Whereas I’ve been a beta tester of Notion for years, the very sort of us at PreSonus have been asking me to overview Notion Cell for a while, and I’ve been avoiding writing that overview. It’s the summer season, I’m not educating (although I do have a number of part-time jobs), so I now not have the excuse that I’m too busy. “Busy” is true, mixed with educating (elementary for the previous 4 years), creating ukulele content material (occurring seven years), and being a husband/mother or father.
In reality, my use of know-how in music training modified the second I left secondary educating. As many readers know, I had a satisfying sixteen years as a highschool choral director, adopted by six very laborious years of educating center faculty choir in a state of affairs the place college students needed to take music, and there was no basic music choice. That’s the place I discovered the ukulele, within the course of creating the abilities that allowed me to show on the elementary degree and unknowingly on the time, through distance training throughout COVID.
My use of music know-how was in each a part of my place as a secondary music training: it was my music folder, my accompanist, my attendance taker, an evaluation device, and so extra. A lot of these instruments had been for my use slightly than the for the direct use of my college students, on units which I bought myself for my very own use (not supplied by the district).
On the elementary degree, my use of know-how is completely different. A big central display is even MORE necessary; video content material for recorder and ukulele content material is what I spend most of my time creating, and regardless that my college students (Ok-5) have units, it’s a trouble to have them convey these units to class. Though I do have a 4th & fifth grade extra-curricular choir for a part of the 12 months (January by means of April), and I nonetheless use know-how for choir—it simply isn’t the identical.
So how does this relate to Notion Cell? Properly, I’m getting there.
In my “prior life” as a secondary educator, a lot of my time was spent in Finale, then Notion, creating accompaniments and rehearsal tracks from current printed repertoire; many occasions scanning scores and cleansing them up. I nonetheless do some of this work—however it’s restricted to some arranging for the excessive colleges after they wish to do a chunk with an ensemble, or for my very own elementary choir.
My essential use of music notation nowadays is to create ukulele sources that I share or promote. You may see an instance of a type of scores under:
After I speak about know-how in music training, the reality is that there was nothing “earth-shatteringly” new in a few years. The primary decade of the 2000s was mind-numbing within the variety of new applied sciences that had been showing that may very well be utilized in music training school rooms—which had not modified in 50 years. Since then, some merchandise have disappeared, some are at the moment disappearing, and others now have a number of rivals. For example, there was a time when there was one “inexperienced notice – crimson notice” rehearsal/efficiency choice: SmartMusic. If I bear in mind appropriately, SmartMusic’s mental rights expired permitting anybody to develop comparable applications—and now there are fairly a couple of applications to select from.
Moreover, there was plenty of acquisition—whereas the person firms nonetheless exist, many have been “umbrellaed” (my very own time period) beneath different firms. Within the massive scheme of issues, a dozen or much less firms personal many of the know-how music educators use at the moment—together with MuseScore which was free (to customers…and nonetheless is) and unbiased!
The most important change over the previous years was the all-out win of the Chromebook over the iPad. I’m nonetheless an iPad person, and it’s my essential device (Notion Cell is part of my workflow). However many faculties (together with mine) shouldn’t have cash to purchase subscriptions for on-line providers, and we’re left scrambling to see what we will discover without cost. Don’t get me improper—the Chromebook has come a great distance, and GoGuardian (a means to assist college students use units appropriately) is way above something Apple has to supply—however the iPad nonetheless stays an general higher device for creation.
Lately, on the iPad, there are plenty of notation selections…Notion Cell, Dorico, Sibelius, Symphony Professional, StaffPad, and extra—and lots of of them are glorious. Flat not too long ago launched a brand new app, and naturally, there may be NoteFlight, too. Keep in mind that I educate college students in grades Ok-5, none who’re 13, and there’s no funding for on-line subscriptions—so I’m very restricted in what know-how experiences I can convey to my college students—notation or in any other case.
And let’s be trustworthy—lots of the applications, together with Notion Cell and Dorico, are too sophisticated for my college students to make use of. For those who use the free variations of these applications, you’ll wish to begin doing so in center faculty or highschool.
So, I’m again to writing a overview, not primarily based on what the applications can do for my college students—however for what I exploit them for: occasional arranging and ukulele tablature. Please increase your hand within the viewers if this additionally applies to you… … … nobody? That’s what I believed!
For those who haven’t but downloaded Notion Cell, it is best to—the core program is free, and add-ons, reminiscent of handwriting recognition and extra sounds, are usually not free. In case you are an iPad person and you acquire the previous Notion sounds, you’ll be able to “restore your buy.” However Notion Cell isn’t “simply” for iPad, additionally it is for Android (through Google or Amazon), Home windows, Mac, and Chromebook, in case your Chromebook runs Android apps.
For those who had been an current Notion person, Notion Cell goes to take some getting used to—and maybe the best disappointment is that “previous” Notion was straightforward to be taught and use, reminiscent of urgent “Q” modified the size of your notice to a Quarter Observe. On Notion Cell, that’s now a “4” for those who use a keypad. So, there are new key features to be taught (for those who use a keyboard). Nonetheless, the core app is free, so there’s no value to start out that studying course of. In any other case, many of the options that existed within the “previous” Notion for iPad appear to exist in my testing, with one exception—the app doesn’t learn non-system fonts which have been imported, which is smart as it’s a common app. The file storage can be completely different and to be trustworthy, I don’t have an entire understanding of it…recordsdata used to retailer in iCloud, and now retailer on the machine. What was nice about iCloud is that you would go to your Mac, open the file on Notion for the Mac, and decide up the place you left off in your iPad. That doesn’t appear potential in the mean time.
