Sibelius is a great program with many useful features and well thought out additions. There are two different versions of the software. Each fulfills a specific purpose. There is also a trial version that allows you to try out the software before you buy it.
The free trial version of the Sibelius software allows you to to test drive the software to see if it is for you. It includes a demo guide that explains all of the features. Be forewarned, this software doesn’t allow you to save your work.
The student model of Sibelius is geared towards students elementary aged through high school. It is a simplified version of Sibelius 5 and doesn’t include many of the features that Sibelius 5 has, however, it is perfect for getting your feet wet at writing music and using music notation software.
Sibelius 5
Sibelius features many of the same features that are standard with music notation software. However, their are a few additional features that are well thought out by the staff at Sibelius. Like most programs, music can be entered three different ways you can play it in on a MIDI keyboard, type it in with your computer keyboard, or click individual notes in on the score. If you enter it with MIDI keyboard you don’t need to worry about playing as if you were playing with a metronome. It will speed up and slow down with you. You can also hear parts that you have inputted before as you add new layers
The software includes a worksheet creator that helps you create worksheets that fit the needs of your program. There are over 1700 projects, exercises, songs, instrumental pieces, lyrics, posters, reference material and other resources. Each worksheet that is created has different questions on it. They cover five different topic areas.
- Elements of music
- writing and creating music
- Selected repertoire
- Reference
- Posters, flashcards and games.
With a few clicks you can find the type of worksheet that you would like and you can create and print a student worksheet and an answer sheet that matches your lesson plans.
New Features
Ideas hub a place to keep little ideas that come to you until you can use them. It also comes preloaded with two thousand ideas that you can use in your pieces. (If you compose your own pieces.)
One nice feature of Sibelius is the ability to import other sound libraries. Sibelius 5 is able to import sound libraries from other manufacturers. So now you can hear your composition played using world famous sounds such as the Vienna Orchestra.
Create your own cues by simply copying the part that you want as a cue and clicking paste as a cue.
Sibelius comes with more than 70 ‘plug-in’ features. These will help you check your score and do other things such as:
- Check for mistakes, e.g. parallel 5ths/8ves
- Harmonize tunes
- Add brass/string fingering
- Automatically create sets of scales and arpeggios (see right)
- Halve or double note values
- Realize figured bass and chord symbols
- Automatically generate drum patterns
- Highlight all occurrences of a motive.
The people at Sibelius have created several helpful resources. Sibelius Music is a site where you can share your compositions. Interested people can listen to MP3s of your score, view sample pages of it, write a review about it and share it with friends. For a small monthly fee, it also allows you to create your own store at Sibelius where you can sell your compositions. There are templates that you can use to create your store or you can customize it to match your own website.
SibeliusEducation is a website where music teachers can post worksheets that they have created. By completing a simple registration form, you can view these worksheets and add some of your own.
One downside to the Sibelius 5 is that it is geared to run on newer systems. If you are like me, you have an older computer. It won’t run on your system if you don’t meet these system requirements. Windows XP SP2 32-bit or Windows Vista 32-bit, 512MB+ RAM, 350MB hard disk space, DVD-ROM drive. Mac OS X 10.4 or later, 512MB+ RAM, 350MB hard disk space, DVD-ROM drive.
by nirmitchristian — Wed Mar 19, 2008 @ 3:25 am