The King is Dead, Long Live the King!

As we continue to venture into the twilight of the sunset of Finale (is that a thing…I don’t know, it sounded cool though), I wanted to write a sort of retrospective, a plan going forward, and encouragement to all the Finale users out there.  This is not the end of the road by any means for Finale; for context, I just completed 3-4 major projects using Finale in the last month, but this is certainly the time to make some plans for the day when whatever OS you are using/updating to will render Finale unreliable or inoperable.

First things first, if you haven’t already, please read the fantastic articles on ScoringNotes about all the various ways to archive your finale files, export xml files, and get yourself ready for a new software.  Engraver’s Mark Music can also help you there, too, so please reach out and let us guide you through this transition (if you need to make one).  Also, re-read my blogs about this very subject.  We have long used Sibelius and Dorico and can make all the transitions smooth and easy.

As I’ve thought about my over 25 years (and counting ) of using Finale), there’s a common theme I’ve come back to again and again when talking with people about the program and how it compares to the other major notation software options, Sibelius and Dorico. In short, the majority of users want to know “what the program does for me,” so I don’t have to. All of these programs do amazing things for us and save us countless hours of writing things out by hand, erasing mistakes, and re-copying everything.  Truly, none of us could possibly accomplish that amount of work done in a day now compared to 40 years ago.  I hand-copied a couple of projects early in my career, and it was awful.  All these programs do so much for us that I think we sometimes lose sight of just how much times have changed.

From my perspective, Finale can do/be anything you want it to be.  HOWEVER, it will not necessarily help you get there/do everything (or anything) for you.  Seeing the more modern advancements from Sibelius and Dorico in the last few years, this gap became much more obvious.  There are so many functions and possibilities with any notation software that it’s nearly impossible to master them all, and Finale was certainly no exception.  The UI was dated; they clearly gave up on making any advancements with the mixer window and other features; it had its faults.  But where Finale shone is that it could do anything, provided you put in the time.  The consistent look and feel of way certain tools and functions work is, to me, still superior to either of the other notation software options. 

At the same time, I fully acknowledge there are so many things I prefer to do in Sibelius or Dorico. Having used all 3 of the major programs for years now, I find that I love one feature or workflow in a particular program and get frustrated trying to do the same thing in one of the others.  It’s natural; we all have our preferences and functions within the programs that are more important/useful than others.  As a copyist, there are functions I use hundreds of times a day on a project that an orchestrator or composer may not use at all, and vice versa. 

If you are a Finale user frustrated by something, I hear you, I see you; you’ve got company.  But Finale was/is, in lots of ways, more flexible than other options.  Again, it could be anything.  How much help it gave to get there, that’s the question, and the biggest complaint I hear from people. 
In an upcoming blog, I’ll dive deeper into my favorite features and concepts in each program and rant a bit on my pet peeves on each, but for now, the best thing Finale taught me and challenged me to do was to try and find new ways to work out a problem.  You had to do this constantly in Finale, but once you mastered something and worked out a better way, it opened so many other possibilities.  Finale forced me to embrace a new kind of creativity and solidified my belief that notation software programs should be treated as instruments, where each new skill builds on another, and you can accomplish the same task in multiple ways, and choosing which one depends on the circumstance. 

So, thank you, Finale, you frustrated the heck out of me more times than I can count.  More importantly, thank you, Finale, for teaching me how to learn and explore new features and concepts.  Someday, our paths will go our separate ways, but for now, I’ll enjoy this afterglow of twilight.