Noteflight has many educational benefits but I have found many detriments to its use as an arranger/composer. The educational benefits include that it is free and cloud based. The free version makes this program a good introduction to notation software with intuitive notation input. This program being cloud based makes it easy to use in an educational setting. In my current position, we use chromebooks which would make Noteflight ideal since it is cloud based. Having cloud based capabilities allows students to share their work with teachers for the purpose of grading, and with other students for the purpose of collaboration. I would use Noteflight in my theory class. I would start by teaching the rules of four-part harmony. I would then have them write a short composition using Noteflight. This allows students to develop their auditory skills in many ways. It would help them hear wrong notes and correct them easily. It would also help them hear when they are breaking the rules of four-part harmony (i.e. parallel fifths). Even with all these benefits there are some aspects of the program that are not beneficial. The two main aspects that I did not like about Noteflight were: the limitations of instrument options, and not having the ability to attach MIDI devices. While setting up the score for this assignment, I was not given the option to add a vocal line in the score unless I paid for the crescendo version. I did not need my MIDI controller for this assignment. However, the tutorials noted that MIDI devices could not be used with the free version of Noteflight. I did not find the user guide extremely helpful when concerns with formating the document (i.e. deleting the metronome marking) appeared. In conclusion, there are endless educational benefits for using Noterflight. However, my preference for developing professional level music notation would be Finale (or Musescore as a free alternative) since it is the industry standard.
No comments:
Post a Comment