Programs, Tools & Setup
Thoughts on Programs & Tools
Below, I’ve written some experiences with programs and equipment I’ve shared above. I will continue to update this page as time goes on, so keep checking back for more!
Scrivener
My experiences with Scrivener (click)
Before Scrivener, I was using a combination of Dropbox, Microsoft Word, and Google Docs. Don’t get me wrong—they are great tools! I still use them for different purposes.
I discovered Scrivener at the beginning of 2018 while working on the third iteration of the Fayte Saga draft. At that point, the project existed in way too many places: Dropbox, Google Drive, printed and written notes, my phone, my iPad, my computer, etc. Since it was such an enormous project with way too many chapters and files to flip through, doing anything on the go was a chore. Google Docs at the time was struggling to even open a writing file and to let me flip back and forth between other apps.
I discovered Scrivener while hunting for a more efficient writing app, and my life changed. I found that there was a MacBook version as well that could be saved and updated via the cloud, and switching between my computer and phone was seamless (given the time for syncing, of course!).
I imported everything I could find into the binder system and folders, and the rest was history. Music files, artwork, PDFs, Word documents, everything. All organized, all findable if I needed to search for keywords. I could even change a single word across the entire project. Every project could export it as a nicely formatted book.
Scrivener can compile your writing into either a PDF ready for publishing or an ebook.
I purchased it for the MacBook, iPhone, and Windows, and I recommend it to anyone who is a writer and looking for an organized workflow.
ForScore & GoodNotes
My experiences with ForScore and GoodNotes (click)
My boyfriend (now husband) purchased my first 12-inch iPad Pro for me in November 2015. Before then, I was only using a standard-sized iPad. I was very much drawn to the idea of using the Apple Pencil for note-taking and digital annotation because I was lugging around binders upon binders of materials wherever I went.
Spring 2016 was my student teaching semester, so it was the perfect opportunity to put these tools to the test. I was also experimenting with Microsoft OneNote, but I kept coming back to GoodNotes—specifically GoodNotes 4 at the time.
ForScore became my go-to for anything and everything sheet music. It took some getting used to the page turns when I was accompanying for churches, but thankfully they had Bluetooth foot pedals! (Which was also a learning curve…but that’s with everything!) I found a scanner app on my phone that could turn all of my sheet music into digital PDFs that I could upload into ForScore and GoodNotes.
GoodNotes is very universal and applicable to any topic or subject. I love being able to have all of my scribbles in one place—and searchable, too!
Stickers are also great. They have a little store where people have created stickers and you can purchase and download them. This was really handy for when I was creating worksheets for my students. Music Generator – Editable Stickers by Widescreen Education are the stickers I’ve featured quite often in my social media reels.
Music Education
Below you will see a taste of the educational videos I share online, along with a link to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
The materials in my TPT store are resources I created and used throughout my years of teaching. I plan to continue adding more resources over time, along with additional educational content on my social media platforms!