Art of Music Copying

[Gerry]

At rmmgj.blogspot.com:

The Seminal Text on Notation - The Art of Music Copying by Clinton Roemer

I couldn’t find an obituary anywhere, but I’m sad to say that Clinton
Roemer died in 2001. Someone on the net indicated in recent years that
he still lived in Sherman Oaks and was 93. Nope. Wherever you go,
whatever you do, the same title comes up as the definitive text for
notation for “real-world” scoring among commercial musicians and in
related fields (advertising, scoring for film, etc.). That is Clinton
H. Roemer’s “Art of Music Copying” subtitled “The Preparation of Music
For Performance”. It was initially published by his own publishing
company, Roerick Music Company, out of Sherman Oaks, California. He
only published a couple of titles, one on chord symbols (see elsewhere
in this blog), and this one. There was a second, expanded edition of
the scoring volume in 1985...
--
Sunday is my new usenet day. All the others are for fun.

[Nil]

On 07 Mar 2015, Gerry <add...@domain.com> wrote in
rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz:

> At rmmgj.blogspot.com:
>
> The Seminal Text on Notation - The Art of Music Copying by Clinton
> Roemer

Thank you. I spent a little time with this book in the '80s, but have
forgotten most of it. My notation writing is atrocious, worse even than
my handwriting. This should help. I also reserved a copy at my library.
I'm going to take a little time and try to improve my hand.

[Neer]

A great copyist who also was a fantastic musician just passed away recently. Will Connell, Jr. was his name, and in addition to playing sax and bass clarinet, he was a copyist for Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Simon and Garfunkel and Roberta Flack. He was a big part of the Free Jazz movement and a really beautiful cat. When he saw my steel guitar, he told me about his growing up in southern California and watching and idolizing Speedy West on the old western music variety shows.

BTW, I like the book Music Notation by Gardner Read.

[Gerry]

Me too, I have his excellent "Music Notation: A Manual of Modern
Practice". But it's not quite the same as the Roemer book as a
practical guide to survival on the bandstand. It's far more than that.
Last year, when I procured this pdf, I was just about to tear my own
copy apart and scan it for it's survival in the world. At that time
the only copy at Amazon was like $500. Since then fiv or six have
popped up for under $100.

I continued to poke around and found that there is likely a replacement
for Roemer out there which is in print, but I lost track of the hunt.
It may be the Berklee book by Mark McGrain: "Music Notation". But I've
lost track.

[Gerry]

Wow; 52 hits in 2 days! Clearly there's a lot of silent majority out
there on rmmgj.

[Tim McNamara]

I use Lilypond for writing lead sheets and have adopted the
Brandt-Roemer chord name conventions. I find that no one ever asks me
wat a chord symbol means using those conventions, unlike the lrge
M/small M style, or the use of -, ø, etc. They look slightly
old-fashioned but they work very well.

[Gerry]

For those unaware of the Brandt-Roemer conventions, it's here:

http://tinyurl.com/owf2b6s

I'm not sure how much of a novice one would be, to be unsure what
M/m/-/ø mean. It certainly implies they've spent no time with the Real
Book or with other fakes.

[Fuzztone, Ammo]

Thanks for the link, Gerry.
I have Roemer "Art of Music Copying" (1973) and am happy to supplement it with "Standardized Chord Symbols", since I have been struggling with that, in my use of Finale, which has large libraries of chord symbols, with some obvious ones unaccountably missing. I've had to spend hours creating my own libraries.
I will miss the "half-diminished" symbol PHI (ø), though.
I thought I had Gardner Read too, but I must have lent it out. Sigh. Will keep looking!
I have to mention John Mehegan's system as described in "Jazz Improvisation Volum I: Tonal and Rhythmic Principles", Lesson 56, "The Sensitive Tones" where he introduces use of the 9, 11 and 13th tones.
His unique notation of chords is as follows:
MA = M
7 = x
MI = m
MI7(b5) = ø
o = o
But some of it I can't get used to - like "x" for dominant seventh, and (#3) for SUS

Let's not over-think it, when we ought to be listening.
AMMO

[Gerry]

On 2015-03-15 06:14:27 +0000, Fuzztone, Ammo said:

> On Saturday, March 7, 2015 at 1:48:55 PM UTC-8, Gerry wrote:
>> At rmmgj.blogspot.com:
>>
>> The Seminal Text on Notation - The Art of Music Copying by Clinton Roemer
>>
>> I couldn't find an obituary anywhere, but I'm sad to say that Clinton>
>> Roemer died in 2001. Someone on the net indicated in recent years that>
>> he still lived in Sherman Oaks and was 93. Nope. Wherever you go,>
>> whatever you do, the same title comes up as the definitive text for>
>> notation for "real-world" scoring among commercial musicians and in>
>> related fields (advertising, scoring for film, etc.). That is Clinton>
>> H. Roemer's "Art of Music Copying" subtitled "The Preparation of Music>
>> For Performance". It was initially published by his own publishing>
>> company, Roerick Music Company, out of Sherman Oaks, California. He>
>> only published a couple of titles, one on chord symbols (see elsewhere>
>> in this blog), and this one. There was a second, expanded edition of>
>> the scoring volume in 1985...
>

> Thanks for the link, Gerry.I have Roemer "Art of Music Copying" (1973)

> and am happy to supplement it with "Standardized Chord Symbols", since
> I have been struggling with that, in my use of Finale, which has large
> libraries of chord symbols, with some obvious ones unaccountably
> missing.

Note that the "Art of Music Copy" that is there on blogspot is the 2nd
Edition from 1985.

> I've had to spend hours creating my own libraries.I will miss the
> "half-diminished" symbol PHI (ø), though.I thought I had Gardner Read
> too, but I must have lent it out. Sigh. Will keep looking!I have to

> mention John Mehegan's system as described in "Jazz Improvisation Volum
> I: Tonal and Rhythmic Principles", Lesson 56, "The Sensitive Tones"

> where he introduces use of the 9, 11 and 13th tones.His unique notation

> of chords is as follows:MA = M
> 7 = x
> MI = m
> MI7(b5) = ø
> o = o
> But some of it I can't get used to - like "x" for dominant seventh, and
> (#3) for SUS
>
> Let's not over-think it, when we ought to be listening.

I used Mehegan's system for a number of years causing no small amount
of embarrasment later on as the only apparent human using a crossed
seven to indicate Maj7. I did find immeasurable growth adopting his
roman numeral system for many years.

[Universe]

On Sat, 7 Mar 2015 13:48:51 -0800, Gerry <add...@domain.com> wrote:

Hey Gerry, I'm replying late, but I wanted to thank you for that.
Funny thing...I saw the original post but didn't notice the link at
the top. So I was curious about the book and spent an hour trying to
track it down before the Google trail led back to your post.

I've written a lot of software for composition, including notation
software. I have a lot of books on the subject, but mostly relied on
Gardner Read for the 'implementation' level of info (a lot of the
software guys use that book). I never ran across Roemer's book
directly. Pretty cool.

[Universe]

On Sun, 15 Mar 2015 01:23:54 -0700, Gerry <add...@domain.com> wrote:

>I used Mehegan's system for a number of years causing no small amount
>of embarrasment later on as the only apparent human using a crossed
>seven to indicate Maj7. I did find immeasurable growth adopting his
>roman numeral system for many years.

Ha! Two humans. I used the crossed 7 as well. I have Mehegan's
books. Is that where I got that?

[Gerry]

I know of no other champion for that approach.