Alison Armstrong is a singer and high school music teacher at an
international school in Laos, a developing country just between
Thailand and Vietnam. Alison's main passion is providing her students
with opportunities to compose new music and explore their identity
through music. It shows, too, because she's been doing amazing work
with her students.

Alison hosts a blog at https://alisonsmusicblog.wordpress.com, but I
became aware of her when she started posting online that she'd
recently discovered the excellent music notation software,
[MuseScore](http://musescore.org). I'd written a tutorial for
[MuseScore](https://opensource.com/life/16/03/musescore-tutorial) last
year, and am working on an update to that now, so I thought an
interview with a musician actively using it might prove to be
enlightening. It was a bonus, for me, that the musician in question
was also involved in education, the one industry that truly puts
software to the test.


Seth Kenlon: How did you find MuseScore?

Alison Armstrong: I completed a Coursera MOOC through the Sydney
Conservatorium called [The Place of Music in 21st Century
Education](https://www.coursera.org/learn/music-education) that
suggested a range of open source programs to use with students, and
MuseScore came up. But to be honest, it was seeing one of my students
using it, of his own accord, in preparation for composition class that
led me to actually download it and use it.

SK: How much previous experience with notation software had you had
prior to MuseScore?

AA: I've used Sibelius since 2000 as my go-to notation software and
used GarageBand as my go-to DAW for inputting MIDI both for myself and
my students. I also keep up to date with programs for composition
through following what's going on with the guys at
[NYUMusEdLab](https://musedlab.org). Now I use MuseScore and
Soundtrap.com with my students because they work across platforms.

SK: Was there a learning curve?

AA: No, most of the commands are the same as Sibelius, the biggest
difference is in not having the number pad to select rhythms. This
hasn't been a problem though, as once a rhythm pattern has been input
I tend to copy and paste it anyway.

SK: The way I found out about your blog was a post you'd made online
about how you'd figured out how to tie [JACK](http://jackaudio.org),
[xjadeo](http://xjadeo.sourceforge.net), and MuseScore together.
Since people immediately asked you for tutorials, I gather it's a
fairly common puzzle. How did you figure it out?

AA: Google search and reading a number of forums. I actually watched a
tutorial in how to do it in Spanish (I don't speak Spanish), got the
gist, then found a comment on a forum (finally!) explaining it in
English. I used to be terrified to figure stuff out on my computer,
but read enough forums, and there's always an answer out there, and if
there isn't I ask the people I follow on twitter.

SK: What's your input method? do you mouse around, or use keyboard
shortcuts, or do you play notes in through MIDI?

AA: Definitely keyboard shortcuts and then copy and paste.

SK: What do you use MuseScore for? are you doing conductor charts and
individual parts?

AA: I use it to teach my students how to get ideas down for a film-scoring
project. My students are 14-15 years old, most can't read a note, but this
is a simple enough program that they can input ideas and make sense of what
notation does. They know what music for films should sound like and this
program gives them control over their idea.

SK: What's your compositional process? do you compose in MuseScore or do you
use it just for orchestration?

AA: To be honest, I haven't composed anything on it yet. I've been
using it for 3 weeks because I was getting frustrated with the
licensing issues to set up Sibelius! Now that I've familiarised myself
with it, I'll likely do some choral arrangements on it. I'm more of an
arranger than composer. In terms of process I tend to type in the
melody and then sing to myself what I would naturally harmonise with
the melody and then type it in. I test out my ideas on my unsuspecting
choir, they give me feedback, and I act on it.

SK: How did you find JACK and xjadeo?

AA: Both of these I found because I needed MuseScore to be able to
play at the same time as a movie. A forum suggested these programs and
luckily they did exactly what the forum said they would!

SK: Are there any features that MuseScore has that other notation software
does not?

AA: I'm still exploring, but once my students have finished
experimenting with it, I'm sure I'll be tweeting all about it!

SK: Are there any features that MuseScore *should* have, but does not?

AA: The piano function (accessed through pressing **P**) is not as
intuitive as it is in GarageBand (accessed through pressing **Command K**),
where you can play in your music on your alphabet keyboard and you can
see the letters (ASDFGH, etc) assigned to notes (CDEFGAB, etc.)

Adjusting the volume of individual notes (velocity) would be useful too. In
programs that use MIDI, they usually use colour to show how hard a note is
to be hit (with red being *really hard*).

I recently read how the MusEdTech guys at NYU have been testing their
programs with the visually impaired. As a teacher, I always have to think
about how the user interface can impact a student's ability to use it.
Also, language is a big barrier, having all the menu items available in
other languages would be invaluable.

I would love for MuseScore to have a **Getting Started** tutorial for
first-time users. In my classroom, there's always that one kid that wasn't
paying attention to the teacher's instructions. I can picture it being
aimed at different levels "First time writing music", "First time using a
composing program", "Old pro, let me skip this tutorial and figure it out
for myself".

SK: How's the learning curve for your students using MuseScore?

AA: Those who already read music understand it pretty quickly, but do
everything with a mouse, which is frustratingly slow. I am always sure
to sure them how to use the alphabet keys, up and down arrows and copy
and paste to quickly type in material. Mind you, I was the same when I
first came to composing on a computer.

SK: Are you using any other open source applications in your workflow, such
as [Audacity](http://www.audacityteam.org), [Ardour](http://ardour.org), [LMMS](http://lmms.io), [Hydrogen](http://www.hydrogen-music.org/hcms/) drum machine, [zynaddsubfx](http://zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net)?

AA: I used to use Audacity. It's always good to be able to point students in
the direction of opensource applications, thanks for reminding me what's
out there!

SK: Is it important that artists are able to be creative on computers with
little-to-no financial barrier?

AA: Absolutely. I'm in the process of setting up my own home studio, and the
financial barrier is a big one. I would like to see more programs funded
through crowd-funding. I simply cannot afford to upskill in music
technology and teach those skills to my students without open source
applications, and schools are often unwilling to spend the money too.

SK: Has technology changed the way you approach your own musical process?

AA: Yes, I'm an amateur opera singer and choral arranger, with nowhere
to sing, but technology has allowed me to create backing tracks and
loops of my voice. Last year I recreated an Enya piece live for a
local art gallery because of a looping station I had set up. Also,
when my husband and I perform covers at our local pub, we store all
the lyrics and chords on an app rather than constantly losing our
sheets of music!

SK: The obligatory music question: you're stranded on a desert island, what three albums did you bring along?

AA: I can't even imagine the potential quiet of a desert island. Nope, this
question is too hard, particularly as I've been teaching music all day!

However, albums I have presented for Album Club (like a book club, but with
albums) have included "Young Modern" by Silverchair, "Hideaway" by the
Weepies, and "Whatever and ever Amen" by Ben Folds Five

SK: Why is music education important? the vast majority of musicians aren't
exactly known for having high paying jobs as musicians.

AA: One of the biggest questions we have to ask is "Who Am I". Music
forms so much of a part of our identity, it needs a place in the
curriculum for students to explore what that identity is, and to see
how other people and cultures see themselves too.

SK: What do you love most about teaching music?

AA: Just like most teachers, any spine-tingling moment, whether it's a
"lightbulb moment" or the magic of performing in perfect synchronisation
with the other musicians around me.

I also love the challenge of breaking down feats of genius
(symphonies, award winning albums, exceptional live performances) into
their component parts to help my students see the possible in the
impossible.

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