Time is precious for a music educator. Within the academic school day, rehearsals, concerts, planning, research, teaching, tours, festivals, committees, and extra duties all have to be taken care of. But the right short-cut technology can make all the difference. This article, along with the next three, will present some (hopefully) helpful technological time savers for those feeling the crunch.

When I first got into technology in the early 1980s, I quickly recognized its unlimited potential for instruction and lightening the burden of endless responsibilities that an orchestra or band director deals with on a daily basis. Here are some of my favorite music and business software applications that can make a difference.

Music Scanning Applications
Word processing and music notation software have made a big difference in how we manage our time. But scanners and their related software applications have introduced “warp” speed to the creative process. Scanning recognition for both word-oriented documents and music scores has improved over the years and can save you countless hours of inputting by hand with over 99+% accuracy. In 1992, my first scanner had a list price of $2,200. Today, scanners have significantly higher quality and retail for under $100. Music scanning software has improved with every upgrade for nearly 15 years and is now the fastest way to import a score from scratch into a notation software application for further editing, printing and audio playback. I suggest downloading demos from the manufacturer’s Web sites listed below and trying them with a school scanner before making purchases.

There are two major applications to select from: SmartScore by Musitek (www.smartscore.com) and PhotoScore by Neuratron (www.neuratron.com). Both products are available in several editions for both Mac and PC platforms. Imagine being able to scan a published music score or part and then being able to convert it to a MIDI file that can be opened up in your favorite music notation program in a matter of minutes. Professional versions of these applications will provide articulations, text, dynamics and other printed musical nuances beyond the basics of entry-level products. Musitek (www.musitek.com) offers a series of five different versions and pricings for educators, church musicians, guitarists, pianists and MIDI users (www.smartscore.com/five/default.html). The songbook versions scan up to three staves and transpose and print entire songs seconds after scanning. Fretboards and chord symbols are recognized then converted as keys are transposed. There are pre-set styles for automatic drum accompaniment, though new patterns are easy to create. The piano edition displays two staves with no lyrics. Their MIDI edition converts sheet music into either their proprietary file format, ENF, or Standard MIDI file format for further editing in the user’s desired MIDI software application. The guitar edition is the perfect tool for guitarists and other soloists, with a one-stave limit and no text or lyrics. The professional edition is the “Cadillac” of the industry in terms of features, speed and accuracy. And best of all, it is user-friendly for printing music, scanning, playback, key/clef transposition, part extraction, page reformatting, auto-drum grooves, karaoke, CD burning, integrated MIDI visualization and file conversion, including support for PDF, Finale® and MusicXML formats. Band arrangements, operas, hymns, musicals, orchestral parts and scores appear on-screen in editable and playable form within seconds after scanning. One of the latest features that really helps music educators is the new capability of scanning oversized scores without an oversized scanner, which can be very expensive when compared to letter/legal paper-size scanners.  For a better understanding of this new technology, go to www.kuzmich.com/hand_outs/SmartScore_Oversize.html.  

In addition to importing both SmartScore and MusicXML files, MakeMusic’s Finale 2007 and PrintMusic notation applications include SmartScore Lite version 5, which scans notes, rhythms, time signatures, key signatures, ties and more. It is included for free, so it offers a great way to start scanning without having to purchase anything extra. Additional features included with SmartScore Lite include secondary voice recognition (counterpoint), correct transposed instrument recognition, multiple page scans, correct page formatting including system and staff sizes, up to 32nd note resolution and recognition of grayscale images to simplify the use of scanners – including HP models – that save in this form.

Also possessing 99+% capabilities, Neurotron’s PhotoScore is a formidable competitor to SmartScore. It is available in three editions: PhotoScore Professional, PhotoScore MIDI and PhotoScore Lite. Their PhotoScore Lite is packaged free in a Sibelius purchase. The MIDI edition allows you to import scanned files into your favorite notation application with a MIDI file but not to Sibelius. It does have a limit of 12 staves and 20 pages per score, but it allows you to do all your future editing in these applications. For another “Cadillac” music scanning application, PhotoScore Professional has dozens of features including printing, playback, and editing and even handles percussion staves, guitar tablature and chord diagrams easily. It will scan things beyond MIDI Lite, like reading tuplets/triplets, appoggiaturas, cue-sized notes, text, articulation marks, slurs, hairpins, percussion staves, guitar tab and guitar chord diagrams/frames. The results can be used in almost any music-editing program. They can be sent directly to Sibelius or their G7 edition, saved as MusicXML and NIFF files for Finale and other notation products, saved as MIDI files for MIDI sequencing programs such as Cubase and Sonar, or saved as WAV or AIFF files for burning to CD. It is also the only scanning program to both open up and play back PDF files. For a great library of PDF music scores on the Internet, as well as texts, translations and information about composers, take a look at the Choral Public Domain Library (www.cpdl.org), which also has native file formats such as Finale, Sibelius and Encore scores in addition to PDF. What makes PhotoScore such a great product is that it interfaces seamlessly with Sibelius, and is, therefore, very user-friendly.

