A couple of weeks ago I posted a request for the HTML for MUSE music notation, because I had lost it. One of the responses requested that I report the results of my experience as a new thread. So here goes!

To preface my report, I need to tell you a little about myself and my purposes in getting music notation software. I have been a beginner on the guitar for 35 years now but I never really learned to read music. Oh, I understand how to read music. But I don't read well enough to learn new tunes from sheet music alone. I recently developed an interest in Irish music, and bought a cittern to learn to play melodies on. Don't bother looking for cittern tabulature in your local music store.

The two music notation programs that I tried out were _NoteWorthy Composer_ and _Muse_. Each had its own advantages. The two don't really overlap that much. Muse has the ability to produce tablature for any stringed instrument up to 6 strings/courses, and you can specify the tuning of the strings. You enter the music notation and it then produces the tablature! Very slick. You can save the song in several formats, including MIDI.

NoteWorthy Composer is a more polished piece as software goes, and presents itself in a very professional manner. It has the ability to import a MIDI file directly to music notation, print preview and print to any printer you select. Standard Win95 look and feel.

The other area of importance to me is the ability to play the file. Both programs do this, but in the case of NoteWorthy, the note(s) being played are displayed in red, so it is very easy to follow the notes as they play. Building ear/eye coordination, you might say. Muse has an option to play continuously, nice for practicing.

So I ended up buying Muse. I get a piece of sheet music, and key it into Muse. I print it out on the laser printer with the tablature. The printout from Muse is kind of crude but has the tab. After I learn the song by playing it in continuous mode and watching the tab. If I were trying to arrange the song for multiple voices and or instruments, I would have picked NoteWorthy, for it's ability to produce a more polished printout.

Hope this has been of value to some of you. You can get a sample of Muse from laurie.griffiths@ukonline.co.uk