News and updates

June 2024:  It is definitely the beginning of the 'lazy days' of summer. I have been busy doing things outside of the studio pretty much the first half of the month. I was out of town for over a week - I had another great visit in Ottawa.  

It never ceases to amaze me at how many excellent pieces of music that I feel are just waiting to be made available to wind and brass soloists. I am mostly focusing on 19th century works for solo piano. I seem to stumble on one suitable piece after another. I am becoming familiar with so much great music that I never really appreciated before.

 In other news, I sold and replaced my older Yamaha CP-300 stage piano with a new Yamaha P-525 digital piano. I am extremely pleased with this instrument so far! 

May 2024:  With the nicer weather outside, I have been out cycling many days, but still trying to spend time in the studio as much as I can. I have been sidetracked a bit lately - I have been doing some audio recording using my DAW setup. I've been relearning the software, rearranging the studio and making demos for an upcoming performance. It will be nice to get out playing with good friends in a relaxed (i.e. licensed) venue. I hope to be able to continue doing this every once in a while.

I still have lots of work to do to polish older arrangements that are already on the site and have already updated a few.

I am very pleased with how my arrangement of Mozart's Rondo from K. 494 turned out. It was challenging to adapt such a 'pianistic' work for solo instrument. I have dedicated the Bb Clarinet arrangement to my good friend, Chris Alfano, on the occasion of his 60th birthday.

My latest public domain arrangements have mostly been collections of short and easy-to-play compositions by well-known composers. Lately I have noticed that I haven't always paid enough attention to the playability of some of my piano accompaniments and am now more aware to pay closer attention to this. Previously, so much of my attention went towards ensuring that the various solo instrument parts would be playable, idiomatic, etc. for the solo instruments. But, like in most things, a balance has to be maintained.

April 2024: I have spent most of the past few weeks reviewing and updating all my work to date. There were some layout issues that I needed to address as well as important information that was inadvertently left out of some of my initial scores. I have also updated some of the descriptions of arrangements as well as including performance notes where needed.

As I become more and more comfortable using Finale, I find that I am able to get desired results much more quickly.  I believe that sitting down and using the software on a daily basis is helping me to become much more efficient and I am developing a work flow that helps me maximize my time.

Slight redesign of the home page - linked section for lead sheets directly (previously: nested under 'copyright').

I am putting a renewed focus on creating easy-to-read lead sheets for a few copyrighted songs. I am mostly choosing songs that I enjoy performing myself and are often somewhat complex harmonically. I am trying to create clear, bare-bones, no-nonsense versions to read from in performance. Creating these lead sheets is a good exercise in page layout, as I am trying to present the essence of a song in the clearest way possible. Melodies are simplified in order to reduce 'clutter'. I figure that vocalists have already listened to the recording so they will imitate what they've heard rather than relying on the lead sheet for rhythms.

My sales have started to pick up and i'm hoping with more and more titles to choose from I will continue to see a steady improvement in this area.

December 2023 to March 2024: It has now been 4 months since I started making a daily effort to create musical arrangements. In that time I have expanded my library of arrangements from 15-20 or so to over 200.

I am learning that creating playable arrangements can be painstaking and exacting work. While I still enjoy finding new music to arrange, more and more I am looking back at my existing catalog. I regularly revisit arrangements to polish and improve them, with the intent of making them better sounding, easier to play and more attractive to look at. The more time I spend creating new work the more I am able to look at my existing work and recognize areas for improvement. I suspect that this is a process that will continue well into the future.

Currently my focus has been on creating arrangements for wind and brass solo instruments with Piano accompaniments - based on Common Practice Period compositions - most often solo Piano pieces by the great masters. I also adapt my work for use at church with our Cello soloist.

While I am fairly well versed in the specific strengths/weaknesses of wind instruments I have also been relying on the expert advice of the following friends who are also gifted performers:

There are still a few pieces in this style that I am interested in working on but after 4 months of this type of repertoire I am considering a change. I know folk songs are always great fun to work on and there's always copyrighted stuff available on ArrangeMe to do. 

Thanks to all for the encouragement and well-wishes that I have been receiving over the past few months.

November 2023: I have decided to realize a lifelong dream to spend a significant amount of my time and effort in my home studio creating musical arrangements. My plan is to spend some time every day in the studio.

After many years of teaching Music in publicly-funded school systems and being active as a performer as well as having family responsibilities, I am now able at a place in my life where I am able to devote the majority of my time to my 'craft'. I have a comfortable studio and all the equipment needed to engage in this work.

There is the potential to earn income from this activity, but my primary motivation is to develop my understanding and skill in writing useful, attractive and playable music. I do hope that my work will be of use to other musicians and, therefore, have a monetary value but I am under no illusions that this activity will become a primary source of income, even though it is taking up a substantial portion of my time.