Sibelius 6

is the latest iteration of the popular music notation program.

If you are a serious musician, amateur or professional, then Sibelius 6 is an excellent program for preparing your arrangements and compositions. I even use it to type set music for other musicians. I have used a few other programs, and Sibelius 6 is the best music notation program currently available.

Sibelius 6 is also good for learning to read music. Whenever I have a particularly difficult rhythm to count, I open Sibelius and enter the passage, then play it back.

I also use Sibelius to write out parts and make tracks for choir members to learn their parts.

With Sibelius you can enter the music from a midi keyboard or from your computer keyboard. Entry of notes is fast. Use your numeric keypad to set the note value, then enter the note from your keyboard. For example, to enter a quarter note, press 4 on the keypad and play the note on your keyboard.

You can easily enter very complex music with Sibelius.

Sibelius comes with instrumental sounds included so that you can play your music back and see how it sounds. Sibelius will also link to your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software using the Rewire protocol. That means it will connect to Propellerhead Reason and Cakewalk Sonar, among others, so you can hear your music using the sounds in those other programs.

You can use Sibelius to notate music that you create in midi form. For example, if you improvise some music or create music in another program and save the midi, you can open the midi file in Sibelius as a score. You can then edit it if you like and save it as a Sibelius score.

Sibelius 6 keeps track of versions so that you can recall an earlier version of your score. It also lets you compare changes that you made between two versions.

Sibelius 6 adds “magnetic layouts” which endeavors to resolve collisions between objects in your score. When it cannot resolve a collision, it colors the obects red so that you can easily find the collisions and resolve them manually.

Another feature is the “Live Tempo”  that lets you beat time for playback using your computer keyboard, a midi keyboard or a midi foot pedal.

I have been using Sibelius from the beginning, and I have never regretted the purchase.

Using Sibelius 6 will make you a better musician.

You can buy Sibelius 6 Professional music notation software here.
Get the Sibelius 6 Educational Edition here.

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