How do you score your music?

How do you score your music? I write in concert pitch always, and always write in condensed scores in paper (4 line)

If I'm writing on paper, I'll normally use short score; if I'm composing directly in Sibelius, it's obviously going to be full score.

Always concert pitch for me too.

I usually write small chamber ensembles, because they're the kind of things I can get played often at Oberlin, so I write each instrument to its own staff, pre-transposed.

When working with larger ensembles, I'll work off of a condensed "piano"-score with a ratio of 3:1 - 3 instruments/instrument groups to 1 "piano" staff. With larger scores, I work off of concert pitch, because I'll have to rewrite the parts for the instrumentalists anyway.

I'm with Chris. I tend to...NEVER write anything large, simply because I can get a chamber piece or duet or trio piece performed and I only have a chance to get an orchestra or wind band piece read. When I do anything less than 6 or so different voices, I write them all out seperately on 16-stave paper. If I'm working with more, I will usually condense similar voice types(woodwinds, brass, etc.) to save time and paper.

Recently I have begun writing an orchestral piece and I am writing it in either 3-staff or 4-staff, depending on how complex it gets. I also don't have a piano, so it's harder to get inspired for more ideas...

I've also found that it's easier for me to write in an instrument's own written pitch, for the different voices, so I can more easily get an idea of what the performer is thinking... I'm very quick with transpositions anyway, so it doesn't waste time or anything. I tend to automatically think in a transposed key if I'm thinking for that instrument anyway. Key of F is the easiest. But for any condensed score, I always write in concert C.

I want to get a big book of landscape style manuscript paper with as many staves as I can get, just for fun :)

I have a 500+ page book of 12 stave that I'm filling up, in sets of 4 staves at a time. I need to go through it and see if I've written anything recently that's useable.

I want to get a big book of landscape style manuscript paper with as many staves as I can get, just for fun :)

I got a couple books of Archive paper - 18 staves - it's really good for everything.

I got a couple books of Archive paper - 18 staves - it's really good for everything.

Where'd you get it? I'm having a hard time finding any. The place my theory professor suggested went out of business.

I occasionally sketch in an abbreviated score, but I usually compose everything in full score, with parts transposed (not concert pitch). My horn parts, for example, are always written in C, because I write my Classical stuff ostensibly for natural horns in a specific key (usually the key of the piece); modern horn players are used to this when dealing with music written before 1850. Sometimes when I'm writing in Finale, I switch to concert pitch for a while to move faster, but generally I think it's good exercise to transpose as one works.

I have more manuscript paper than I know what to do with. I bought most of it in my pre-Finale days...some of it has been lying around for 20 years. I have everything from little pocket pads with 6 tiny staves to full orchestra paper with 34 staves.

I'm always running out of paper...I need to get some more 16-stave! A big book of it would be nice.

You know what I hate? 8.5 x 11 manuscript paper--the staves are always too far apart!! Does anyone else hate that?

Yeah, but 8.5x11 is virtually free. Cost of paper and ink only.

Yep! I make my own 8.5 x 11 sketch paper in MS Word...the staves are spaced exactly the way I like it, because I make it myself. I think you can do it with Finale, too, but I've never bothered. For some reason, I don't like using really nice manuscript paper for sketches, even though I have enough to choke a horse. Doesn't make sense.