I have been surfing the web today.  I've been looking at composers and how they promote themselves online.  I did lots of searches.  I was quite surprised at the results. I didn't find  find that many composers' pages on Facebook.  There were more on Twitter.  Hardly any on Instagram or Tumblr.  Lots on Linked In.

Looking at some random sites.  They were mixed.  Some had music on the site, some had links. Often there was no information about events.  Searching for genres such as electroacoustic gave more accurate results.  Most didn't have blogs!

My own site didn't come up much either.  

There's another project.  

I enjoyed listening to Adam Stansbie - one of the electroacoustic composers I found today.

I have been using Sibelius notation software for years now.   I think its a great package.  It can most things well and there is usually always two ways to carry out a task. 

Its a large package though and I am still learning things I didn't know.  I have found there is just no way to put in a wavy slur line.  The only way to do this is by using graphics and importing them.

Today I was working on a large score and I decided I wanted two blank pages at the front (one for the title one for notes to the score.  I somehow ended up with three pages.   There is no obvious way to delete the spare page.  Undaunted I thought the best thing to do was to change the number of pages from 3 to 2 - seemed logical?  Err no Sibelius added another two pages so now I have 5 pages (3 of which I don't want). 

I can really recommend the Sibelius help forum.  I posted my problem at about 5 pm and by 7 pm some kind person had replied with the answer.  Brilliant

Why have I never fitted one of these before now.  

We were lucky enough to see Väsen recently in Edinburgh.  They're famous for their Swedish folk music and for featuring the nykelharpa.  However, make no mistake each member of the 3 strong bad is an absolutely superb musician.  They have been on the road for 25 years together and they are really tight as a result.  An absolutely amazing performance.  I think they must be one of the best folk bands in the world just now. It was a small venue and we were literally 3 feet from the stage.  Very inspirational.  If you don;t know them check them out.

They have a DVD out but it does;t seem on Amazon yet.  However here is a link to their album Gront - worth checking out.  Here is one of their videos on Youtube too.  Enjoy.