Note: don’t use multi-function printers/copiers with scanning capabilities. They generally do not work with music scanning applications, even though that’s starting to change now. Regardless of which brand of scanner you purchase, be aware that while their recognition quality may not be an issue, their drivers are critical as to whether that scanner will interface effectively with music scanning applications. Their driver must produce uncompressed TIFF or BMP files because compressed files are not desirable. Canon and Epson offer great scanners under $100.  If you need an oversized scanner – for scores up to 11x17 inches – the Mustek ScanExpress A3 USB is a must (www.mustek.com). It even comes bundled with a software suite including Adobe PhotoShop for editing artwork and photos and OmniPage OCR software; and priced under $200 while competitor 11x17 scanners start at $1,200 and higher.

Sometimes the music scanning process might have a problem with a score’s font – especially if it’s extremely small – since there is no standard in the music publishing industry for fonts. However, if you can enlarge the score, it may help. You generally can’t scan hand-written manuscript scores, but PhotoScore Lite and PhotoScore Professional are getting better at reading fonts resembling handwriting, which is great for jazz educators.

Unique Supplemental Music Utility Programs
If you are not MIDI savvy, fret no more. AudioScore Professional by Neuratron (www.neuratron.com/audioscore.htm) is an unusually intelligent entry-level software application designed for microphone-to-score input. It allows you to build a full score using both MIDI instruments and microphones. The score can even be edited with the built-in editor or one of the user’s choosing. The program is capable of saving files in MusicXML, NIFF, MIDI and WAV formats. AudioScore has a number of unique features: to automatically create high-quality pitch scores, Mic-to-Score™ is used instead of a MIDI keyboard; no prior musical knowledge and virtually no user intervention are required; exciting new sounds and effects can easily be created; and fluid pitch-changes can be drawn on the computer screen. Once they’ve been inputted, sounds can also be modified to assimilate violins or any other MIDI instrument. This program can be used to train singers and players in perfect tune, and performances can be watched in detail, even improved, as they are played. And all this is done with virtually no user intervention. It can also handle WAV-to-MIDI and WAV-to-Score™. Not only will it accurately convert monophonic wave audio (.wav) files to MIDI, MusicXML and NIFF files but Wave audio files can also be used instead of microphone input. Wave Audio can be edited as notes with incredible ease. They can also be used to cut, copy and paste notes – instead of unintelligible wave data – and adjust pitch and time.

To get the most of the digital music experience, look no further than Cakewalk Pyro 5 for PC computers. It is a “Swiss Army knife” for dealing with audio files. For a mere $39.95, it can rip CDs, make MP3s, manage entire digital music collections, and even make DJ-style megamixes with crossfades for CDs or your portable player. It can even record audio from any source: LP, Cassette, Internet broadcast, and microphone. Then, it can digitize and clean LPs and cassettes and transform them into CDs or MP3s.

Looking for another approach for managing music, movies, TV shows, and audiobooks, oring download free podcasts from the iTunes Store? Download Apple’s iTunes (www.apple.com/iTunes) and play everything on your Mac or PC. Then sync it to your iPod and bring it along anywhere. And best of all, iTunes is free! It can turn your CDs into digital files by importing them into iTunes. Then organize your collection — including everything you’ve purchased from the iTunes Store — into play lists perfect for burning. Since all your music and video lives on your computer, you can play it (or stream it to your home stereo) at the touch of a button. Or flip through all your cover art until you find exactly what you want. Another Apple product is GarageBand (www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/), which has many of the same file utility features as Cakewalk’s Pyro 5 but for Mac users.

Shortcuts For Music Office Management
Managing student records, parents and the entire music program is an enormous job. Fortunately, there are some excellent music administrator applications designed for music educators. To understand the major competitors, Pyware Music Office, WinBand Administration and RCI Music Library, go to the May, 2001 issue of SBO magazine. The latter two products have significantly improved since then, and the former will have a significant update forthcoming in the next year.

There is also a very competitive web-based application called the Charms Music Office Assistant (www.charmsmusic.com). This program gives quick access to everything with only one or two clicks. There are 1000 different configurations for student records and printed reports. It makes bus lists, room assignments, folder assignments and other customized needs. The financial management feature is particularly useful for fundraising projects, trip accounts and student fee maintenance – it even allows parents to pay online through PayPal. A significant advantage to the Charms web-based system is that it will work with any platform that can connect to the Internet, Mac or PC. Plus, program updates are continually and automatically loaded with no hidden “new version” charges. This web-based application can post SmartMusic practice files on-line, so students can access them and practice from home.

Closing Comments
Part Two will continue with more short-cut applications and music instruction. Give yourself the gift of time and more energy to do what you love.