Critique of Sibelius 8.5

Sibelius is one of several music notation and composition programs on the market, and there are two primary ways to use it: with a MIDI, and with a mouse. A MIDI is a Musical Instrument Digital Interface, which interfaces between Sibelius and an external electronic instrument like a keyboard. This is the preferred method for using Sibelius, but since I do not have access to a MIDI, I must use the second method.

Using a keyboard and mouse to input notes one-by-one is the less intuitive, more difficult approach. Furthermore, Sibelius’ interface doesn’t make it any easier, especially when you’re trying to learn how to use the program. It is this specific interface and process which I will be critiquing here.

At first glance, Sibelius is relatively straightforward. After creating a score, notes can be input by selecting note values from the keypad, dragging the note over to somewhere on the staff, and clicking.

Sibelius becomes significantly less straightforward once you want to do anything more than basic note input. Say, for example, that I want to enter a symbol of some kind. There are many symbols in music- accidentals, articulations, phrase marks, ornamentations, dynamics, etc. The most common of these symbols are stored in the handy keypad.

For symbols not conveniently located on the keypad, one must turn to the ‘Symbols’ section of ‘Notations’. The problem?

You can only view two symbols at a time. How many symbols are there total?

As you can see, there’s also no functionality for searching for a symbol by name- you have to scroll through all these symbols looking for the right one. Furthermore, you can’t even actually insert symbols from the screen shown above. Here’s the (complicated) process for that:

And what about dynamics? They don’t show up in the ‘symbols’ list. You could insert a textbox and write the dynamic there, but shouldn’t there be a list of dynamics you can insert directly from? There is- and, like all things Sibelius, it is complicated to get to (to the point where it took me several minutes to actually find for this demonstration).

All this being said, I understand exactly why Sibelius’ interface is so complicated. The simple fact of the matter is that music notation is inherently complicated. Music has a long history, and over that history, a complicated and involved language has evolved. Writing in this language with a mouse and keyboard requires a complex interface.

It is for this reason that the trend in composition software is drifting towards music handwriting software like StaffPad. StaffPad allows users with the right touchscreen and stylus to write music by hand- for a price. For now, I think software like Sibelius could be improved by allowing users to search for symbols by name. Also, I think note modifiers of all kinds should be insertable by clicking on the note in question, rather than by clicking on a random place in the score and then, after navigating throughthe menus, clicking on the note anyway.

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