I started making my own arrangements for the Cabaret a few years back - we were never able to find sheet music that matched the recordings we wanted to perform, so I would scratch out leadsheets on a cheap version of Sibelius to give to our band, that at least showed the intros and endings we wanted. Gradually we got more creative and starting mashing tunes up, creating actual brand new arrangements. I’m grateful to my band members who suffered through early versions as I learned what has helpful and necessary to see in sheet music - what cues does the bass player need? How can I get the drummer on board without actually writing out a drum part (something I will someday learn how to do)? Arranging for guitar felt even more foreign, sometimes it still does. But each time I prepare the arrangements and sheet music for another show, I feel like I’m a little bit closer to know how to approach things.
This year has been one for the books arranging-wise! Sarah and I arranged more songs for our Cozy Christmas, Rocktails, and Songs and Stories of the Tin Pan Alley shows this year than ever before, including several medleys/mashups we are super proud of. I also provided some arrangements and orchestrations for Mrs. Dalloway: A New Musical at Cincinnati Shakespeare, did some major edition to the piano/vocal score of the opera The Knock by Aleksandra Vrebalov (this new edition was used at Central City Opera this summer), and have also been lucky enough to do some private arranging-for-hire for some singers with special requests. One of these projects was for Schyler Vargas, a super talented guy who needed a couple of arrangements/transcriptions for the American Traditions competition in Savannah, GA.
Schyler sent me Youtube videos of performances he liked for ‘Bed I Made’ by Allen Stone and ‘Cry to Me’ by Solomon Burke, but none of them were performed with piano and he couldn’t find sheet music anywhere on the internet to give to his pianist for the competition. I was able to make some transcriptions of both songs and gave them piano accompaniment parts inspired by those original versions but that worked better for just piano. His competition pianist Aaron Lehrian took it to the next level and added some serious style. Absolutely a blast to work on these for Schyler and it is no surprise based on his performances that he was a finalist in the competition!
I love to work on projects like these! Have some sheet music projects in your dreams that you want to make a reality! I can do transcriptions, turn handwritten notes into clean printed sheet music, get you a transposition you can’t find online, or even make a brand new arrangement. Reach out via the hire page on my website and let’s make it happen!