# Workflows to compose music with staffpad



## bongoman (Nov 4, 2020)

I'm curious how people compose multi-part compositions with this software, as it's a mobile app and I assume used without a keyboard.

I can read/write music but have only ever worked with sequencers to put music down, and I imagine staffpad music composers 
just use an ipad/staffpad. Is it common to use the software without a piano/keyboard, or do you access a piano roll on the ipad to find out
what the notes are first.

If there's any useful links showing a useful workflow I'd be interested to see this!
thanks.


----------



## giwro (Nov 4, 2020)

There is no piano roll, and you compose multi-part stuff by writing notes in... 

Having said that, if I'm trying to go fast, I will do the notation in Dorico, export XML and then import into StaffPad... for me, at least, the beauty of SP is as a mockup production device...

Since SP uses a marked score to produce dynamics and interpretations in a mockup, it really doesn't make sense to use a piano roll (which SP doesn't have, anyway - that's not the philosophy)


----------



## dcoscina (Nov 4, 2020)

giwro said:


> There is no piano roll, and you compose multi-part stuff by writing notes in...
> 
> Having said that, if I'm trying to go fast, I will do the notation in Dorico, export XML and then import into StaffPad... for me, at least, the beauty of SP is as a mockup production device...
> 
> Since SP uses a marked score to produce dynamics and interpretations in a mockup, it really doesn't make sense to use a piano roll (which SP doesn't have, anyway - that's not the philosophy)


When I first started with it earlier this year, I would use Notion iOS since it does have a keyboard to enter notes with, then I would export via XML. However, that was when the handwriting recognition wasn't as good as it is now (I also moved from an iPad Air3 to a 2020 iPad Pro since then)


----------



## bongoman (Nov 5, 2020)

Thanks for the replies. I'm thinking about the process of composing more than the mechanics.

If I have a melody in my head I want to transcribe, is it trial an error to match up the pitches without a keyboard?

The demonstrations I've seen of staffpad, there's no piano or piano roll in sight and complete phrases are input as if the composer has perfect pitch. There's a disconnect in my head when I see this.


----------



## yiph2 (Nov 5, 2020)

bongoman said:


> Thanks for the replies. I'm thinking about the process of composing more than the mechanics.
> 
> If I have a melody in my head I want to transcribe, is it trial an error to match up the pitches without a keyboard?
> 
> The demonstrations I've seen of staffpad, there's no piano or piano roll in sight and complete phrases are input as if the composer has perfect pitch. There's a disconnect in my head when I see this.


Yep, no piano roll. You don't need perfect pitch, many composers have relative pitch


----------



## Montisquirrel (Nov 5, 2020)

I don't own StaffPad yet (but hope to get it soon), but as I can tell from the videos you can hear the sound of a note when you click on it with the pen and you can move this note around and hear the new pitch in real time. I imagine a workflow like this: I write the melody as I suppose it will be right, after that I transform the handwriting to the real notes and after that I can adjust the pitch if something is wrong and I can actually hear it. The only thing I can't hear in realtime is doing the handwriting (but it would be cool if we could also hear the handwriting).

Please correct me if I am wrong.


----------



## bongoman (Nov 5, 2020)

Montisquirrel is on the right lines of what I'm after. I also don't own Staffpad, but it's a not inconsiderable sum (£84 or so + £100-200 for expansion libraries) in the UK for something I'm not clear what a good or optimal process consists of.

I can imagine hacking my way through a tune and it being vaguely mediocre, so I'm after some good workflows that I could use to get a handle on composing without an instrument.


----------



## giwro (Nov 5, 2020)

bongoman said:


> Montisquirrel is on the right lines of what I'm after. I also don't own Staffpad, but it's a not inconsiderable sum (£84 or so + £100-200 for expansion libraries) in the UK for something I'm not clear what a good or optimal process consists of.
> 
> I can imagine hacking my way through a tune and it being vaguely mediocre, so I'm after some good workflows that I could use to get a handle on composing without an instrument.


And, previous folks are correct - it’s not perfect pitch, but the ability to write the intervals one hears in their head... that’s just training your ears, and most people can get better at it with practice. If you go to school to study music, you have to take a course called “Sightsinging and Ear Training” (or as we used to call it “sight screaming and ear-tearing!”). Basically, for the ear training you have to write down what is played... you’re usually either given the starting note and key, or later just the key (and the professor will play the tonic chord). There’s nothing wrong with doodling away on the keys to find your next note, for sure... I still do it. But, if you can indeed train your ears and mind to write without that, it can really be freeing. The first time I wrote a piece without a keyboard, it was totally different than anything I’d ever done... apparently writing what’s in your mind’s ear can produce different results than writing what your fingers find...


----------



## bongoman (Nov 5, 2020)

Thanks giwro for your comments. It does inspire me to develop this area so I'll look out for a BF deal.


----------



## Saxer (Nov 9, 2020)

I like to have a piano near by to try out chords etc. It's also possible (at least on iPad, don't know on Widows) to connect a keyboard to the iPad and load a third party piano app in parallel. It's not for recording into StuffPad but for having an instrument to try things out before writing them down.


----------



## bongoman (Nov 9, 2020)

Yes I'd thought that would be the case. But very interesting to see the creative ways people go about generating music via this route.


----------

