At 12:21 PM -0800 2/19/06, Chuck Israels wrote:
Interesting footnote to this and other Finale subjects: I offered to teach a course in Finale music prep (with the help of Hal Owen's Tutorial and a syllabus that Darcy had sent in preparation for offering a similar class in NY) in our department, thinking that it was sorely needed by students who routinely turn in assignments that look ugly and amateurish - sometimes even unreadable. Not one student signed up! Not sure what the explanation for that is.
Simple. Your course wasn't required, and they're already buried in too many courses they HAVE to take (especially the music ed students). In my opinion it SHOULD be a required course, but it isn't here, either, even though music majors are required to have Macs and Sibelius and to turn in assignments computer-engraved. I guess they're expected to pick it up in first-year theory and in MIDI class, but a lot of them don't. Even with recent improvements, the learning curve is not trivial.
When my wife was a composition major at Indiana, she had a required course in music manuscript, but it was only required for composition majors. (And it was real manuscript; this was in the '60s and very much pre-computer!)
When I was doing lots of arranging (also pre-computer) in the '80s, I developed a good, readable hand in self-defense, since anything less would cost me rehearsal time. That's why I really resent the books for many Broadway shows, not because I can't read manuscript but because it's done so very BADLY! Are opera scores (pre-computer) just as bad?
John -- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
