In case you didn't know, MuseScore is one of the better free musical notation editors. At Libre Graphics World I found out about an interesting side project MuseScore is collaborating on, Open Goldberg Variations recordings and score (released). They are currently working on a similar, The Well-Tempered Clavier project.

As a young Canadian kid I was first introduced to both pieces from Glenn Gould versions.

Thanks Odin. I've been looking for something like this!

A great artist with a major flaw... he hums along. Hardly audible on speakers, but with headphones you wonder what that strange noise is, until you figure it out. All the more surprising considering the obsessive care he put in the recordings.

LOL, yes the hum can be a distraction. He definitely was on the tipping point of genius, that's why one of his biographies is called 'Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould'.

Thanks for the tip. I've never used Music Score. I'll have a look. I've played around with LilyPond for scoring and notation, but then again, I really don't do much manual scoring.

Usually, if I need notation, I just play the part on a midi keyboard and score from the midi file using RoseGarden.

If you can play the keyboard well enough, as you obviously can, this is the easiest way. For instruments that need fairly strict timing like pianos, chromatic percussion etc, I find I need to program with a step sequencer but having learnt score writing for flute when I was at school, I find it far easier than writing directly to a sequencer. This program really is a life saver for me.

do you write the music itself or something?

Yeah, you write the music as normal music notation then if you want to, you can export to midi, import the midi file into a studio and assign instruments to it.

Ah! Only one problem...I can't read music almost at all. xD
This would be perfect for me to make it sound perfect but I can't read it.

You don't need to be able to read music to use Rosegarden. You play and it records the keystrokes. You can also view, edit and playback the MIDI data directly. if you want, you can toggle over to view the staff, which can be a big asset in learning to read the music notation, if that is your desire.

Another nice feature of RoseGarden is the ability to record digital audio tracks, alongside MIDI tracks.

mokonafan: i read music a little, but very badly and i've used rosegarden . trust me, you can use it too! i never liked that program very much though, i uninstalled it pretty soon. today i use this site: noteflight.com for writing down my music - i thought their editor was easy to manage - and if i don't want the trouble of writing it down i play, hum or even whistle the tune to my audio recorder til i have the time and energy to actually write it down.