You can try with Finale, but probably you won't get happy with it. If you're a music teacher or student and want to write some etudes or compose something from time to time, then I'd recommend MuseScore.

So, if you want to seriously get into music notation/composing and you want to invest time and money in your scores, Finale is a good choice. If you want to write avant-garde music, with advanced new notation, you nearly *have to* go with Finale – the only other app I can imagine for this is NoteAbilityPro. The web is full with plug-ins and additional fonts for Finale, so you have lots of possibilities to make your scores look personal. And yes, this app can create really beautiful professional scores – the point here is that you can really make your own, individually styled scores – nobody will see what app you have used for it. Anyway the input-methods are great, if you do composing, the speedy entry (with MIDI-keyboard) is fantastic (you can play/try your music at the keyboard and Finale will only write down when you type together the rhythmic values). The core of this app is brilliant, I love entering notes real time by MIDI-keyboard (if you're not very good at it, you can first tap the rhythm with the hyperscribe-tool and then the correct pitches with the repitch-tool), the 'engine' for those things is very good. That takes time, as Finale allows for more customisation than any other app in this field, it is very versatile many give up on it during this process, but once you have 'set up' the app for you and your needs, Finale shows its strengths. I think the key for using Finale well, you have to make your own templates, and find your own workflow.

I use both apps (and some other, more specialised software), and both have their positive and negative points. It's the quasi industry standard, in its segment challenged only by Sibelius. Everybody who gets into music notation/composing knows Finale.

Finale 2009 portable