Crystal Premo wrote:
That's what your client wants, and if he's a jazz guy, that is by *no* means an unreasonable request. In fact, that's what most jazz musicians prefer. Your client isn't an idiot, he just wants his chart to look like other jazz charts. (I happen to know that Chuck prefers a more traditional engraved look for his own music, which is why he prefers different conventions.)
My client can have whatever she wants. I just wish she would *say* what she wants when she proofs things the first or second or third time.
Ah, that may be a problem with the way you set things up with your client. Whose fault is it that the communication wasn't clearer from the start? As the professional engraver I'm afraid that responsibility lies with you. You can't expect the client to realize that you may not be coming from the same tradition that she is.
Knowing how idiosyncratic she is, you should work out beforehand (on the next project) what sorts of formats she wants (4 bars per line, left-hand barlines including double-bars at section starts, handwritten font or engraved font, number of lines per page). Also make sure in the contract that after initially agreeing on format issues, any changes she wants you to make in the printed output will be charged extra.
It seems as if your client is coming from one musical world and you are coming from another musical world and the conventions in the two different musical worlds don't agree all the time.
Working out how the finished music should appear is an important first step in order to determine costs, I would think.
In any event, if clients keep changing their minds they have to pay for the extra time it takes you. If they are simply trying to get the music into the form they thought you would have understood from the start it's a different matter -- As the professional engraver you should have known what the questions should be to ask the client before beginning the work.
As they say -- live and learn. Now might be a great time to come up with a list of important questions to ask all your clients at the start of a project, such as appearance issues, number of each generated part or score, how much leeway you have in deciding layout issues, going over the manuscript for any idiosyncratic notation devices that you will need to engrave or convince them to use more traditional devices. All that should be worked out in advance so it can be calculated into the fee you quote the client as well as to save aggravation later on.
-- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
