Mary, thanks for the excellent links - I particularly liked the Barry Taylor narrative.

Jon Freeman has raised with me the need to distinguish between the terms 'notating' and 'sequencing'. For want of a specific definition of the terms I'll try to compose one on the fly as the processes apply to folk tunes.

Both notating and sequencing produce seemingly similar outputs, that is - MIDI files. The objectives tend to be somewhat different however. The intention when notating a tune is to distil the music in such a way that someone can in future perform the piece, often by way of printed music and with a degree of conservatism when it comes to aspects such as the length of individual notes. It is assumed that the performer has the right to interpret the tune to achieve (usually) subtle artistic differences from the printed page. More importantly the playing of the MIDI piece through a PC is intended to provide an aural cross check for the notator and a good guide for subsequent listeners as to the basic nature of the tune.

Sequencing on the other hand tends to concentrate on producing a quality sound output and/or an interesting musical arrangement, often attempting to emulate an existing recording. Great care is taken to choose particular musical instruments and their placement on the stereophonic stage. Because the aim is to make the performance seem more human the duration of musical notes may be much more variable than in a notated score. While the MIDIs may be printed, the output may be quite difficult to read. For instance succesive 1/4 notes from a 'straight notated' score may read 9/32, 7/32, 7/32, 9/32 in a 'sequenced score'. There is a technique for averaging out these differences known as 'quantising'. (Sometimes the variations in note length are due to the indifferent skills of keyboard players who can't maintain strict tempo when attempting to sequence a tune 'live' into the sequencing program. That's me, so I don't use that method any more).

And finally there's a bit of a blur between what software is 'notation' and what is 'sequencing'. For instance the NoteWorthy people regard their product as a 'Composer/Score Writer' or 'Notation' program. Even though it can do many of the things a 'sequencer' can do, it won't do them all, nor will it peform these functions with the ease of (say) the older versions of Power Tracks Pro (from Band In A Box).

Hope this helps. Regards, John