Finale Notepad Projects

As you may now be aware, February 15 brought back the free download of Finale Notepad.
Aptly named Finale Notepad 2012, my Music Department quickly set to work creating a wealth of resources for the students based around our current unit of work. This got me thinking, “what if other departments, educators and musicians have done the same?”
Now I realise there is another program out there called Musescore, go here for a full comparison with Finale Notepad 2012, but I simply prefer using Sibelius & Finale over Musescore. Furthermore, the Finale website has an educator tools section where it outlines the many uses of Notepad in music education and I cannot continue until I mention MusicTech.net’s 10 reasons why it should be on your computer or in your school.

The following resources are links and materials that I have found or put together myself for you to use in your own teaching. But first, how do you make Notepad resources when the program itself has limitations?

Making Finale Notepad Lessons

such as ones that involve complicated time signatures or changes in the score

The image on the right will link you to my Finale NotePad Resources in Dropbox but to get time signatures like 7/4 (from The Doctor Who theme) or a Maroon 5 type syncopation into Finale Notepad, I start with Sibelius 7!
Finale Notepad 2012 now has the ability to import and export MUSICXML files. What this means for educators is that we can typeset simple or advanced scores in Sibelius 7 or Finale 2012, export the scores as MUSIC XML, ask our students to download Notepad at home, and give them engaging music tasks for homework as Notepad 2012 files.

Really, who wouldn’t want to engage with a MUSE or How to Train Your Dragon composition task using Finale Notepad?

Links to Educators and their Finale Notepad Lessons

• Wackoworld Music Piano Lessons
• Andy Hennegan – drum notation templates for notepad
• Finale tips 7 tricks – and a great theory site
• 10 Reasons Notepad should be on your computer or in your school
• Finale Notepad Tutorial and Piano Lesson
• Harp Lessons for Paraguayan & Celtic Harp – yes, with Finale Files
• MIDI Files you can import to Notepad for students to compose with – a wonderful selection

Any more links? Please comment and link to them below.
cover image from http://www.finalemusic.com/NotePad/Default.aspx