jianpu Notation Software

[stacote]

I'm wondering is anyone has any recommendations on good software for writing jianpu/numbered musical notation?

There's a free one online A1-Soft and it seems to do what it should but looking for options if there are any.

Forgive me if it's been discussed on site somewhere. I did a search but came up empty.

[davidmdahl]

The only computer-based jianpu aid I have found useful is the Simperhu font package for Microsoft Word.

[stacote]

Thanks David. I'll have a look at it.

I don't have big needs at the moment so I might just stick with the A1-Soft. The Chinese music group I might be joining (new recruits have to audition and be unanimously voted in by the founding members, I found out at the rehearsal I attended yesterday) gave me the music for their recent repertoire. A bunch of the pieces are hand written and quite difficult to read so thought I'd use a jianpu writing program to clean them up. None of my western tablature or standard notation systems cover the jianpu.

[ed]

David

You have found that SimpErHu is the best JianPu software - but could you let us know the sort of problems you found with the others please?

Thanks

Ed H

[davidmdahl]

I don't remember any particular complaints about other jianpu software, other than being too limited. I can generally do much of what I want to do with SimpErhu. My complaint with SimpErhu is that it still takes too long. Once I have something entered, making changes is certainly easier than writing it out again. I still write tunes out by hand most often since it is much quicker.

Maybe someday, there will be an app for a touch screen, and we can write out notation with a stylus. Then there might be the best of both techiques available, for quick and flexible entry, and ability to edit. That is my dream method.

Best wishes,
D.

[ed]

David, you clearly have more perseverance than I do. Since my previous posting I have tried out SimpErhu. I gave up after a couple of hours, finding it quite buggy and awkward to use.

SimpErhu v4.8, Word 2007 sp3, XP sp3.

Ed H

[sanmenxia]

I've used two methods to produce "printed" scores.

The first is scanning an existing score and then using image editing software to move (cut and paste) the numbers, lines and symbols around to create a new score. If scanning from the older Chinese books with really thin paper, you need to clean up the numbers and symbols, and also remove everything which show through from the back of the page.

This is from a book with a not very good quality printed score, which I suspect was itself copied from another book.


And here's my re-creation of it, using numbers and symbols scanned from another book and cleaned up. Although I've just noticed the Chinese "4" (meaning little finger) is actually better in the first picture!


The second is using a drawing program, like Inkscape. You can type in the numbers and any words (any language) you need, but you have to draw everything else yourself, like bar lines, ties, arrows etc. The advantage of this method is you can enlarge however much you want and everything stays smooth, like enlarging text in a word processing program.

The first line are percussion symbols. Note the slur lines in the second line are not that good as they're part of an ellipse, I'll have to work how to make the ends straighter.

[ldko]

Feb 11, 2013 23:37:56 GMT davidmdahl said:

I don't remember any particular complaints about other jianpu software, other than being too limited. I can generally do much of what I want to do with SimpErhu. My complaint with SimpErhu is that it still takes too long. Once I have something entered, making changes is certainly easier than writing it out again. I still write tunes out by hand most often since it is much quicker.

Maybe someday, there will be an app for a touch screen, and we can write out notation with a stylus. Then there might be the best of both techiques available, for quick and flexible entry, and ability to edit. That is my dream method.

Best wishes,
D.

[ldko]

Dear Davidmdahl and other SimpErhu users,

I have used the SIMPERHU software for several scores now. Amazing software so far.

However I encountered some issues that you as poweruser may have solved:
1) how to undo a change caused by a SimpErhu macro
2) any trick to write a triple note e.g. for ShongRuan.

THANKS n greetings from Hong Kong

[davidmdahl]

Hello LDKo,

I am afraid that I am no power user of SimpErhu. I usually just write out the notation on a sheet of paper. As for your questions, I am not sure that I understand very well, but maybe my answers will be a little helpful.

1. If the undo in Word doesn't work, I would usually just delete the section that isn't right, and enter again. I also save frequently, so if all else fails, I can close the score, and open the last saved version.

2. If you are asking about notation chords, I don't know. When I have a chance, I will review the features and see what I can figure out. When my needs exceed the capabilities of the program, I either write in the additions, or do the whole thing by hand.

PS. I have now had a chance to play around with SimpErhu and remind myself how to make it work. Regarding the entry of chords, you can stack one note on top of another, to indicate the playing of two strings, but not more than that. SimpErhu is, after all, intended to be for erhu notation. For zhongruan, it is probably not the best tool.

Best wishes,

David

[ldko]

Apr 22, 2016 21:11:55 GMT davidmdahl said:

Dear David,


THANK YOU SO MUCH .
Indeed these are the answers to my questions.


Greetings from Hong Kong. Liong Djien KO