AboutDr Colin Expertise I can answer questions from students of "classical" composing, arranging, notation problems and music theory, writing for instruments and voice and writing music for education. I can answer questions about orchestration but I do not cover questions about pop or rock music, pop song writing or electronic music.
I taught for many years in UK up to "A" level theory and composition. I have spent many years in music education, initially (like everyone else) as a teacher. Then I moved on to advisory work (teaching teachers!) and also lectured, giving many workshops for teachers in developing music education skills and techniques. For a time I worked as a teacher-lecturer at London University's Institute of Education and eventually worked full-time as a Music Education Adviser to schools in part of London, offering advice on music education and curriculum development.
Experience I started composing music at the age 14 (it was mostly rubbish, since you asked) and now have a large number of compositions to credit as well as many publications, especially for instrumental music and choral music. I have also written several acclaimed works for large orchestra and choir. My work has been published particularly in the UK (under different names)(notably by Boosey & Hawkes, Novello, and Schott) but also in the USA and the Netherlands.
My music for elementary players (several publications) has been performed and broadcast worldwide. I am now retired from my previous job as Music Education Adviser. These days I spend most of my time composing and arranging. I am currently working on instrumental arrangements of world national anthems for my National Anthems website and also completing a suite of very easy piano solos and duets for elementary players. For many years I have used the music program "Finale" for all my music writing activities.
Organizations International Society for Music Education;
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Publications "The Times" Educational Supplement; "Hi-Fi News and Record Review". For several years, I used to write for many of the state music education periodicals in the US and I also wrote several influential articles on instrumental music teaching for "Music Teacher" magazine in the UK. (UK).
Question I have composed many songs for the piano, but they are all
in my head and I'm worried I will forget them. I have tried
writing them down but it is painstaking and I don't believe
it is accurate either. Are there people who will listen to
my music and write it down for me? If so how much might
this cost?
Thanks for your help
Answer Hi Zack,
Many thanks for getting in touch. I am sure that some other people have a similar problem. I know that writing music down can be tedious and sooner or later, someone has to do it. However, there are music programs that you can use that make the job much easier. I use a music program called "Finale" which has a feature known as "Hyperscribe". This enables you to play the music on the piano (or anything else in theory) and the program then tries to convert it into printed music which appears on your computer screen. You can then print it out. This works well for very simple pieces, but can be less successful with more complicated ones.
This is because the computer program can only make educated guesses at what you are playing, for example, whether a high note in the accompaniment is part of the melody or not. OK, it will transcribe everything that you play quite accurately, (and play it back too) but the printed result will nearly always need some correcting by hand. You would find that a hymn tune or simple folk-type tune would probably work fine and take the drudgery away from writing it down manually.
I should add that "Finale" is quite a difficult program to master and you need to be fairly knowledgeable about music to use it. There are other programs around that will convert your performance into notation, some more successfully than others. I think you will find this page useful:
I can understand that you are worried you might forget the music, so why not just record the songs as a first step? Some digital keyboards have a built-in recorder so that you can record a large number of songs. You could also use computer software to record. I use a program called Audio Editor for recording music. Details here:
Then at least, you have got a permanent recording of the songs so there's no danger of forgetting your ideas. The program can also create MP3 files for you. Of course, to do this you'll need to play the music on a digital keyboard that is connected to a computer via a MIDI cable.
I am sure that there are people who would write your music down for you (if you can find someone interested enough to do it!) but what they would charge I have no idea, for it depends on where you are in the world, the complexity of the music, and the skill-level of the writer.
So to summarise, I think it would be better for you to (a) look into the computer automatic notation approach and (b)find ways of recording your music.
Good luck with your composing! If you think I could be of help at a later date, please get in touch again.
