A frequent MuseScore user reviews LilyPond with Frescobaldi

Music, Music Composition, Reviews

Once I got into the flow of text entry, I *really* wanted to like LilyPond (and Frescobaldi). And when I say flow, I mean the full-on Csíkszentmihályi experience.

Black kitty with white paws typing like the wind! (From Aaron's Animals on YouTube)

Pictured: me inputting musical notes in LilyPond

Never in all my years of writing and adapting music in MuseScore did note entry go so fast. The notes flew out of my fingers.

When done, I pressed the little green lily pad button in Frescobaldi to see my plain text turned into beautifully-engraved music in the tiled window just next to my text editor.

If I had never coded before in HTML and CSS, I’d say it was like magic.Screenshot of an old version of MOUNTAIN BELLS, being worked on in Frescobaldi

That’s the promise of the free program LilyPond: beautifully engraved sheet music made with fast (text-based) input. And when you pair it with the free program Frescobaldi, the “coding” becomes close to What You See Is What You Get, once you hit that lily pad button. Plus, Frescobaldi played the music back to me.

Yes. Once I got used to it, the text input was MIGHTYFAST and I loved it and wished it would go on forever.

BUT I don’t think it’s a good tool for piano sheet music.

Because 1) setting up the right hand section in paragraphs in separate-but-parallel sections to the left hand got old quickly, despite Frescobaldi highlighting which text part corresponded to which printed notes. This was extra apparent when adding new notes and phrases in the middle of completed measures. One note gets shifted, then—bazoom!— both staves are misaligned and it’s very heard-wrapsy to fix it all on the text side.

2) Though the documentation claims there’s a way to set up staves one atop another, I just couldn’t figure it out. And folks, I just taught myself how to typeset a novel in Scribus from the ground floor. If you look up “self-taught” I’m at least in an example sentence.

While shifting notes and phrases around can also be a pain in MuseScore, it’s a nuisance-pain, not an MC-Escher-word-puzzle-being-solved-through-a-laparoscope pain. Mess up in MuseScore, you can directly cut, paste, and adjust on the score. In LilyPond, you have to go hunting through text, run the engraving process again, then pray you aligned everything correctly.

If input speed were my sole consideration, I might try using LilyPond and Frescobaldi for banjo tabs, or something else with only one staff.

But my understanding is MuseScore can do tablature too—and editing a multi-stave piano score makes far more sense to me in that program than it does LilyPond.

Sorry, folks. For this piano composer, MuseScore is just easier to handle.

Screenshot of Symphytum Personal Information Manager

Free easy-to-use Personal Information Manager SYMPHYTUM helps you get organized

Indie Publishing Friends, Reviews, Writing

I’ve been CRAVING a virtual Rolodex/dossier box/index card program to help me organize things (like my book info)…today I stumbled upon a BEAUTIFUL and EASY TO USE Personal Information Manager (PIM) that let me do exactly what I wanted quickly, with little fuss.

It’s called SYMPHYTUM, it’s free for Windows, Linux, and Mac, and I love it already. Screenshot of Symphytum Personal Information Manager Each record starts as a blank screen, but you add the fields you want where you want them. Simple pick-an-option-then-drag-and-drop. I used a lot of “text” fields for my book page here, but the “date” field will pull up a calendar from which you can choose dates, and clicking the globe icon in a “web link” field will take you to the URL you entered in there. I’m sure there are other cool features.

You can also view all the records in a table, which makes things easy to see.

Two tricksy things:

  1.  When moving fields, they switch places with each other (when in a column I usually wanted it to bump the one I was replacing down)
  2. I couldn’t figure out how to resize my image at first, but after some experimenting I discovered the procedure: make the frame as big as you want, then get the image. If it’s not to your liking, resize the frame and get the image again.

My wishlist:

  1. It’d be nice if they had a toggle for “field-add” mode so I don’t accidently move things around when I’m just entering stuff (though I don’t think I’ve done that…yet.)
  2. I stumbled on a keyboard shortcut or two, but I don’t see ’em listed anywhere.

The next software program I want to get for writing is TrackerBox (which tracks sales across different vendors) but until then, Symphytum will work well in helping me keep ISBNs and the like straight.

 

Get 5 GREAT Step Aerobics Workouts for under $10!

Reviews

So in case you haven’t stumbled upon her YouTube channel workouts, Jenny Ford is hands-down the best step aerobics instructor out there. With other instructors I have a hard time following along, but her cuing is impeccable–when you get the hang of it you don’t even need to watch her!

I thought getting 5 of her workouts in one go for under $10 was a steal, so I got them today at her website!

If you’re even halfway of interested in step I recommend her. She has great free “learn the steps” vids at her channel, and the first vid in this package you buy is meant for complete novice steppers (and is available on YouTube to try out).

She also has a zombie step workout. Just sayin’.

 

 

 

Steam Review: Escape Goat 1

Reviews

ESCAPE GOAT homepage

I played this demo a year or two ago online and grabbed it during the Steam Summer Sale. So glad I did! This takes me back to my childhood days of playing 2D platformers. No epic plot, no marathon-length levels, just nice platforming puzzles in bite-sized groups. 

The way there are multiple areas unlocked (and also the way new zones unlock upon completion of the old ones) helped me pace myself and prevented frustration on tougher levels. Eventually I got into a zone where my brain seemed to be completing the puzzles for me, which previously happened on BRAID. It’s a nice feeling of flow evoked by the right amount of challenge and appropriately responsive platforming mechanics. 

Well-done, Escape Goat!

My Current Favorite Free Android Games

Reviews, Writing

If your New Year’s Resolution involves productivity, you may want to skip this post.

I’m very picky about my tablet games–they must be free, can’t be too easy, and must NOT feel like an addictive timesink (like a slot machine).

The last game I recommended over on my Tumblr was Disco Zoo, which was fun and charming for a while, but once I unlocked Mars and all its inhabitants, my completionist gene failed to kick in, so it’s been idling on my tablet for a month or two now.

Wanting a game I could play while watching TV with my sweetie–brainless, but not too brainless–I discovered Mary X.

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I love its elegant art; with each level, you get a different queen’s portrait at the top of the play area. Portraits motivate me. I’m up to like…Mary 27 right now.

Also motivating me is the soothing piano music. (My brain has assigned the following lyrics to the melody: Kit-ten….Yes, my name is Moxie Kit-ten…) If I found the tune somewhere, I would probably download it. I might try transcribing it. Who knows?

The game has zero IAP, and you don’t see ads until you lose a game, or if you’re desperate for an undo.

Being a number-combo game, it plays like Triple Town, but the mechanics feel simpler–or at least, they make more sense to me than Triple Town did.

Recommended!


 

Next, I’m always craving word games, but many of them are too easy for me. And I hate Scrabble. And I don’t want a Google gaming account or whatever they’re called, so Words with Friends is out.

Luckily, I discovered Wordiest.

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Wordiest is simple. Make two words out of a group of letter tiles. Use letter multipliers and word multipliers to get teh big scorez. Submit. See what weird word combos other folks came up with. Beat a lot of people, up your rating. Lose to lower rated people and your rating will drop. No account needed!

I play mine with dark-on-light colors. And my rating right now fluctuates from 94 to 96. The click of the tiles is so very satisfying.

The only annoying thing is the strange set of definitions they use. Whatever, man!

Got any free Android game recos? Post ’em here!