Making Progress

an Artistic Score Engraving update from August 2023

Dear all,

Welcome to the second update for Summer 2023, this time live from Belgrade, Serbia! Before moving on with the news, I would like to offer my public apology to the several thousands of people who watched the excerpt of the premiere of J. S. Bach’s First Cello Suite with piano accompaniment by Piatti. Sadly, there was no reference to my work and to where the edition could be found in the video.

That was completely out of my control, but since it was my work that was being performed, I felt it earnest to apologise to all of you. Should you be interested in it, you can find it here.

NEWS

New editions

Shortly after the last update, I released a most unexpected work: Six Waltzes for piano four-hands by J. J. F. Dotzauer! I’ve written an article about it; check it out, it’s a fascinating story. You can find the edition here, and listen to how it sounds here.

Updated editions

One of my first editions, back in 2018, was C. A. Piatti’s Quartettino “In Vacanza” for four cellos. Given its popularity on all platforms, I decided to update it to the new ASE Design and to review it. Overall, over 100 improvements have been made to this edition. You can find it here, and listen to how it sounds here.

Blog Posts & more…

This month I’ve gotten back to writing my blog and to trying to achieve a more regular presence on the web. To this end, I have launched the following blog series:

• Sibelius Bugs and how to survive them, where I try to help users face Sibelius’ most annoying issues: find Episode 1 here.
• Sibelius Tutorials: the first episode on how to create trills with accidentals is already available (Ep. A, B, C, and D) with an accompanying template.
• Engraving Best Practices, where I share what I’m learning during my music engraving journey at the service of composers and publishers. The first series on engraving an opera is underway. Episodes 1, 2, 3, and 4 are already available.
• An Italian cellist’s journey into the Serbian Language, where I share my learning path into this fascinating language. Lessons 1, 2, and 3 are available.

In addition, on Twitter, LinkedIn, and on my Facebook Page, I’m sharing wisdom-pearls from J. J. F. Dotzauer. You are welcome to follow me there.

Promotions

Back to School

On August 1st, I have launched my annual Back to School sale. If you’re subscribed to my mailing list, you’ve already received the announcement. Otherwise, here’s how it works:

• use code ASE-BTS-10 to get 10% off your order of US$ 50+
• use code ASE-BTS-15 to get 15% off your order of US$ 100+

Since this sale celebrates students & teacher worldwide, a US$ 50+ purchase of pedagogical material (Dotzauer, Kummer, Lindley, Vivaldi, Marcello, Piatti…), with code OPENYOURARM-23 will net you 23% off selected products.

Browse all available products here.

The Sale will last until September 30th!

Edition of the Week

Every Wednesday, one edition will be featured on my social channels, with a special link to get 23% off.

Anniversaries

When a birth or death anniversary of a composer featured in my catalogue shows up, I will run a 48h-long 15% discount on all their scores. I will announce them on my social channels linked above.

How are things going?

Health

I am slowly recovering from the shock that Q2 of 2023 was. We spent a week of holidays in Croatia immersed in the green, playing with cats and taking long strolls in nature. While there, I massively limited my phone notifications, and it was so refreshing that I’m going to apply part of it to my everyday routine.

A huge mental breakthrough!

While investigating how to grow in this business, I realised one thing:

No one cares about you personally, nor about what you do; people only care if what you do can be of some use to them

As harsh as this sounds, it struck home. For months, I had wondered why my scores’ sales were so disappointing, so I asked myself:

What problem do my scores solve? What does my work solve?

Let’s try to find an answer:

1. Teaching cello solves the problem of parents looking for a cultural baby-parking. Harsh, I know, but so true, and now that I realised it, I feel frustrated no longer!
2. Music engraving makes composers save time, get a better-looking product that can net them more concerts/sales/contracts…

Now to my scores: some of them sell much better than others, but why?

1. The reason behind the success of my edition of Goltermann’s 4th cello concerto is simple: it solved a problem I had! A student of mine was good enough to play it with orchestra, but no score nor parts were available. I solved this, and other people with the same issue chose it as their own solution.
2. My Suzuki method arrangements sell relatively well. That’s because I created them for a specific purpose: giving my students more fun during orchestral practice!

Now, finding why the editions I care the most about do not sell well is more complex. It is not that they do not solve a problem, rather they solve a problem I believe exists! It is my opinion that we need more cello duets (Dotzauer’s collections), that we need more thumb position studies (Kummer’s Op. 44), or that we need new editions of Marcello Sonatas. Making them into bestsellers will require great efforts, since I will need to make people realise they also require them first! Then, and only then, they will start to perform better!

Some fun!

Finally, some fun. I got my first haters, which is a great signal for everyone trying to get traction on the web. Exactly when I started to publish the articles on Sibelius, the main website for this frantically started to post old articles of theirs. Some people even took the time to comment under my posts, saying how these tutorials were not necessary.

This is great because it means I am doing something good, and that I should definitely continue in this direction.

What’s next?

Upcoming editions

I am currently working on four new editions:

1. The next two instalments of Phase 2 of the Dotzauer Project, dedicated to chamber music.
2. Something entirely new and not directly related to the cello. This sparked from a new, healthy collaboration that will undoubtedly bring wonderful fruits.
3. An arrangement of a well-known orchestral piece for 8 cellos, also this from a new collaboration which will hopefully dominate my 2024 production.

I will fill you in on each one of these in due course, as they are ready.

Learning path

I recently got back to learning Adobe Animate for a possible upcoming project. It’s such a hard-to-use software, with many things that one would consider automatic just not working (e.g., pinch to zoom). Here’s something I’ve recently created:

Bottom Line

Thank you for reading through this update.

You can join my mailing list here, browse my digital editions in the catalogue, and check what’s available for print in the HNE Store.

My YouTube channel contains video renditions of most of my editions, check it out, it would mean a lot to me.

If you want to actively support what I do, be sure to check out my Gumroad Support Program: it starts at a couple of coffees a month, and it gives back much more than it takes.

I wish you an entertaining summer, wherever you are.

Until next time, thank you.

Michele