Here are a few ways you can help out:
- Contribute information (guidelines below).
- Share this site with your friends, and encourage them to contribute.
- Link to this site from your own website/blog.
- Send me email, and complain, compliment, offer ideas, or just say hi.
- Send me some reed money.
Contributing information
If you have reliable information about a show, please share it! I will list you as a contributor on that show’s page, unless you let me know that you prefer to remain anonymous.
You can submit the information by leaving a public comment on the individual show’s page, or by sending me an email. Please indicate your sources if at all possible (personal experience, print sources, web links…). I will incorporate relevant information into the show’s listing as appropriate, and leave a comment myself to indicate that I have done so.
Here are some kinds of information that are really valuable:
- A new show that I don’t have listed.
- A correction to a current listing.
- Corrections/clarifications to shows tagged as currently missing information.
- Practical information that a woodwind player would need to show up prepared for the gig. Sometimes, for example, an instrument is listed on the book’s cover but the parts have been removed or reassigned.
- Sources, particularly where none is currently given. If you can verify the accuracy of a show already listed but unsourced, either from experience or from a source you have found, then I am happy to list you as a contributor for that show.
- A clarification about the type of listing, especially if no type is currently given: Production (such as on Broadway)? Tour? Rental? Many of the older listings lack this information.
- For productions and tours, information on where and when.
- For rental versions, the name of the publisher from which the show can be obtained.
When submitting instrumentation information, please be as clear and specific as you can: if the book calls for recorder, which size of recorder is it? Pennywhistle in which key? Does the book require an extended-range instrument such as a bass clarinet with low C, a baritone saxophone with low A, a flute with low B footjoint, etc.?
If you are commenting on a specific book, please make sure you indicate which one.
Here are some kinds of information that are less valuable. If you leave these in the comments, I’ll be lenient-ish but will moderate at my discretion. Ask yourself: is this information useful to someone else?
- “I played this show once.”
- “My local theater did this show and we left out reed 5.” (It’s extremely common for local/school productions to involve some kind of adaptation for specific circumstances.)
- “All the recorder parts can be played on flute.” (Let’s assume it’s a given that a capable musician can cover a part with an alternative instrument if necessary. Better: point out a possible and practical adaptation that is not obvious unless you have examined the score. “The part calls for contrabassoon, but all the contrabassoon parts are written so high that they can be covered on bassoon.”)
- “This show is awesome/boring.”
- “The flute parts are really hard.” “There are some fast instrument changes.” “The oboe has to play some low notes.” (Better: explain why these particular parts are of unusual difficulty for a well-prepared professional musician.)
I will definitely delete comments suggesting unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material:
- “Can somebody send me the sheet music?”
- “You can download the sheet music from…”
- “I can send you the PDF…”
Thanks in advance for your contributions!