Noteflight

I have used Sibelius for years, and I was not looking to learn another app.  Noteflight was a pleasant surprise.  Inputting music was quite simple, intuitive, and a program I can see having my students use.  I used quite a few of the same inputting techniques that I have used in other programs, so the learning curve for me was greatly reduced.  I used Noteflight this week on both my laptop and my iPad.  Both platforms were very similar and consistent in ease of use.  I personally would prefer a typing keyboard with my iPad, I found using my fingertips a bit slow for me.  I did like the piano keyboard in the iPad; I use a keyboard graphic in theory lessons already.  You can think as a viola player, but you can also learn to input pitches from a keyboard.

I liked how you can highlight a place in a measure, choose the notation element, and it appears where you want it and where it should be placed.  The elements are organized in the edit palette in an order that makes musical sense.  I can see using this with students and having them understanding the differences in articulations.

As a Mac user, I did not realize that the typical commands that are used in many programs, cut, copy, paste, and save, were control X in Noteflight instead of command X.  Something I had some difficulty with this week and my students may also.  I wish there was a way to freeze one staff and allow students to create on a second staff without any accidental changes.

I intend to use Noteflight with my students; it works great, and it is free.  I have embedded my score "A Bicycle Built For Two" below.