Customer Reviews

Sibelius: A Comprehensive Guide to Sibelius Music Notation Software

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a new user of Sibelius and someone who is not real computer savy, I was so happy to hear about this book!! It was the only real comprehensive guide that I've found, and it has done wonders!!! It makes using the program not only easy, but fun! I bought this program so I could get my creative ideas down on paper and now I can! I highly recommend this book for any Sibelius user!!!

Yes this is a well-written book, and yes I use it frequently when encountering a new technique I haven't tried yet. Sometimes it's faster than searching the "Sibelius Reference" PDF that comes with the software.

I was, however, disappointed that this book was specifically written for Sibelius 4.0. Not that the info contained is that out-of-date or inaccurate, but there are so many new features now in the current Version 5 that it makes this book incomplete for new Sibelius users just jumping in on Version 5 like I did. I did not see anywhere in the Product Description that told me I was buying an outdated manual. The book still is helpful, but I wish I could have waited for a version 5 guide to come along. (I heard one is "in the works" somewhere by a different author.)

This book is an excellent addition to the original Sibelius manual. The original manual that comes with Sibelius is extremely well written and is very effective at explaining the software. The authors do not try to replace, but to clarify the Sibelius manual and add additional shortcuts and illustrations to help all Sibelius users more quickly learn how to use the software.

This book is very comprehensive, yet it describes an outdated version of Sibelius 4, while the current version is 6.

This book is a decent text badly in need of an update. I enjoy the text because it's a book with a sense of humor that walks the user through every procedure it describes slowly and succinctly. However, even when using version 4 of the software, there are some instructions that simply do not make sense. In some cases, what you are told to do is simply incorrect. I even checked the errata list available from the author's website and it does not contain all of the errors I've uncovered going through this text multiple times. The Brahms Intermezzo score contains an example of this situation. The user is supposed to change the system spacing to make more room, but the number given is so far out of range that the software won't even allow it. From the same chapter, you're supposed to be able to make more room between some notes by manually breaking system layouts. No problem except that the bars where you're told to break the system are already broken there. So how do you make more room to move notes around? I don't know. So off to the Sibelius forum you will go on a number of occasions.

There are also times when the author will describe what needs to be done but doesn't say that he'll describe the process later. The first couple of times I encountered that issue, I thought that I had missed a step and so retraced all of the steps thoroughly. I didn't realize that I was wasting my time. After I learned my lesson, if I came across a section that didn't specifically tell me what to do, I would skim through the next few pages to try to find where the process was explained, but this shouldn't be necessary. Just tell me that we'll get to it later. What ultimately makes this confusing is that the author does explain this to the user a few times but it's not done consistently which can be a time waster.

Overall, this book is a decent value for the amount and the clarity of the information it contains, but be prepared to solve some mysteries on your own. If you're starting as a complete novice, you will encounter some problems that will simply leave you scratching your head and then using Google.

This is a good book for the absolute beginner. It would also work well as a classroom text. I would have preferred more of an encyclopedic approach, since I have some experience with this program and others in the same field. Specifically, I want to find specific answers to specific questions. I don't want to follow an example step-by-step and perchance stumble across the information I want. I daresay most readers will not be as exacting.

extremely well written book. great format and sequence. absolutely great companion for learning sibelius.