Let's get the question of my username over with.
1) Before anyone asks, I'm a female. (A female musician who uses Linux? Yes, we do exist.
We might be a bit rare, but then, what do I know--I'm hidden away like Le Fantome de L'Opera and don't get out a whole lot. 
Though I daydream of traveling around Europe for a good three or so years. 
)2) Yes, the first part of my username has everything to do with "Phantom of the Opera." I've loved--no, ADORED that story/musical since I was in my teens. (I'm a Webber girl all the way.) And oddly enough, high school, for me, does not feel like it should be 20-some years. Especially since my newest fave version of "Erik" is MY age!!
But just as you don't want to feed the Mogwais (from the "Gremlins" movie) after midnight, don't get me started on Ramin Karimloo. At least not if you want me to stay on topic. 
( mischievous Phantom-ish laughter heard in background...) 3) Yes, I am a Druidic-type person. Yes, as in the religion/philosophy. *Yoda voice*: Mmm, ultimate treehuggers, we are.
Anyway, I'm attempting to use MuseScore, but the playback's not working, so I did a search and someone mentioned downloading "Timidity." I did that, but not exactly sure how to get it working...the Ubuntu Software Center said that Timidity runs in the terminal, but in order to get things to play back in MuseScore, do I ALWAYS have to have the terminal going, too? If so, that's gonna be a pain in the butt, since my computer's a refurbished piece of Dell Latitude with Attitude, and I want something really up-to-date and nice.
Thing is, though, I love Linux, but I am the impatient sort. I am seriously thinking of getting a nice laptop--Windows or Mac (I'm leaning towards Mac, 'cause i like the look of 'em!)--that I can put Finale for Songwriters on (I don't need the extra SATB and orchestral templates!) so I don't have to jump through so many hoops, as far as getting things to work. I know what you're thinking, if this is the case, why am I on this board? Well, eventually, I'd like to make ALL my music comp stuff Linux-based, but right now, I am jonesing to get music composed, recorded and on Reverbnation within the next year or so. And if that means getting a computer where I just dual-boot Linux AND Windows (I know..*cringe*), and use Linux for fun, and Windows for business, so be it.
But in the meantime, I'm just going to do my best with MuseScore, even if I don't get playback to work and just have to enter in stuff with the mouse, print it out and go back and change things. Then again, there's always just going back to using good ol'-fashioned pencil & scorepaper. In case anyone asks, I've already looked at RoseGarden. It is WAY too stinking complicated for my very "ADD" brain to get through. I like simple, straightforward and sweet, and RoseGarden, from the look of things, is NOT simple, straightforward or sweet. I normally like a challenge, but given that my computer is old, I'm just as likely to pull out my score paper and a good pencil, and go into the living room and use the actual keyboard my dad has set up. It's less private than composing on the computer in my room, but like I said, I'm impatient.
So, that's the long and short of who I am, where I'm at right now on my music composition journey and trying to puzzle out how the heck to work with the music composition programs for Linux that are out there.
Oh, and if ANYone has ANY really excellent and "Dummy-oriented" instructions for teaching how to hook up a synthesizer to a Linux machine, and how to understand how JACK works with MIDI and all that junk, I would LOVE to know where to find it. Too many online articles get into the technical stuff without explaining, in dummy-oriented detail how things work. You'd think there'd be some sort of "wizard" in the Linux programs of how to know what's what when attaching a MIDI keyboard. Granted, I will likely have to get a more powerful computer--and likely an actual tower, instead of a laptop--but that's further in the future, anyway.
But I kinda want to know *before* I go saving money for a synth, so I know what the heck I'm doing--so I can just get things set up as quickly and smoothly as possible. Because, yeah, I'm like that. Thanks for reading the ramble...
Kat ^.^
