Sheet music software for accordion arrangements

[donn]

I've been using Lime since the '90s, but even if that's perfectly satisfactory at the moment, it's interesting to read about alternatives, as there's a real possibility that I will have to upgrade MacOS versions and Lime will drop off the edge. When that day arrives, it will be interesting to see how much of my Lime work survives when I export it to MusicXML and import into other software.

I gave Lilypond a real try, but ... it wasn't just the learning curve, it seemed to me that even after it became very familiar it would still be just as cumbersome. Even so I might still be using it, but I was doing that on FreeBSD, and when I tried to install Frescobaldi or whatever the graphic interface is called, it trashed the disk partition - probably not Frescobaldi's fault, but anyway everything went up in smoke and I wasn't real motivated to start over.

 

[Siegmund]

I gave Lilypond a real try, but ... it wasn't just the learning curve, it seemed to me that even after it became very familiar it would still be just as cumbersome.

You are right that Lilypond is not the sort of program where it's easy to jot down a quick idea. There is significant effort involved in setting up the environment before you write a single note. It's better for typesetting an already-fully-formed idea, or transcribing old but hard to read music, than as an interactive environment for writing or arranging new music.

You can get partway around this by making templates, and by using text-editing software that makes your life easier. Frescobaldi kindasorta does that. A lot of Windows folks are now using VSCode or other programming oriented editors now; there is probably a Mac equivalent.

But I think it's perfectly normal for a Lilypond user to also have another notation program, and use the other program for testing ideas and noodling around. (I use an older version of Mozart for that. Freeware people will probably use Musescore now.)