Ed, I have not used the higher end packages you have mentioned but if they are anything like Cakewalk, I think that it would be quite easy to have people placing notes on a staff and producing something within 2 hours.

Using Cakewalk as an exaple don't bother about the rest of the program, just give a simple set of instructions on how to create a new file and view a staff and it is only a matter of clicking where you want the note to go. The notes even play as they are dragged so the user can hear what s/he is doing and as long as the snap setting are right, the notes can only go in the right places on the staff.

Overall, I have found that Cakewalk is a lot easier to handle for basic input than any of the basic programs I have tried and I would guess the same would hold true of Cubase.

Jon