On the heels of finishing 44 house band arrangements for our annual Cabaret in Rockford, I have three modest notation proposals for the modern age.
- No more codas. D.S. al Coda and similar repeat notations were designed to save space when ink and paper was expensive. Now that many people are purchasing music digitally and playing from iPads, there is no reason to use these devices to go from 10 pages to 8. Segno/Coda pairs are by far the most likely culprits for a band losing its way reading a piece…why not just eliminate them?
- No more lyrics at the end. Frequently verse 1 will be placed in the score, and additional lyrics written at the end of the piece. Again, it’s to save space on the page. But again, it causes a reading challenge. If I’m accompanying you and am trying to lock in, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to see the lyrics you’re seeing as I play?
- No more Moderately. Of the 44 arrangements I mentioned above, I think at least 1/4 had a tempo marking that just consisted of the word Moderately. Could there be a vaguer tempo marking? I do not see a downside to using the official tempo of a reference recording, or giving a range. I spent a shocking amount of avoidable work time with a metronome and Spotify turning vague tempo markings into helpful ones.