New Music

As most readers of my blog know, I am distributing my compositions and arrangements via SheetMusicPlus Digital. It’s kind of like an Amazon Kindle author self-publishing service for composers & arrangers. They recently made arrangements with the rights holders of nearly 1,000 copyrighted songs to allow someone like me to make arrangements of those songs, without having to get permission. SheetMusicPlus collects payments for the copyright owner. I took advantage of the beta testing phase and tried my hand at 5 different titles. In the month or two they have been available, sadly only two titles have sold, but I’m hopeful as time goes by more people will find out about them and more will sell. The publisher sets the price based on the instrumentation.

You can view all the pieces I have available at my Music Catalog

In alphabetical order.

Awesome God is a handbell arrangement of what is typically a ‘praise’ chorus sung by congregations. Here’s a demo:

Billie Jean, the Michael Jackson hit, arranged in a quasi-classical style for orchestra. I think this would be a great hit with a high-school, college or community orchestra.

Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) is the most unique. I told someone about the beta test and they suggested this song. I asked them what instruments I should arrange it for. They said Mandolin, Cello and Drums. So I did. Surprisingly, this was the first arrangement purchased. If I could set the price I’d set it at about half of what it is.

The Lord’s Prayer. The traditional Malotte setting. I’ve never seen this arranged for anything but 3 octave handbell choir so I did a 5-octave title.

Sound of Silence. The very popular Simon and Garfunkel piece from the 1960’s. I’ve never found a piano arrangement of this that had any sort of “wow” factor. I’ve tried to add some elements that a piano player will like to play.

I’ve had people abusing the comment capability here so I turned comments off. I still welcome comments. Contact me via my website JamesGilbertMusic.com and I’ll post the most interesting comments in future blogs.