Dorico 2 Released for iPad

Speaking of Dorico, Dorico 2 for iPad is now out on the App Store. It’s free and comes with many improvements, my favorite being Apple Pencil support in Read view.

When I wrote about Dorico 1.0 for iPad, I expressed my enthusiasm for it sharing similar code with the then-upcoming desktop version of Dorico 4. Basing the iPad version on the desktop code has indeed expedited feature releases. I am hopeful for the development speed that both the mobile and desktop versions of Dorico will receive in the future.

While I don’t use the read view in Dorico for iPad a ton, I am excited to see the addition of annotation support with Apple Pencil. Even though it doesn’t do note input, this development shows that the Dorico team is iterating fast and responding to user feedback.

Check out the Dorico release below.

Dorico for iPad 2.0 now available from the App Store:

We are pleased to announce that a new version of the top-rated music notation app for iPad, Dorico for iPad, is now available for free download from the App Store. If you already have Dorico for iPad installed, go to the Updates tab in the App Store app on your iPad to grab the update.

This new version brings many of the new features added to Dorico 4 for macOS and Windows to iPadOS and adds support for freehand annotations in Read view using the Apple Pencil for those users who choose to take advantage of the optional in-app purchase subscription. Read on for more details.

Kanban Boards in Todoist

I am preparing two presentations for the Ohio Music Educators Association Professional Development Conference next month, and one of the sessions is on collaboration and communication apps for music teams.

As I prepare this session, I came across this blog post draft from a while back that I think could be helpful for those looking for a graphical way to think about their various teaching responsibilities…

You can now “visualize your workflow with Board view in Todoist” by testing the beta version on both iOS and the web. Read more here.

I am pretty committed to OmniFocus for personal project management. But I have always liked Todoist. Todoist is the service I recommend to most people for tasks. It is simple to use and has a free tier. And if you pay for the subscription, it is full of features almost all the features you could ask for from a to-do app. Its native apps are not as well-designed as Things or as powerful as OmniFocus, but they are good enough.

If you are the kind of visual thinker who prefers a board-style for project management, Todoist will now allow you to depict your projects and tasks in a drag-and-drop, card-style interface.

Music notation software, macOS Monterey, and Apple Silicon M1 Macs (Scoring Notes)

If you are on a Mac and are still debating an update to Monterey, or if you are debating an M1 Mac purchase, I recommend this blog post from Scoring Notes.

They are keeping track of compatibility with Monterey and M1 across all the major music notation apps.

NPR Playlist – 50 Best Albums of 2021, Ranked

For a while, I had a holiday tradition of taking “best albums of the year” posts on the web, and making Apple Music playlists out of them.

NPR has started doing this, which saves me some time, but I sort of miss the ritual.

Anyway, here are links to their streaming playlists. I always learn about some good new music listening through this list every year.

Some of my favorites I have already heard are, in no particular order…

An Evening with Silk Sonic, Silk Sonic
Mood Valiant, Hiatus Kaiyote
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra

NPR Music’s 50 Best Albums of 2021, Ranked : NPR

If the year presently coming to a close was a dance, it’d be a hesitant shuffle, tentative steps toward — or heyyyy, maybe away from? — an uncertain future. So maybe that’s why, when we sat down together to discuss which albums we loved the most over the course of 2021, NPR Music’s staff and contributors found ourselves drawn to albums by artists making breakthroughs, moving forward with clarity, without balking at the obstacles falling in their way. Our list of the year’s 50 best is topped by an album that was unmatched in concept, songwriting or performance, but it had so much good company. Everywhere on this list you’ll find the thrill of artistic revelation, musicians finding themselves, willing something new into reality. There’s plenty of fun, but little escapism. Many of these albums are stacked with great songs, but these aren’t snacks. Even when slight they are composed, with a sense of purpose. This is nourishment. Look around. You’ll find something fortifying to build you up for the road ahead. (As a bonus, you can find our list of the 100 Best Songs of 2021 here.)

_Stream NPR Music’s 50 Best Albums of 2021:Spotify / Apple Music / Tidal / Amazon Music / YouTube Music

Guest Post on Scoring Notes: Use Shortcuts to quickly create score templates on macOS and iOS

I wrote a post for the Scoring Notes blog, published today. The post is all about using the Shortcuts app on iOS (and now the Mac) to create custom templates in music notation software.

I did my best to provide basic context for the Shortcuts app so that this post can be accessible by any teacher, musician, or composer. The post includes a link to download both the shortcut and an example score template so you can tweak it to your heart’s content. Here is an excerpt:

Use Shortcuts to quickly create score templates on macOS and iOS — Robby Burns | Scoring Notes:

Even though apps like Sibelius, Finale, and Dorico don’t come with their own built-in Shortcuts actions, the addition of several new file-based actions from the Automator makes creating templates possible.

The shortcut below is three simple steps. I searched for each action in the right sidebar and dragged them in the order I wanted them to occur. Here’s what each step does:

Looks for a score I made in Dorico that is set up in 4/4, in concert B♭ major, and with all of the instruments common to a middle school bands.

Saves a copy of that file to the Desktop.

Opens it in Dorico.

Click here to keep reading on Scoring Notes.

Guest Appearance: Passing the Baton

I am happy to join Theresa Hoover and Kathryn Finch, authors of the Passing the Baton book, on their YouTube interview series this week.

This week’s interview features Robby Burns, a middle school band and general music teacher in Howard County, Maryland. Robby talks about how he incorporates creativity and music composition in his middle school band classes.

Episode 14: Creativity Through Music Composition (Part 2 of 3)

If you are into this, you should definitely check out the most recent episode of my podcast featuring Theresa, herself.

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This blog post from David MacDonald, writing for Scoring Notes, has some great tips about making teaching documents and music worksheets using some of the most popular music notation software.

There is a lot music teachers can learn in this post, and from the associated podcast episode. Click the link below to read more.

Preparing teaching materials in music notation software – Scoring Notes:

If you have ever taught music lessons or classes, you have likely needed to share some small bit of music notation with your students that isn’t quite a full score or part, but still requires some amount of staff notation. Preparing this sort of document can be tricky because notation software is built around a certain set of assumptions suited for performance materials — scores and parts — which may not always serve learning materials like quizzes or scale sheets.

In this article, I’m going to cover some of the workflows, workarounds, best practices, and other considerations that I have used in preparing my own materials for the university music theory and composition courses I teach.