I suspect that their styles betray a certain centrality of popular music to their musical imagination. In terms of 'serious' composition, this is the sort of music that notation programs tend to lend themselves to best, but I doubt their style is a symptom of their use (if they do at all) of notation software.


We mustn't use correction fluid, as it might confound some occasional musicologists . I prefer to use pencils anyhow. They are eraseable in the case of stupid errors, and a 2B pencil will photocopy to look almost identical to a pen.

I've talked before about how I use Sibelius as a final stage, to set the notation not to engage in any kind of compositional process. I have been known to compose some elements following this stage (an entire raft of dynamics for example) but I print it all out and annotate it rather than do anything straight to screen. When I see students I get them to print everything out if they've been using Sibelius. I can't think on screen.