This is a rather unique service, a quick search on Google reveals that there are very few other people providing a service anything like it, and yet, in our experience, it is something which many composers may find very helpful.
Peter has set up this service as a result of many years going through scores from composers at various levels, from beginner right through to professional. Many of these scores are creatively sound, but display fundamental errors in layout, presentation, notation etc which can contribute to the work not being shown off to its best advantage, and can easily lead to confusion and time wasted in rehearsals. It’s often things like missing accidentals, unpianistic chord voicing in piano parts, notes being “spelled” incorrectly.
The time is right to offer a musical proofreading service – after all, authors have one, so why not composers?
How does the service work?
The service would entail a composer sending in their score, preferably electronically scorewritten using a program like Sibelius, Finale or Musescore, although handwritten scores sent in by post will also be accepted. Upon receipt, it would be scrutinized for technical errors of the “wrong key signature” variety and these would be corrected. Anything which looks like it might affect the artistic intention of the composer (e.g. re-voicing chords or possibly re-aligning lyrics in a song) would be referred back to the composer first for approval. The final, corrected version would be produced using Peter’s preferred score-writing program, Sibelius. The composer would receive the finished product as a pdf file (or, if a Sibelius user themselves, a .sib file if they prefer).
How much does it cost?
Music proofreading is charged at a rate of £40 per hour, with a “minimum spend” of 1 hour. You would be invoiced upon completion of the work. The time taken for each project is carefully logged and you would be sent a breakdown so that you can see exactly how the time has been allocated.