Teaching Example?
Hello all! A friend of mine and I are planning to give a demonstration and tutorial of Musescore to our composition club on campus. We figured that the best way to do this would be to find an example score and show how to recreate it. Does anyone have a good example that would be suitable for teaching? Furthermore, do you have any other suggestions on how to teach this program? Thank you!
Comments
Marc Sabatella's Reunion was meant to showcase the functionality of Musescore at the time. Maybe that would be a good start?
The obvious suggestion is to transcribe public domain scores often and learn in the process: take notes while doing so when you find something not so obvious and take screenshots; refer to the handbook when stuck, and then if needed resort to Internet search and these forums for user assistance. If you do this long enough, it may result in a body of work easily beneficial for the beginner students or even intermediates.
In reply to Marc Sabatella's Reunion was by worldwideweary
I'm not sure Reunion would be the best example. It certainly does a lot that would be helpful for a beginner to know how to do, but I feel like it does too much, primarily towards the end. I'll talk with my friend and consider it, though; thanks for reminding me of it.
In reply to I'm not sure Reunion would be by Impmon22
Never underestimate the student ;)
In reply to Never underestimate the by worldwideweary
Okay, that's fair. That being said, I just went through the process of recreating it, and it took about 25 minutes going as fast as I could. We're trying to aim for 40 minutes, so I fear that trying to explain as we go will make it take to long. Thoughts?
In reply to Okay, that's fair. That being by Impmon22
There's nothing wrong with utilizing partitions of pieces if you do not find for what you're looking to fill the proper time gap.
In reply to There's nothing wrong with by worldwideweary
Usually, I start with https://musescore.com/nicolas/scores/1294. It's a simple score to learn note entry via the keyboard and mouse, to learn about anacrusis and how to change measure duration.
Then, I use https://musescore.com/nicolas/scores/429 for chords, lyrics, chord symbols, dotted note durations, etc...
I also ask attendees to come with their own scores if I know it's not an homogenous audience. A violin teacher comes up with the usual bowing sign question, piano teachers with cross staff beaming, etc... and so I answer questions on the spot and everybody can learn from the answers.
In reply to Okay, that's fair. That being by Impmon22
No way would I try to teach the entire process of creating a score like Reunion in 40 minutes. However, you could still use it to show what's possible, then pick and choose specific aspects of it to show in more detail. I would probably consider this if I thought the intended audience was primarily interested in piano. But if they are interested in ensemble music, it seems it would make more sense to pick a string quartet or SATB choir or some other ensemble. Or, if they are jazz/pop/rock musicians, maybe a lead sheet.
In any case, though, I'd definitely start with something very simple, like the first score lasconic mentions.