Once professional-looking sheet music like this is prepared, the composer or producer can hire musicians to perform and record the music in the studio, safe in the knowledge that the composer's original intentions are going to be communicated as clearly as possible. Poorly prepared sheet music seems to have a negative effect on professional musicians. Even if they can read and interpret it, it reflects poorly on the composer, and musicians tend to take the project less seriously and put less energy into the project, be it a recording or performance.

Another reason to have your composition/tune/song "engraved" is to enhance and support it's origin as your original creative work. That is, having your music professionally presented can be a positive step towards establishing the work's identity as copyrightable work. For U.S. artists, copyright is not as automatic for original works as in Australia. In fact, U.S. composers/song-writers send in their professionally-notated works with a fee and an application form to the Copyright Office at the Library of Congress.

2) Arranging
A music copyist may also act as an arranger, taking a composition on one instrument or set of instruments and translating it into a wholly different ensemble. Take for instance, this fragment for bass and guitar, which has been "exploded" out to a chamber orchestral arrangement of mine:

3) Transcribing
Musicians also hire music copyists to help them create sheet music from recordings. The act of transcription relies on a very well-developed ear, but can do something that no computer can do. Musicians without literacy and aural skills of this kind can create written compositions from their own performances. I find that singer/songwriters and more self-taught musicians that have a great "feel" for music and a talent for creating tunes and songs benefit greatly from having their music committed to paper. It not only aids its dissemination into the greater music scene but also helps with maintaining concrete records for copyright and authorship purposes.
Furthermore, musicians often find great advantage from working on other people's music. Often this is not available in written form, so a transcription of, say, Charles Mingus bass lines helps the bassist to enter into the creative world of Mingus' music. Again, it gives the musician something concrete to focus on in their practice.
There are some examples of transcriptions on my transcription page.

4) Editing
Very often two pairs of eyes are better than one. Given the complexity of music, and the sometimes severe time restrictions a composer/arranger has in creating music, a music editor can be very handy when it comes to checking scores and parts. A good music editor makes a composer much more respected by his or her musicians and employers, because of the elimination of errors. Recording sessions go more smoothly, saving time and money.

Have a music copying task?
Please contact me if you are interested in any of these services and want to find out more. I have examples of past work available.

Oh, and what's the most unusual enquiry I have had for music copying? A husband wanted to create an unusual gift for his wife for their wedding anniversary. The couple were in Los Angeles and at the wedding reception danced to a performance of Richard James' "Easy Love". So I notated this beautifully and it was framed. Music engraving is art!

Qualifications
• Full Writer Member of the Australasian Performing Rights Association, with over 100 registered compositions
• Bachelor of Music (with Distinction)
• Graduate Diploma in Contemporary Improvisation
• Master of Music (with Academic Honors)

References
"To all you singer/songwriters out there: If you are looking for a top-notch service to transcribe/transpose your songs, look no further. Jonathan Dimond does excellent work at affordable prices. He is very efficient and can usually have your fully notated song back to you within a week's time. This guy is a winner!"
Michael (Boston, MA. October 2005)

"You're so fast and so gracious; I really value our working relationship".
Yours, Dave Stern (Cambridge, MA. November 2005)

Samples of my compositions
To give you an idea of what my own compositions look like, I am frequently making more of my compositions available on-line. These are able to be viewed and played for free, and downloaded and printed for a small fee at SibeliusMusic.com. Before you can do this you may need to install the free Scorch plug-in into your web browser.
Click to download the necessary plug-in.
Note that it presently doesn't work with Netscape... If you have a Macintosh running OS9, install the free web browser Opera to view music on this site.

Come and visit my Sibelius web page!