let me know if you have issues with playback. I expect a lot of questions on how to initially use the program because there is no built in help yet.
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chopin started following My first reaction: where is the "play" button ?
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My first reaction: where is the "play" button ?
Let me start by saying that I love the graphic design. I find MusicJotter's graphics very appealing. I loaded a midi, saw the score in front of me, and my first reaction was.....trying to find the "play" button. I hope I am not the only one feeling a bit frustrated because I cannot see clearly where to clic in order to get the score played.
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ArielAr started following My first reaction: where is the "play" button ?
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Importing a midi shows an empty score
Ok this has been addressed. I didn't have support for Midi type 0, but the import now works. If you still have issues with the graphics and output, I can work on the quantization. The issue is that if you composed arpeggios from another program, Music Jotter can't interpret that. But if the rhythms are not correct, send me the pdf or visual output of the score, and I'll take a look.
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Importing a midi shows an empty score
If this is your midi file from another program though, I will see what I can do to fix this. Give me a bit to diagnose the problem, shouldn't take too long.
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Importing a midi shows an empty score
This part may be a bit confusing for first time users. I have 2 ways to export midi. As a jot file, and as a midi file. The jot file is actually the file you want to save and load back into Music Jotter. The midi file is the performance file, which is intended to be used in DAWS or other software. I strip it of all the formatting meta data so keep the files lightweight. Download the .jot file, load it back into Music Jotter, and see if that fixes your issue.
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chopin started following Importing a midi shows an empty score
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Henry Ng Tsz Kiu started following Importing a midi shows an empty score
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Importing a midi shows an empty score
Attached you will find a little midi file...it is a short piece for guitar. When I import it into music jotter I get only an empty measure. is that ther expected behavior for v1.0 of music jotter ? Ralph Towner_1 X 6.MID
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ArielAr started following Importing a midi shows an empty score
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How to write anything?
It saves on every keystroke while you compose, it's like Google Docs; you can just download your midi file. But if basic composition isn't working for you, it could be a browser bug, so if this is the case, I would need more information about your browser. I've tested Music Jotter with Firefox and Chrome, and it should also work with Safari. Here's another trick...as long as your composition plays back, you know it has been saved, because saving your midi file happens before the playback compiles (behind the scenes).
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chopin started following How to write anything?
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How to write anything?
@chopin haha
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How to write anything?
I do not know how to enter notes on Music Jotter. I am trying to 'save' and Idea.
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How to write anything?
It is self explanatory.
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Prelude in F-sharp major
Thanks everyone for your comments, I sincerely appreciate every one of them! As is ever the concern of a composer I'm very happy to know that the right mood/atmosphere came across to other people :) There seems to have been some discussion about the key and key signatures: I was never really a fan of music with all sorts of accidentals and black keys until I came across Scriabin, whose delight for the likes of F♯ major/D♯ minor, B major/G♯ minor, G♭ major/E♭ minor, and D♭ major/B♭ minor seems to have slightly rubbed off on me. Idk though, I felt like F♯ major gave off sweet lyrical romance (e.g. Poème op. 32/1 or Étude op. 42/4) vibes so I went with writing in that for this work. The key signature switch to G♭ major/E♭ minor was actually only a logistical sight-reading one, if I remember correctly. In the middle section there's some vacillation between a major key and its relative minor, which would have been fine for bars 9-12. However, I move a fourth lower in the following four bars, i.e. tonicising the dominant, which means that if I kept the original key signature I'd get C♯ major and its relative minor A♯ minor. Eek. Sharp overload. I am not quite sadistic enough to put that onto the performer, let alone F♭ major (though that has now given me an idea...). I figured that writing out the middle section in flats meant that I could resort to using natural signs rather than extra sharps in bars 13-16, but yo, @Luis Hernández and @Wieland Handke, you may have a point with it also engendering a somewhat darker mood, as I had intended. This is an excellent point, now that I'm poring through the score again. I think there are some spots (e.g. b. 12) where I quite like the arpeggiated quality, but I have also decided to add a few markings for spots where I think it is justifiable to have the other hand take a note or two. Was this what you were thinking of? Version with redistributions.pdf
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Spring 2026 Competition Poll
I like these ideas. Or at least some of them as that I could definitely do and feel motivated. I do have others just in case if something I wasn’t prepared got voted on and it’s probably still do things. Frankly, I prefer to do string orchestra works for things like these. But I’m open too many things.
- Yesterday
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L.A.P.D. Documentary Style Theme-1+2
L.A.P.D. Documentary Style Theme-1+2 Using Symphony Stopped-Horns, for Intense-Themes. https://orchestrationonline.com/horns-practical-range-of-stopped-notes/ L.A.P.D. Documentary Style Theme-1.mp3L.A.P.D. Documentary Style Theme-2.mp3
- Spring 2026 Competition Poll
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Spring 2026 Competition Poll
Hello everyone! I‘m very excited looking forward to the next competition I would like to participate. The suggestions concerning the the topic in combination with the instrumentation are very interesting, but also challenging. After a quick look, I’m not really sure yet which topic/instrumentation I would prefer, and which musical idea would best fit for any of them, so I need to take some time thinking about, how to vote in the poll. (Hopefully, I won‘t miss the deadline ...)
