Back in the mid-80’s, I began playing the gig circuit (weddings, formal and informal concerts, funerals, parties – if you’re a freelancer you know the routine) to supplement my income from freelance orchestral work and teaching. I was frustrated to find that much of the published music suitable for such incidental work was poor. Errors were rampant, page turn issues abounded, parts were often hard to read. Much of the repertoire was by justifiably neglected composers. So, I began arranging my own repertoire.
The advent of internet publishing took care of some of the the page turn issues, but the quality in most cases was substandard: tiny staffs, blurred copy, poor editing and unmusical arrangements full of even more errors than the book format publications. It was about this time that I acquired music-writing software and began producing arrangements in earnest. I brought these to gigs, soliciting the suggestions of my colleagues. I revised, reformatted, tweaked and adjusted until I had repertoire that met the highest standards.
Meanwhile, I was also producing arrangements for my students, both solo and ensemble. Teaching ensembles in school and at the local conservatory and lessons at the conservatory and at home provided the impulse to generate substantial amounts of material as well as venues for testing and refining it.
Now I have decided to make this material available to the public. At Vineyard Sound Music you will find top quality arrangements of music for gig use, from wedding standards to repertoire you will not find anywhere else. You will find studio and classroom tested educational repertoire for beginning to advanced students. Many public domain songs, rounds and folk tunes, as well as other teacher resources, have been posted and are available for free.
Vineyard Sound Music makes available several special collections for performers and educators. Trios for the String Quartet consists of repertoire specifically selected to be playable by any three of the four members of a string quartet. The Unaccompanied Violinist’s Wedding Collection includes the most requested classical wedding standards, all arranged with double stops to provide a fuller texture, as well as transcriptions of unaccompanied works originally composed for other instruments. The Elementary String Series consists of many rounds, canons, international folk melodies, and imaginative original compositions specifically arranged for beginning string ensembles. The Intermediate String Series provides excellent arrangements for groups ready for music of ASTA level 2 to 3. Today Vineyard Sound Music has over 2,000 items posted. More are being refined and posted on a regular basis.
Over the years, I have taken feedback from colleagues into account in arranging, editing, and formatting. I welcome feedback from you as well, relating either to the sheet music or to the site, both positive and negative. Please use the Contact Us page to tell me what you like about the music and site and make suggestions on how to improve things.