I wrote 49 rhythm section arrangements in the last 10 days. Add 14 custom tacet pages and I prepared around 275 pages of parts.
That’s on top of a nearly unmanageable number of work and family commitments that had me traveling across the state, conducting concerts, and of course a presidential election. (Not to complain…I love my life!)
The last arrangement I finished about 1 hour before the first rehearsal started, and in under 30 minutes from opening the score to outputting the PDF. That’s what this post is about.
Repetition, especially closely spaced repetition, is an amazing accelerant for work done.
Repetition gave me a workflow that I could repeat without thinking.
Repetition gave me increased familiarity and speedy access to every tool and keyboard shortcut I needed in Dorico
Repetition gave me an enhanced ability to speed-read scores for salient details, and to assess recordings more quickly.
Repetition gave me all this and much more, so that my last arrangement took around 1/3 of the time of the first few. I know next year when I start again, I’ll have lost some of this, but I also know I’ll be able to rely on the accelerant of repetition once again when the time comes.