I discussed creating templates for your conductor’s score and parts in previous articles. This way, your orchestral scores have the same or almost identical feel and look. I’m not overly artistic with the look of my scores because I like consistency in my published works. While doing this is unnecessary, consider it. I’m talking about setting up your own set of publishing guidelines. Having a group rules to follow is excellent, so you don’t forget to put the vital information required on a score.
Let’s be clear this set of rules may change from store to store. For example, I may want to put my ISMN (international standard music number) on all of my sheet music; however, some companies where you submit your score have no field for that number but use an ISBN (international standard book number) instead. So sometimes consistency is challenging to maintain.
Another issue, like in my case, is that your publishing company has a logo, and you may not be allowed to use it at places where you submit your music for distribution. Sometimes it takes work to keep that consistency between distributors.
So how I work things out is by having a different template for each distributor. All my printed music at store “A” looks like this, and all my printed piece at store “B” looks like that. Doing this is optional; I like the consistency.
Now you may have an artistic flare where each piece of music you submit has unique artwork or different styles, or you may find consistency unimaginative, uncreative, and, to put it simply, bland. All of that’s fine because that is essentially a template for how you submit your music, and it defines in one way or another the way you, as an artist, envision your piece.
As long as you have the required information on your printed music for tracking and sales so you can get paid, all is good. I look forward to seeing your scores online; I’m just a music teacher having fun; catch ya on the next one.
