I'm in the studio this week recording with UK-based gospel singer John Pantry, who is not just an excellent songwriter, but also a popular presenter of the morning programme for London's Premier Radio (www.Premier.org.uk)
John came to me with a demo of the songs - I transcribed them all - this included getting John to play his piano parts into a music sequencing programme. I then exported those parts into Sibelius and edited them so that we ended up with parts playable by the average player. Once I had this edited piano score, I arranged the pieces for 4-part choir and sent them to an excellent local choir, Adoramus (www.adoramus.com) and they began rehearsing. At the same time, my team began to create tracks based on the piano scores and the choir were sent these as well.
We recorded the choir a few weeks ago, using 53 sets of headphones! It was a lot of fun and the choir loved the songs. The songs are largely based on the Anglican service and are destined both for choir use and for congregational use as well.
Now that we're in the studio, we have added guitar parts, done remotely by an excellent session guitarist and sent to us on DVD. We have also had backing vocals done by a great singer in Seattle - Ingrid DuMosch - and saxes and flutes, again recorded remotely, done by a player in London. The end result is rich and full and we hope radio-friendly!
I own publishing rights in this project, as well as the recording. It has always been a significant part of my work to be involved on all these levels - transcription, arrangement, recording, publishing and licensing - and I have also found distributors for both the audio and sheet music.