Because it involves my workflow, Notion Cell remains to be the best choice of all of the applications for writing ukulele tablature. Once more—I do know that isn’t in large demand—however it issues to me. I’ll say that Dorico does fairly effectively, too—although it takes some juggling to get Dorico to do what Notion does naturally. For those who don’t know the historical past of Notion, it began as a program the place the proprietor wished scores to sound good. On the time, that was achieved, although Notion has at all times had different limitations. As a music educator, I not often run into these, however I do know they exist, and you may actually compose music in circles in Finale (I as soon as put a faculty track because the rosette of a customized ukulele through Finale). When Notion was subsequent acquired, the brand new management (earlier than PreSonus, earlier than Fender) wished a notation program that was additionally good for guitarists—and Notion Cell nonetheless holds true to that legacy…it’s nonetheless guitar and ukulele pleasant. For a while, Chris Swaffer, primarily based in the UK has been the undertaking supervisor for Notion and Notion Cell, and he has overseen the entire latest adjustments to this system (alongside along with his crew). Sure, there are some individuals which can be sad with the adjustments. Change is difficult. However I feel this system goes the proper route turning into multi-platform and leaving a few of the previous ”look” and “perform” of earlier variations of Notion.
With the on-screen ukulele fretboard (which seems while you add ukulele as an instrument), and the ukulele chord library, I can prepare for ukulele shortly and actually anyplace, and I may use the instruments that exist to transform preparations for “customary” GCEA ukulele (soprano, live performance, tenor)) to baritone DGBE ukulele. And that’s all due to Notion Cell’s guitar-friendly DNA. Once more, Dorico can do that too…however Notion Cell does it without cost and in a a lot simpler means.
Are there issues with Notion Cell? Certain.
- Typically I can’t Notion to tie a notice to a different notice, then have to shut the track, come again into it, after which it really works (ties are a alternative on one of many palettes).
- The “transfer to the subsequent notice/chord” buttons are both on the highest of the display or in your keyboard (decrease proper), so once I compose, I’ve to maneuver to the highest of the display or the underside of my connected keyboard (that is true on my Chromebook as effectively, which has a touchscreen). I would like these arrows someplace close to the onscreen fretboard.
- After I’m getting into chords, the “chord choice field” typically strikes proper over the music that I must see to decide on the chords, so I’ve to exit the device and are available again to it once more.
- The underside line of a composition doesn’t naturally stretch throughout the web page in lots of conditions, so it’s important to create one other measure, pressure the additional measure to the subsequent web page, then add a ultimate ending to the underside of the earlier web page—after which attempt to bear in mind to not print the final web page while you generate a PDF.
- If I bear in mind appropriately, baritone ukulele nonetheless doesn’t have an current audio set to match its pitches, nor does low G GCEA ukulele.
- And most significantly, once I go to edit a chord, I can’t simply edit a single notice…the second I modify a notice in a chord, the present chord disappears, after which I’ve to renter the entire chord.
Fortunately, that is for an instrument with 4 strings, so it isn’t plenty of work—however they’re points I want I didn’t need to take care of. I’ll make a video demonstrating all of this stuff and hyperlink it under.
As you learn that final paragraph, it might appear that Notion Cell is flawed. It’s. However I can and do “get stuff achieved” sooner and simpler with Notion Cell than with different applications even with its flaws. I can get sooner in Dorico, which has the closest instruments that I would want, however I’m certain that I might by no means be as quick as I’m with Notion. I’m 100% certain that for those who use Notion Cell, you’ll have issues that aren’t excellent in your workflow, significantly in case you are coming from the earlier model of the Cell app. I do know of 1 one that jailbroke their iPad simply so they might set up a earlier model of Notion Cell.
Finally, all of my points might be addressed in time, and Notion does stay simpler to make use of than some other Notation software program. I don’t do quite a bit with handwriting (I purchased that add-on years in the past), and when I’ve used it, it’s hit and miss. It’s a good choice to have, however it’s not how I favor to enter music right into a notation program. Truthfully, if that’s your most popular format—see StaffPad (StaffPad nonetheless doesn’t compose for guitar or ukulele, so my use of it is extremely restricted). The opposite factor I wish to see is a straightforward technique to share a file from Notion on my iPad to Notion on my Chromebook. I haven’t found out a straightforward means to try this but with out exporting to Google Drive. I might additionally prefer to see Notion add Boomwhacker coloration notes and notes with letter names inside them, as I’m an elementary trainer and these can be helpful now and again.
In abstract, Notion Cell fully modified the look and interface of Notion on the iPad, opening the door to different platforms, without cost (add-ons are further), persevering with a few of the earlier flaws of Notion, requiring customers to be taught new keystrokes, and breaking the iCloud continuity of Notion on iPad to Notion on Mac. Notion is my go-to notion utility on my iPad, which I primarily use for infrequent orchestration, piano accompaniment, or ukulele tablature. A few of Notion’s flaws do get in my means now and again, however I can nonetheless work together with Notion and create first rate trying and sounding (playback) scores sooner than I can with some other notation program. The core app is free, and the add-ons are inexpensive. I like to recommend downloading it and utilizing it—even with the brand new keystrokes, I don’t know of a notation utility that’s simpler to make use of.
For those who made it this far within the written overview, thanks for studying, and I hope you’ve got an amazing day. I’m off to report a brief video exhibiting a few of my present challenges with Notion (that video ought to be inserted above) after which to go make some extra ukulele content material!
June 2023
