Friday 20 February 2009

I was in Edinburgh yesterday for a couple of errands, and some very useful reading and thinking time on the train. But for most of this week I've been working on arrangements, typing notes into Sibelius here at my desk. We did one of the Michael Marra songs with ConCal a couple of years ago, and my arrangement then consisted of a chart that took up two systems on half a page of A4: everyone just figured out for themselves what to play. This time round I'm working with a group that expects to have rather more to read than that, which means a lot more preparation, and pages and pages of score. In some ways this is a tiresome chore, but on the other hand it does present interesting possibilities that you couldn't achieve by busking from a chart. Nonetheless, I think my natural habitat is working things out with ears, rather than on paper. 

Meanwhile, negotiations towards a firm booking for an entertaining ConCal gig next month (yes, that soon) are still rumbling along. The longer it takes to get a contract, the higher our travel costs become ...