Before You Upload

Sanity Check

Listen to your arrangement a couple times, and make sure everything makes sense.

Once you’ve done that, glance over the full score and each of the parts once, and look for the following:

Playability

• Make sure notes are within each instrument's playable range; Sibelius/Musescore should show a note as red if it’s not, and yellow if it’s difficult on the instrument

• Make sure runs and jumps aren't too hard

  • Many instruments (especially brass) have trouble making large interval jumps (larger than a 5th or 6th) quickly

• Make sure pieces aren't too taxing on endurance/embouchure of the players, especially brass

  • If an instrument is playing for almost the entirety of the piece, consider trying to give them rests in some places

  • High ranges on wind/brass instruments tend to be difficult for players to hit consistently and frequently for long periods of time

Expression

• Make sure dynamics are written in when necessary, and make sense in the context of the part

• Check for proper technique markings and articulations

• Make sure solo and tutti parts are marked properly

Readability

• Make sure measures are spaced properly

• Check if a part can fit in fewer pages (e.g. systems are too spaced out, or there's only 2 or 3 systems on a page)

• Check if page turns are comfortable

• Make sure notes/rests are beamed properly to fit the time signature

• Check pitch spellings (e.g. double flats/double sharps that don't fit the key signature)

We don’t expect you to catch all of these mistakes. Everyone’s human, and we have part reviews for a reason. However, your arrangement will be much more favorably received by the Music Directors, part reviewers, and the orchestra at large if you take time to ensure that it is clean and has few errors.

Part Separation

For instruments like (auxiliary) percussion (excluding drum set), guitars, and vocals, go to Parts -> New Parts to combine these into one part; when you export, Sibelius will aggregate these into one PDF. Then go to Parts -> Delete Parts to delete all the parts you just aggregated so Sibelius won’t output repeats.

Beware of duplicate parts for the same instrument! If you accidentally generate two parts for the same instrument, you might make formatting changes on one, but end up exporting the other as a PDF. If this happens, delete the offending parts as needed.

Files to Upload

1. .sib or .mscz file with title of the piece as the file name

2. Audio file (original or exported mockup) if available, else YouTube link, or both

3. PDF files of scores with the file name formatted as “part - title” with the relevant part and title (you can use “%p - %t” or “%p - %f” in the exporting options).

   1. Tabbed instruments are grouped together with their corresponding tabs. Auxiliary Percussion is also grouped.

   2. For the Full Score, Sibelius generates an untransposed score by default. Check with the person who is conducting your piece whether they a transposed or untransposed version.