Finale 2009 can $&*^% my ^&%*$#

Multimeasure rests.

Used to be so simple. Hit extract parts, you get parts without tons of blank measures.

Took me the last half an hour to figure out how to make Finale 2009 do that.

Huzzah!

First email back from the director after hearing the music was OVERWHELMINGLY positive.

Nothing to say about the first piece (loved it), one question about the second (will it sound edgier on the recording) and only asked to do a little bit of expansion work on the third piece. I can do that.

I'm so glad that she likes everything so far, and I can't wait to start rehearsals tomorrow night.

DONE!

@#$*&%#-ing done.

I finished the scores about 4:45am, put the last file through Sound Forge, burnt a CD, emailed low quality mp3's to the director and promised to drop off the CD tomorrow, and messaged those that had signed on to play with a rehearsal schedule, and messaged a few other people that I hadn't talked to yet about playing for the recording.

Finally, there's a giant mountain of work behind me.

I have scores, tomorrow I will finish putting markings in and start printing parts. First rehearsal is Wednesday night. I need to do a rehearsal plan and figure out how I want to set up the orchestra. I need to secure rehearsal space, too...

I'm so freaking excited.

You have no idea.

Ugh, It's been far too long since I've posted.

That whole idea of giving myself an extra week because I had an extra two went out the window.

I'm finishing the third piece right now. That puts me two weeks behind schedule overall, the director is waiting on the "drafts" (which are ready to rehearse and record as is), and my ensemble is getting antsy. But all in all, as long as I don't drag my feet from here on out, i'm right on schedule in the end.

I have a bad habit of just not doing things from time to time or over-estimating what I can do in very short time spans. I may be able to write a 32-bar lead sheet in 30 minutes for a rehearsal in an hour, but these are a bit more intricate. However, I can still polish off 30 measures for a mini-symphony orchestra score in about 2 hours, so when I set down to work, I still make a good pace for myself.

Also, that whole "I hate Finale 2009" thing I was going through...over it. Finale 2009 is now just as easy for me to use now that I've gotten acquainted with it, and it's actually more useful in some respects. I still don't like where some of the menus went, but I figured out how to select and copy one measure. But I still can't figure out how to copy it x number of times at once. Small victories.

Rehearsals start this week...which reminds me...I need to email the ensemble.

I finished the first score entirely this afternoon and created the first audio file for the director to practice and choreograph from. The export as audio file feature on Finale now is terribly useful and I can't get over it. Export it as a .wav file after playing with the voluems for each instrument (rough ideas of where I want volumes and blend at)...and then, open it up in Sony Sound Forge (9.0?) to fix the levels and such, and then saved it as another uncompressed .wav and converted to an .mp3 for ease of transfering online. Girlfriend likes the first two that I finished earlier today (first person to hear them, even before the director) and the last one will be ready when she wakes up in the morning.

Ok, enough time here I suppose, back to work...just about done.

It's nice to have some input from the director with the direction she'd like the music to go. And by input and direction, i mean I have complete control over everything I do with only minor suggestions as to what she'd like the start of two of the three pieces to be like.

I like that.

So, now I know exactly what is expected of me, and that's making the polishing/fleshing out stage easier. I need to get my ass in gear though so I can start rehearsals later this week. She's given me plenty of time to finish, so I've relaxed my schedule a little bit...

She gave me about three weeks longer than I had planned on, so I gave myself 1 extra week. 2 weeks of buffer. I think I'm in the clear, even if I screw off a little. Also, I'm playing in an orchestra again right now, and playing makes it easier to write.

Also, I finally (two weeks, i was in no hurry) got around to having a pad replaced on my alto, so I'm practicing that, playing bass, and learning to play (French) horn. My house is far too cold though for practicing comfortably, so I'm not happy about that. But I'm a poor musician, so I'm lucky to not be trying to practice my expensive saxophone in a cardboard box outside.

But, that's besides to point. Composing these pieces is going well, but I have to get information to musicians soon, or they're gonna start backing out on me because they're all getting busy. I have to officially keep their time so they don't schedule over me. I'm probably going to just send them a rehearsal schedule and bust my ass to keep to it.

Happy Finale'ing to me!

Ugh.

I've been busy lately, both with composing and other stuff. Now, back full into composing.

I just had my FIRST meeting with the director of the production I'm writing music for. I had been under the impression that she wanted music by this meeting. turns out, she just wanted to meet to go over what she's looking for. I'm 'way ahead of schedule' as far as she's concerned. Which is good, because I got behind on MY schedule.

Anyway, need to finish drafting so I can hold a first rehearsal by the end of this coming week.

Holy crap. Haven't gotten much done in the last few days...working my ass off to get these rough drafts done by Monday.

If I don't get them done, I'll work on them at the damn auto show.

Bye everyone! I'll be back when I'm done!