University snobbery against Musescore?
Hi all,
I'm a "mature" student studying music at university. I recently submitted an assignment which, as always, has been notated using Musescore. On this occasion, the feedback I had from the marker was to advise me to go with Sibelius "for that professional look" and I'm sure there were a mark or two dropped because of this.
I'm tempted to challenge this and I feel a bit of a victim of software snobbery.
On a more positive note, I know of two secondary schools that have ditched Sibelius and now use Musescore :)
Comments
The marker probably suffers more from 'inertia' than 'snobbery'. (Opinions acquired long ago may currently be outdated.)
Check this out...
This Musecore transcription:
https://musescore.org/en/node/249356
resulted in a Best Edition of 2018 award:
http://www.best-edition.de/id-2018/articles/bach-suiten-partiten-sonate…
More related info. here:
http://www.georgehess.net/notation-wars/
https://musescore.org/en/node/16153
https://musescore.org/en/node/109191
> "I recently submitted an assignment which, as always, has been notated using Musescore."
Good job! However, I would always hand in a PDF rather than engraving files so the person wouldn't know which program I used. I would do this regardless of which program I actually used, though I might mention the name of the program in the report so it would be a nice surprise for them! (Hopefully they would look at the engraving before reading the report.)
If I was required to submit engraving files then I would submit them along with a PDF just in case there is some issue with the examiner's computer and the engraving files are not rendered properly (maybe they use a outdated version of MuseScore?).
> "the feedback I had from the marker was to advise me to go with Sibelius "for that professional look""
You will hear this a lot in academic circles, unfortunately, but it's mainly just because that's what the lecturers are used to (the students all use MuseScore).
MuseScore is perfectly capable of professional quality engraving, as evidenced by the example @Jm6stringer gave. There are many excellent examples on MuseScore.com, such as those by ClassicMan, and I would like to think that the OpenScore account serves as a good portfolio of what MuseScore can achieve.
> "I'm tempted to challenge this and I feel a bit of a victim of software snobbery."
I would be very careful about doing this. It is usually best to talk to the person informally first to give them a chance to explain their marking before you decide whether to launch a formal complaint. There may be a legitimate reason that it was marked down, and if you can find this out through a polite conversation it would avoid the hassle of an appeal, which is unlikely to change the result and will only lead to bad feelings, which might affect future grades.
I would go to this person and ask them (politely) if they wouldn't mind explaining their marking because you are "not sure where you went wrong" and you "don't want to make the same mistake again", and only casually mention the fact that you happened to use MuseScore. If you are not satisfied with their explanation then you can press further, and ask whether the program used should matter if the output is acceptable? If you are still unhappy after all that then you can end the conversation by saying that you "might see what somebody else has to say on the matter". Hopefully that would be enough to ensure it doesn't happen again.
I would not actually launch a formal appeal unless the marking is blatantly wrong and/or this piece of coursework is a significant proportion of your final grade and/or you will never have this particular lecturer again later in your degree so it doesn't matter what they think of you. Appeals very rarely succeed, and they only serve as a distraction when you should be focusing on the next project.
In reply to > "I recently submitted an… by shoogle
Hi all, do you remember?
https://musescore.org/en/about/schools-universities-using-musescore
Maybe we should update
In reply to Hi all, do you remember?… by Shoichi
On a positive note: let's remember that the OpenScore Lieder Corpus project earlier this year used MuseScore - and that the review team included academics from Cambridge University and Oxford University.
https://musescore.com/openscore-lieder-corpus
In reply to > "I recently submitted an… by shoogle
I would always hand in a PDF rather than engraving files so the person wouldn't know which program I used.
And the first I'd look at is the file's metadata, which clearly shoes whoe created it ;-)
In reply to I would always hand in a PDF… by Jojo-Schmitz
Sure... if you are trying to be a snob.
It's more about avoiding a biased first impression rather than making it impossible to know.
In reply to Sure... if you are trying to… by shoogle
;-)
In reply to > "I recently submitted an… by shoogle
I did submit a pdf.
Agreed about appealing, but it's still annoying.
Sometimes software-providers offer universities special deals or special discounts, which may result in what you observed. Sometimes tudents are allowed to use their software for free (until they leave one day). But that has to be verified, of course.