Learning new stuff is one of my favorite things to do. I like it especially when what I learn makes something I already know about better, or make more sense, or connect to something else I hadn’t considered.
I’ve been writing songs off and on for the last several years. (I actually wrote some tunes in high school, to accompany some Psalms– but not much at all in the interim). The words and the rhythms come easier to me than the actual melodies. I have to figure out the key, then the chord, then the melody… and I rarely do this all at one sitting. When I come back to the process, the notes I’ve made often don’t accurately reflect the melody I heard in my head.
So I was pleased to find this software called MuseScore. It’s open source notation software. Finally I can write down melodies the way I’m used to reading them. I also use a Google Chrome extension that represents a piano keyboard. If I could get the two to interface, a la midi keyboards, that would be very very good. But even so, it’s enough to get me to start documenting my original songs.