You're writing in Finale a song you've written, meant as a record, or even for copywright purposes. Now, my question is, do you just write out the basic melodies, or the actual line you're writing it for and allow that to infer the melody?
Come on guys there needs to be many people using Finale that can answer this.
I have no idea what you mean by 'infer the melody'
Like all notation programs, Finale is like a word processor for music. If you didn't put it in, it won't come out.
Now if you're talking about using a MIDI device to play a melody instead of using the keyboard, that just becomes an input device. The result will be the the same (that is, if the melody is the same). If you can play what you want, but don't have the notation skills to write it out rhythmically, use MIDI input. If you have the transcription skills to do keyboard entry of the same thing you'd play, the result will be the same.
Whatever you submit for copyright, well... that's what the copyright covers. If what went into Finale is not exactly what you had in mind, you've copyrighted something you didn't have in mind (and what you did have in mind has not been registered)
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Well, I mean copywrites cover the meldoy and the lyrics. So, you have to, or at least might want to, provide a clear idea of both rather than jsut a recording of it. The lyrics are simple, enough write them out as the are sung. But the melody for instrumentals. Let's say you have a melodic guitar part. You want your work copywrited. Do you go into finale and write out just the melody notes or do you write the entire line that you play on your guitar? Including harmonziation and chords added in there as well?
For instance, in Guiatr World acoustic they showed an arrnagement of Silent Night. As well, they posted jdut the melody line that the guitar part conveys. Imagien I came up with Silent Night, everything about it was written by me. Would I tab out the actual guitar line or just the melody notes that are the centre of it?
You could write out your solo and have that copyrighted as part of the main piece, but normally solos aren't copyrighted; just the essential elements of the song - melody, words, chords.
Solos are usually improv so they're not copyrighted, unless you treat it as an alternate melody. But to be sure, just write everything out.
You can copyright the entire performance of a song though, which I *think* would include the arrangment. For that just send in a clean audio disk of the piece.
You could write out your solo and have that copyrighted as part of the main piece, but normally solos aren't copyrighted; just the essential elements of the song - melody, words, chords.
Solos are usually improv so they're not copyrighted, unless you treat it as an alternate melody. But to be sure, just write everything out.
You can copyright the entire performance of a song though, which I *think* would include the arrangment. For that just send in a clean audio disk of the piece.
Hehe. Thanks. Yup, performance can be copywrited, what I meant though is copywriting the melody in and of itself, not neccessarily a solo, and not neccessarily just it's perfroamnce, the actual melody itself.
For instance, Neil Young has his Tell Me Why, which has an inherit melody, as is displayed through the chords and notes he plays. I'm thinking, when he was copywriting his work, assuming he didn't just set it out on an album right away, did he write out the entire guitar part, or actually the melody notes reffered to, which would make it more clear, but possibly less encompassing.
