'Contemporary Notation in Sibelius Clinic' with Anselm McDonnell

This ‘Contemporary Notation in Sibelius’ clinic was delivered by composer performer Anselm McDonnell took place on 7 July 2020, and was the first in a series of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) events presented by Linda O’Shea Farren, Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland throughout July 2020 in response to issues raised by composers and performers during Covid-19 restrictions.
In the form of a clinic, Anselm McDonnell answers a myriad of specific notation problems raised in advance by participants in this session and shows visually through a detailed slide presentation how they can be fixed.
Following this slide presentation, Linda O’Shea Farren opens the floor to a Q&A discussion about how to overcome various quirks of notation software in the field of new music.

[@andreastsaousidis3705]

I hope my university department of music composition paid people like you for Sibelius classes to students.
Many thanks!

[@JazzfireflyNZ]

Topics that I found most interesting:
9:01 = Talks about instrument adjustments (making new instruments)
15:27 = Noteheads
16:56 = Symbols
20:50 = Changes lines
23:33 = Edit text styles (eg time signatures)
30:35 = Aligning dynamics
33:09 = Rulers

[@what.company]

It's unbelievable to me that organizations like Contemporary Composers of Ireland, of this caliber, share works & insights from great living musicians, have

[@splashmagnetism5923]

Dream come true, the longest video on scoring contemporary stuff in Sibelius that I'm aware of. Thank you!

[@jdavidojeda]

I have no words to thank ... this video made me make the decision to switch to Sibelius, after working with Finale for over 15 years. Now I see that Sibelius is a really flexible tool for these kinds of new ways of writing music. Thank you for sharing this valuable information.

[@Lpearse]

Great to hear your take on this. I was just looking for some new tips, and here they are...thanks!

[@degleria]

Thank you for one of the best excellent explanation of Sibelius, and big respect of your artistic works. Keep your fire on.

[@TheMotherOfBambi]

Thank you so much for this!

[@hotz730]

Thank you for sharing!!!

[@eduardodiez5249]

Great presentation! What are some graphic programs you recommend?

[@AnselmMcDonnell]

If you're looking for a free (but very powerful) option, Inkscape is excellent, and since their most recent update it is much less buggy than it used to be. I also occasionally use Affinity Designer, which is fairly inexpensive, but great for detailed work and has good processing if you expect to do a lot of graphic work on a score. I know friends who use Adobe and say it's excellent, but the price puts me off. But if financially it's an option for you, it's very powerful.

[@siva7707]

Thanks from a composer! Very helpful

[@jalalahmed4451]

Amazing!

[@ruilla87]

OMG…thank you !!!!

[@sadredinesmaily8283]

thank you so much. do you know haw can i measure the length of the beams and between arrows in spatial notation?

[@AnselmMcDonnell]

If you're working with spatial notation, there isn't a way to measure the distance between beams/arrows/notes in Sibelius - what I would do is download an on-screen ruler and use that. Bear in mind 2 things: an on-screen ruler measures in pixels, and if you zoom in/out on Sibelius, the distances will change, so I would keep the zoom distance the same the whole time you are measuring things. You might need to keep a note of how many pixels your lines measure, so that you can then make other lines the same length etc. Hope that helps

[@ahmetbaykara.mp3]

When creating a new custom key signature from the Symbols, are they automatically shown inside the signature menu?

[@gurumajuindonesia]

is there any sample files to download?

[@AnselmMcDonnell]

If you contact me via my website, and let me know which one would be helpful, I can send it to you. I can't share the files for my own scores - but happy to share the problem examples www.anselmguitar.co.uk/contact/

[@martinspangenberg8117]

Hi @@AnselmMcDonnell ! I'm very interested in Workflow Efficiency. It's possible to get the material you refer in the intro of the video? It would be very nice!
Thxs in advance!

[@AnselmMcDonnell]

@@martinspangenberg8117 Hi! if you drop me a message at www.anselmguitar.co.uk/contact/ I can pass it on to you

[@martinspangenberg8117]

​@@AnselmMcDonnell I just sent you a message! Thank you so much!