Sheet music software

[Woozie]

Okay, right now I'm using finale notepad. It's getting frustrating because I can't figure out how to change key signatures mid song (I want to jump from F major to F minor to F major to F minor). It's so annoying because if I try to change key signatures it changes it for the entire song instead of for only the measures I want. So now I have to write the entire song in F major and manually add in all the extra flats where the song is in F minor. Or I could Write it in F minor and add in all the extra naturals where the song becomes F major. Either way, it's a nusiance - it's more annoying than the fact that I can't spell nussiance! Also, I can't change the time signatures midsong either, which is also slightly annoying.

Does anyone have any other suggested software for writing music? I don't need anything fancy, just something I can write piano songs in. I'd rather not have to print out blank sheet music and pencil everything in myself <_> Finale is convenient because it makes writing easy and I like the playback functions. It allows me to send songs back to my friend who's a musician, but not a pianist, so that she can hear what I composed without having to come to my house and hear me play every time I want her to hear something I wrote. If I had something that could write music files that didn't have these annoyances like finale, it would help a lot.

Finale notepad was free, but if anyone has any suggestions of software that does cost money, I'd be happy to hear your suggestions as long as the software is somewhat cheap. Remember, I'm only an amateur musician, so I don't need anything super fancy.

[aurik]

Any links to your songs?

PS. Sorry for not answering the question, I have no clue.

[Woozie]

I'd post it if I felt that anything I composed was actually good, but honestly I kind of suck at it

[Korietsu]

Time to go buy some manuscript paper!

[Semitry]

I used MUP like 5 years ago, I believe you can change key signatures mid song.

http://www.arkkra.com/

[Osede]

overture?

I have not experienced on any of these kind of software before, because they all require pay to use

[Korietsu]

Forgot to mention, finale Pro 2007 is available to torrent, and its the beefed up version of notepad :D.

[drg889]

Have you tried Sibelius?
I got Sib. 4 last year for my AP music theory class, helped a bunch having it at home to use. But i believe they have Sib. 5 now (?)
I think its ~$300-400 or something if you buy it though.

Works wonders from my own personal experiences.

http://www.sibelius.com/home/index_flash.html

Can check around there.

[Mansin]

Sibelius is what my brother's Music Theory class uses, he had me pirate it for him. Seems to work fine.

[drwaffles]

Sibelius is far and away the highest-quality easily-available music notation software available. I've been using it for my music courses since I was about 15 and nothing else has even come close. The downside is that it's pretty damn expensive I believe, but it's worth it if you're serious about producing sheet music. Although it's extremely versatile and in-depth it's not frustrating if you're capable of reading instruction manuals.