A Dead MIDI Cable is No Excuse!

Yesterday my MIDI cable died.  It just stopped working.  When I awoke at 6am to write out my newest compostion, my trusty equipment was shot.  I troubleshot every possiblility to diagnose the problem (reversed IN-OUT config, unplugged, re-plugged, re-opened software after cable attached, switched pianos, etc), and determined that the cable was indeed kaput.  Since I need my MIDI cable for quickly scribing the notes into the computer (via hyperscribe in Finale software), it seriously hinders my data input without the cable. 

What's a composer to do without her MIDI cable in 2014?  I could have walked away from the computer and folded laundry.  I could have run to the music store to get one, but music stores aren't open at 6am on Sunday mornings.  So I decided to quit making excuses and use this handicap as an opportunity to learn a new skill.  There are, indeed, a couple of ways to enter notes without a MIDI cable.  One is simple entry, a method that uses tedious mouse-clicking.  And there's speedy entry, a method I had yet to really learn. 

Within Finale, I had been relying on combination of hyperscribe, cut-and-paste, transpose, and simple entry to quickly scribe my scores, but I had been avoiding speedy entry.  My hybrid method worked very well, and was pretty efficient.  But an orchestrator colleague I know only uses speedy entry in Finale (absolutely no hyperscribe).  It is a typing-based entry method in Finale, and there's a learning curve involved.  But once you learn it, it's like touch-typing on the computer...you become very, very fast.  Some people swear by it, so I decided that my lack of a MIDI cable set up the perfect scenario to learn a new skill.

I delved into the online manual and googled for answers to my questions.  I learned that 4 stands for eighth note, 5 for quarter, and 6 for half.  See, I'm not looking them up on the chart and I already have this memorized.  I learned that you can navigate from one beat to the next with the arrow keys, and that you can use the + symbol to raise a note a half-step, and the minus symbol to lower it.   I did get a little frustrated when I went to enter three and four-note chords.  I realized that, once again, I kind of need MIDI input via a MIDI controller/piano-- that is, if I want to be fast!  I also reached a roadblock when I tried to enter triplets via speedy entry.  It appears some MIDI input is necessary for this as well.  So, given that my music has a lot of chords and triplets,  I decided to abandon speedy entry for the moment and will re-explore this method once I get a new MIDI cable. 

Bottom line - I started mastering a new skill this morning, and I will build on my new knowledge later.

But wait!  I had nothing to show for my work this morning; no notes input, no score produced.  I decided not to make excuses, so I spent the extra time needed to simple-entry my notes, a tedious process, but with cut-and-paste and transpose, the process is a little faster.  And I have the start of "Moving On".