Music composition software

[goldenmeg]

I am looking to purchase music composition software for my son, 12 years old. He wants to compose in several clefs (treble, bass, tenor) for multiple instruments, primarily orchestral. It would be great if it was interactive, so he could listen to the composition for different instruments. Needs to be graphical and he tends not to read manuals (so musically intuitive).

If he could import a piece that he plays, that would be a bonus. We have a usb mic that attaches to his instruments purchased through SmartMusic.

Would Finale be too difficult to use? What about Harmony Assistant? Any other ideas? Someone suggested Rhapsody, but as far as I can tell, it is a music service, not a composition application?

Working on a new (this last fall) imac with Tiger for now, but will upgrade to Leopard when SmartMusic upgrades to Leopard compatible.

Thanks in advance

 

[eric2006]

If you want to try Finale, they have a basic program:
http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/

So does Harmony;

Harmony Assistant is a commercial software. Download the trial version and evaluate it with no limit in time. While unregistered, saving is disabled and printing is limited to one page only.

Garageband would also work if he wanted to play the songs in, but I'm not sure what it offers for write and play.