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Spring 2026 Competition Poll
That sounds really interesting. Is there a video of @chopin doing something like this that I can watch? I like this idea, as well as the landscape one and the mashup. As for the overall theme, I don’t know—it should be open-ended, right? And as for the duration of the competition, maybe two months at most, so it doesn’t spill over into the next season.
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Spring 2026 Competition Poll
Wonderful suggestions! I am eager to see what this one turns out to be. In my opinion, I wish I voted for two genres as both landscapes or autobiographical writing seems very interesting to me. I do like writing for large orchestra, but for things like this, I find the intimate nature of a chamber group or solo instrument befitting for a few minutes depicting spring. Two months seem very appropriate to start a brand new work and finish it.
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★ Spotlight On Saxophone
Spotlight On Saxophone Depending on the Mood, The Saxophone can be made to sound Sassy or Sad. Spotlight on Sax.mp3Moody - Sassy or Sad.mp3
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The Great Lighthouse - Part I
As smooth as the rolling seas with the fog. -fruit hunter approves! I’m a serious note even with MuseScore basic sounds this sounds amazing. This is definitely a good ballad to program into a concert orchestra and we need more music like this although that I may say that the orchestra is kind of a dying art in itself hopefully in the future change will be made that academic full orchestra’s can be existing and play music by composers and just not arrangers This would sound incredibly beautiful with real instruments or even just muse sounds
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The Great Lighthouse - Part I
@Wieland Handke Of course! Feel free to message me here, on discord or other! As a brief reply: With all the rules or trends in music, it is equally often to see breaks in the trends. If you know the product will be effective, then it is only in your best interest to do so! Again, @Marek, I am eager to see how your music will change. Even me, if I shared my first attempts…. It would be bad. 😅
- Last week
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The Great Lighthouse - Part I
Hello @Marek , I see, that you have joined the forum recently and now at the first topic you have the fortune – or even the evil – that you’ve received a very detailed review which is not only intended as suggestion on the improvement of your particular piece but useful to all other members in this forum. So I could imagine, that there will be many replies on this topic in the future – perhaps a discussion or even a little dispute about the issues MK_Piano pointed out, especially on engraving. So there is my advice, take that serious, but not personal. I remember on a topic by Frederic Gill where some members had (their own) conversation about details he surely had not in mind and finally was a bit overwhelmed and „overteached“, so that I was a bit afraid he would be too disappointed and would leave the forum at all. Therefore, I now come first to your music, where I only speak from my listening impression: I can really imagine a shore in the morning where the fog is slowly lifting and the sun comes on shining through the clouds. It’s a very calm and serene moment, in which the perception of time seems to be gone away. After you’ve walked an endlessly seeming time at the shore, you turn your head and look back – now discovering the great lighthouse you hadn’t seen before, since it was hidden by the cliffs above, you now have passed. I tell that story to express the sole criticism which I have, and that is the length of the piece in comparison with the things that happen. And in this I can only agree with MK_Piano’s comments on his final pages of the annotated score. Now to the comments concerning engraving: Hello @MK_Piano, thank you for your effort you have put into annotating the score. I think this is helpful not only for Marek, but also to me and many other forum members. There are a few general rules you pointed out which one should follow to achieve a clear score presentation, for example • No dynamics on rests. • Not to prolong notes using ties whenever it is possible to notate otherwise, for example with dotted notes. • No separated rests whenever it is possible to combine them into a larger rest. • No diminuendo to „nothing“ (e.g. unplayable dynamic marks like „pianississimo“). • Some aesthetics (clashing dynamics symbols). And in the examples in that particular score, it is „obvious“ to follow that rules would be a huge improvement. However, as I remember at some of my piano preludes and fugues, there are some situations where I intentionally violated that rules in situations where I find that the score becomes more readable when using tied notes instead of dotted ones or when separating longer rests and put the shorter against the notes of the same length in another voice – to mention some examples. I don’t want to go into detail with this at Marek’s thread here, so I would ask you whether I could discuss that topic with you in the future, for example when I’m about to present that respective pieces here on the forum. One advice I can really emphasize, is to maintain two different scores. One as the „printing“ score to be used for playing from, and one solely for the purpose of recording in your software. I do so with all of my pieces, and the „recording“ score is full of exaggerated articulations, dynamic marks and even micro tempo changes to achieve a satisfying, more realistic recording result wherein I can express my ideas about the interpretation.
- Simple 3 part Fugue.