The Writer's Corner

Hi everyone,

Something that doesn’t get talked about enough (but is incredibly crucial to the success of how your music is performed) is how the individual parts are laid out for the players to read. I’ve uploaded several examples of various instrumental parts for you to use as models (you might even recognize the titles big. I like to think about creating individual parts as though every situation is going to be a “sight reading” situation because there is really never enough time to rehearse and teach a player their part. To this end, I make sure the part is very legible in the following ways:

First, print out the pdf’s I’ve uploaded on 8.5 X 11 inch paper (or something close because what you see on the computer screen is normally not what you REALLY see when printed). Then, when looking at the newly printed pages, note the following:

• Generally 3-5 measures on a line works well. If you have an 8 measure section (extremely common), then I would use 4 on each system. Generally, think of it this way – beginnings of sections start on the far left (like a paragraph of text), and end on the far right. As much as possible, place double bar lines on the far right as well.

• Rehearsal numbers, placed at the beginning of each section, can be the measure number that starts that particular section. Although you could use consecutive letters instead (A, B, C, D etc), when using computers to record with live musicians the measure numbers are consistent between the computer and the live player (computers don’t read letters).

• Measure numbers are easily placed below the clef at the beginning of each system. If you place measure numbers below each measure, the numbers easily collide with ties, notes and other dynamic information.

• I find that a percentage of 100 (% tool in Finale, then click on the upper left side of the page) with respect to the size of the image is a bit large when printed, so I reduce it down to about 94% or 95%. This also allows a little more space on the page. Be sure that the “hold margins” option is checked or else the image will shrink within the page.

• Lastly, when lyrics are involved (a vocal part), it might be necessary to have only 2-3 measures on a system because the lyrics do take up space. The bigger the syllable or word, the more space that is needed.

• All pages should be taped edge to edge with an individual part – not overlapped. Tape both the front and back of the page to avoid pages sticking together.

ALWAYS AVOID the idea that if you put more measures on a page it will save page turns (and you’ll be doing something “green” by saving paper). True, it DOES do that. But, if the player has a hard time reading the notes it won’t matter how many pages of paper you saved because it will sound terrible due to difficulty in reading. The player is reading from roughly three feet in front of their eyes in most cases (and shouldn’t have to be closer), so they need it to be large enough to read it.

If you ever have questions about this in the future, feel free to e-mail me anytime. Also, there is a great guide to score and part layout in the Berkleemusic Bookstore called, “Music Notation: Preparing Scores and Parts” by Matthew Nicholl and Richard Grudzinski – it’s a great resource for for this unheralded, but extremely important part of the writing process.

I hope this helps!

Jerry

Harp_Memory_Cb
Innocent_Wonder_Piano_Rev
Innocent_Wonder_Tpt
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Violin_2

And now, after all of that “sweat” has poured out of you, you can go into the non-music business area called “Desktop Publishing!” I say this because you are going to extract the parts from the score – either by hand or music notation software. Either way, you need to set up the individual pages in such a way as to be easily read. A couple of helpful hints:

1. You can extract (or “copy”) the parts from the score in any order you wish. It’s usually a good idea to check off each part on the score as you go, so as not to forget one (It wouldn’t look good for you if you got to the session/rehearsal and were missing a part).

2. Make sure that measure numbers, rehearsal information and double bar lines are all properly placed. When laying out the page, try to place all double bar lines on the far right. Conversely, new sections should start on the far left. These last two sentences simply make it easier for the player to read.

3. Check over each extracted part for missing accidentals, dynamics, note stems, articulation, wrong transpositions (even for one note), and missing beams. It sounds fundamental, but it is very easy to make a mistake at any time. So, whenever you check over a part, a copying mistake or left-out information is almost always found—even in professional work. It only makes sense then to take two minutes to check your work. This last step can be done after all parts have been copied or after each part is completed.

4. If multiple pages exist, be sure to tape each page (edge to edge). This will help insure that the pages won’t be falling off the music stand in the middle of a performance.

Until next time,

Jerry

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And now, after all of that “sweat” has poured out of you, you can go into the non-music business area called “Desktop Publishing!” I say this because you are going to extract the parts from the score – either by hand or music notation software. Either way, you need to set up the individual pages in such a way as to be easily read. A couple of helpful hints:

1. You can extract (or “copy”) the parts from the score in any order you wish. It’s usually a good idea to check off each part on the score as you go, so as not to forget one (It wouldn’t look good for you if you got to the session/rehearsal and were missing a part).

2. Make sure that measure numbers, rehearsal information and double bar lines are all properly placed. When laying out the page, try to place all double bar lines on the far right. Conversely, new sections should start on the far left. These last two sentences simply make it easier for the player to read.

3. Check over each extracted part for missing accidentals, dynamics, note stems, articulation, wrong transpositions (even for one note), and missing beams. It sounds fundamental, but it is very easy to make a mistake at any time. So, whenever you check over a part, a copying mistake or left-out information is almost always found—even in professional work. It only makes sense then to take two minutes to check your work. This last step can be done after all parts have been copied or after each part is completed.

4. If multiple pages exist, be sure to tape each page (edge to edge). This will help insure that the pages won’t be falling off the music stand in the middle of a performance.

Until next time,

Jerry

Extracted Part