Please note that everything written here is my opinion. In April, 2024 Hal Leonard/MuseGroup (HL/MG) expanded their “ArrangeMe” (AM) self-publishing platform with a paid subscription “Pro” feature. For those that don’t know, AM allows composers and arrangers to upload their own music as well as arrangements from a large list of copyrighted titles. The music […]
Category: Arranging
a Introduction In the mid-1990’s I started using Finale (version 3.7) as my music notation software of choice. (Prior to that I used MusicPrinterPlus). When version six of Sibelius came out I tried it out and switched to it because it was far more intuitive than Finale. When Dorico 4 was released in early 2022 […]
I thought I’d give you an update as to what I’ve been up to lately. Links to all places mentioned below can be found in the menu above. Piano lessons. I am still teaching piano lessons via video conferencing software on the internet. I am also available to teach in person lessons in Micanopy. Computer […]
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Year in Review – 2021
A look at what happened with JamesGilbertMusic.com this past year. The ongoing worldwide pandemic has dramatically affected musicians throughout the world including me. The number of piano students I have declined dramatically in 2020. I have been unable to gain any new students in 2021. You can be anywhere in the world to take piano […]
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New Orchestra Title
An arrangement of All Things Bright and Beautiful for Solo Orchestra is now available. View a demo recording here: To purchase this title, go to the music catalog menu at the top and scroll down or search for the title.
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Videos and links
Update: @JGSheetMusic is my Twitter handle Since January of 2020 I’ve posted quite a few videos on YouTube. These videos are demos of various sheet music titles I have available. They are full length recordings along with the sheet music. You can see them all at my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/jamesgilbertmusic I also released a new […]
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A Little Praise
A Little Praise Any Size Orchestra series play through Visit https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/20389663 to see more and visit https://jamesgilbertmusic.com for more music
Free Music If you didn’t know it, my website has quite a few complete pieces available for download for free. There are also some free titles that would be of use to teachers or students, particularly as related to music theory. Unlike many free products out there, you don’t have to register, you don’t have […]
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New Sheet Music
New Music Available now at my website and SheetMusicPlus, are the following titles. For a list of all titles I have available, visit https://jamesgilbertmusic.com/catalog.php Ancient Quandary — Orchestra — https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/20964252 Christ Is Made The Sure Foundation — Orchestra — https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/20964255 David’s Lamentation — Orchestra — https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/20964256 Heaven Above — Orchestra — https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/20964259 I Remember You, […]
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Choir Labs contest
Choir labs contest From time to time I enter various arranging or mixing contests. Recently Spitfire Audio – a British company that makes very good sound libraries – sponsored a contest. They make available various free libraries, one of which is based on the Eric Whitacre choir. The contest was to compose and record music […]
Late October additions to catalog and Soundcloud Listen to my contribution to a collaborative effort with Spitfire Audio. (Alas it wasn’t selected as part of the song). I added 3 new sheet music titles to the sheet music catalog (https://jamesgilbertmusic.com/catalog.php) Two versions of the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah. One for solo organ and one for […]
New Choral Music I’ve released 2 new choral titles through my distributor Sheet Music Plus Direct. As with all my current arranging, I use Sibelius for the composing and layout. First, an unaccompanied setting of Are You Washed In The Blood for SATB choir. See more details here: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/20804287 Secondly, an accompanied setting of Christ, […]
No Time To Relax Track 9 from my album Sampler. It can be found wherever digital music is available A melancholy piece featuring pads, light drums and vocalise melody to start with. Then the track adds in some synth leads and synth bass part. The end echos the feel of the start. The Gravity sound […]
Continuing with my series of liner notes for my album Sampler, we get to track number 8. This is a darker sounding track. It consists of 6 instruments and various effects. You can find all of my albums anywhere digital music is available. First up is the Bass, the Padaboom patch from the Substance library […]
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Exciting times (track notes)
Continuing my liner notes for my July 2018 album “Sampler” Track 7, Exciting Times, was my first experiment on doing something entirely from loops. Not audio loops, but MIDI loops. The entire track was produced from MIDI loops. I use to subscribe to a magazine that included a download link or a DVD that had […]
To continue with my notes on the songs on my 11th album, Sampler, we get to the 6th track. That title is called Very Confused. The description of how I did it may be as equally confusing. As inspiration for and as a way to try different ways of composing, I took an existing piece, […]
I’m taking a break from writing about the individual tracks on my new (July 2018) album. I will return to them. I sometimes wonder if anyone is reading these blogs of mine, I’d love to know. With practically no comments or interaction from anyone about my blog, I’d love to hear from you in comments […]
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New Sheet Music
Christmas Organ Selections II I have a new sheet music Organ Collection available. This contains selections of Advent and Christmas titles. Available at: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/20753754 Away In A Manger [MUELLER] God Rest, Ye Merry Gentlemen He Is Born [IL EST NSTE] In The Bleak Midwinter [CRANHAM] Joy To The World [ANTIOCH] O Little Town Of Bethlehem […]
Current news I’m always looking for subjects to write about here or tutorial to do on YouTube. Please use the comments section to give me some ideas. I’ve not shown a map of where people are buying and performing my sheet music for some time, so here’s the latest (as of Mar 31, 2018) I’m […]
New Additions The sheet music we have available is in a variety of styles for just about every imaginable combination of instruments. Some were written & used in church; some were written for teaching and educational settings; some are just fun to play and some would make great background music in a video. I’ve added […]
More additions to the catalog Here are the latest additions to our sheet-music catalog. Including sheet-music and individual audio tracks, we approach a total of 1,100 titles available. Breathe On Me — A setting of the hymn tune NOVA VITA for orchestra — https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/20701580 Come Down, O Love Divine — An arrangement of this hymn […]
A “Kindle like” publishing platform for musicians In case you did not know it, SheetMusicPlus.com has been operating a self-publishing platform similar to the way Amazon allows book authors to publish material for their Kindle. I’ve been using it since Jan 2016 to sell all the titles I have available and have been quite happy […]
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Results of my contest entry
Did they even listen to my entry? So, a few posts ago I mentioned that Spitfire Audio was having a contest that I had entered. The one and half minute video was provided by them. Contestants had to write music to fit the video. It didn’t matter what sound libraries we used, it was “the […]
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New Sheet-Music
New Sheet-Music I’m trying to compose or arrange more music than I usually do. Since I am a church musician, the obvious music to write is music of a utilitarian nature. That is, write music I can use or that another church musician can use. Click on the link for each title to see sample […]
Goodbye to 2017 To start the blog being moved to this location, I thought I’d start with an article reviewing the past year, 2017, and my musical efforts. Personally, two things impacted me more than anything else. First, Hurricane Irma impacted where I live more than other hurricanes in the past have. (I went through […]