Hi Mike and friends

I notated heaps of scores, parts and lead sheets by hand before midi moved into my life.

Then I went through a couple of decades of the leading edge macIntosh and PC sequencing and notation programmes and all the production palava that went with that.

Now that all that dust has settled, here's where I am on this pencil v computer question today.

For online notation and bookwriting needs and demands, where I'm writing volumes of notes that will be read by remote readers on paper or screen, I'll use Sibelius.

For face to face notation needs, for charts, music lessons and guitar lessons, I'll use a point 7 or point 9 pencil or a Rotring italic nib, notation pen to write on either score paper or guitar tab paper.

In face to face situations, musicians and students like seeing something being written out in front of their eyes.

I know that in on-demand situations, in the time I would take to fire up Sibelius, select the paper, font, various preferences etc, I've virtually finished the chart by hand.

In addition people seem to like watching you notate by hand rather than talking to your back, while you hunch over a screen. It's a bit more social.

Sometimes I really enjoy the old pencil-friction-paper sensations and marvel at what a pencil can do. ("Wow! Look at that chart my pencil just wrote! Technology!")

Cheers

Taura Eruera
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