This is pretty funny. I would add a ninth level, though: knowing the part cold, including all cues, so that you just feel it
Of course, you have to count like a fiend if you're sight-reading. The trick is to never be sight-reading.
At least not in front of a conductor. If you can help it.
Otherwise? Count.
And you have a guarantee working here: whenever you count through twelve bars of strings sans woodwinds/brass, the conductor is guaranteed to stop right on your cue and say "OK, strings, let's take it from C again."
"So it's not wrong, it's the right answer to a different question" - love it! - think I might challenge myself to use this phrase more often! — Thomas KimberApr 27 '16 at 7:50
Haha, Tantacrul is now Head of Development at MuseScore.
Too bad I won't benefit from any of the improvements he initiates, because I'm stuck with using the old version, because the new one simply won't run on 32-bit.
From December 9th through January 1st, you'll be able to earn hats all over the sites! Ask, answer, vote, edit, and chat, and you'll uncover hats hidden in all kinds of places.
At any rate, for most of the cues presented in this particular video I feel I'm at that level anyway, without even playing any of the pieces even just once, but simply from having listened to them a million times before. You just know how it's supposed to sound.
Additionally, I would like to submit that any number higher than 3, there's never a point in counting in the first place, no matter your level. Especially if your level is anywhere below "knowing the part cold including all the cues, so that you just feel it".
If you have to count to like 17, or even just 9, you will miscount even if you know the part by heart. Actually probably only more so if you do. It's like going for a walk and suddenly starting to think which foot to put forth next. You'll immediately forget how walking works, and stumble and fall.
@RegDwigнt Looks nice. It really is quite amazing how much good interface design just boils down to common sense.
Lots of designers just look at a bunch of features and think they're doing their job by finding bins to put them in.
A good designer starts from the standpoint of How do I need to work?
The analogy I used to give my clients for an effective interface is that used in an automobile. The biggest thing at hand is the steering wheel, because it gets used most. Without moving, your hands can reach the next most important things: turn signals, wipers, etc. Your right foot is either on the gas or the brake. Your left foot is idle, except in a manual transmission car. And so on.
There is what I call a hierarchy of utility. Stuff you rarely use may not even be on the dash.
@Robusto yeah. The thing about MuseScore (the software) is that it really isn't half bad. It's quite good, actually.
Tantacrul said as much in his review. You've seen how it compared to his review of Sibelius.
Half of the Sibelius review, he spent bleeding right out of his very eyes. Half of the MuseScore review, he spent on saying that one tiny thing about their logo could be better.
And that's really quite emblematic right there. They got the logo 98% right, but it's the last 2% that make all the difference between acceptable and polished.
Same with the software.
To stay with your analogy, it's like you have a car where everything is just fine, all the gauges and the pedals and the levers. But the glove compartment is above your head. Like WTF.
And it's not like it's unusable there, or that it gets in the way of using other things. It's sorta fine really. It's just that WTF. Who puts a glove compartment there. Have they seen a car before.
With Sibelius, it's like the glove compartment is built into the steering wheel, the pedals are in reverse order, and the rear-view mirror is inside the trunk.
So yeah. I can see why he took up on their offer to get involved. It's not a lot of work, and it's all just common sense.
Sibelius is basically unsalvageable at this point. MuseScore doesn't even need to be salvaged, merely polished.
Like, not how do they keep you warm, but how do you put them around your neck?
Do you have the two ends hang around the back of your neck and drop down in front? It keeps the back of your neck warm but tends to leave your throat exposed.
Do you circle you neck with it? Solves the cold-throat problem but then I feel like you're in danger of strangulation if it somehow gets snagged like on a closing door.
Do you fold it in half and pull the ends through the loop so it keeps your neck and throat warm, adds some to your front, and is somewhat compact, like a poor man's ascot? We're getting there but it seems weird to do all that and it make the scarf all wrinkled and smushed.
I grew up in a non-scarf culture. Sure it snowed maybe once a year (and melted the next day) but scarves were things in picture books along with horse-drawn sleds and ice-skating on frozen ponds.
@Cerberus The causes of my youth's scarf-impoverished culture is interesting yet another story altogether. What's important is the operation of these cloth based mechanisms.
Is it like a toga for the neck? A sari? Curtains? In the evolution of fashion, I'm sure an ascot and men's tie are related but morphologically a scarf and a tie are distinct.
@Cerberus You should consider it. It's not an everyday occurrence but watch out for automatic grocery store doors.
Peple rarely get into car wrecks, but there exist seat belt laws.
It's a perfect analogy.
@Cerberus We aren't all so conveniently endowed.
@Cerberus Which brings up the problem of the scarf wrapping method which leaves one end free to whip around in the wind and interrupt your vision, just as you're going through the intersection with the live-chicken truck and the oil truck.
Holy crap, there's too much to read.
You read one thing, and boom, there's already another thing waiting for you.
and the little door that you open with barely a key is hardly big enough to get out whatever junk mail there is that you will then immediately throw out.
the mailperson opens the whole row at once, from a hinge at the bottom and slips all the different owners mail really quickly. But then only each person can open their own mailbox.
The hinge is at the top, which means you need to keep it open using one hand, while you're bending over trying to get the papers out using your other hand.
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…