which musical notation software is best for a guitar-playing songwriter?

Which music notation software programs are the best for someone who simply wants to compose by playing a guitar and singing?

I can highly recommend Musescore for that. The learning curve isn’t too steep and it’s wicked easy to use once you get past some basic stuff. I use it every day, practically. And it’s FREE which is hard to believe considering what you get, but true. Download it here

I like it for a few reasons. I was introduced to it while taking lessons online at Berklee; it was the tool that Berklee teachers (the ones I had anyway) used to teach music theory for guitarists, primarily I think for its ease of use and ready functionality. Right out-of-the-box you can start manipulating written music! Even if in some cases, “written music” was previously nothing but a bunch of black marks on a page.

Here are a couple of tunes I wrote using Musescore while on vacation in New Orleans. You can easily see- the program has tons of capabilities. Enjoy!

New Orleans Weekend

Upside down in the boneyard

Leonard Cohen: “I wish I were one of those people who wrote songs quickly. But I’m not. So it takes me a great deal of time to find out what the song is.”