SaadApr 28, 202673 min12 attended

Office Hours · Apr 28

Lo-res sketching, when to share with performers, navigating commissions

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What was covered

Auto-summarized from the transcript. Saad reviewed before publishing.

Saad covered three main threads: 1) developing motivic material in lo-res before opening notation software (referenced as 'the single most common mistake'), 2) when and how to send 2-minute excerpts to performers for early reads (defended the 80/20 rule), 3) walked through Marcus Albrecht's commission-negotiation question with the Phoenix Symphony. Significant time on parameter-locking — Saad's coach formulation 'pick the one parameter you're developing this session' came up four times across different students' questions.

Transcript

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Show transcript

[00:01:24] Saad:Welcome everyone. I see we have twelve people on. Before we dig in, let me say something I've been thinking about a lot this week...

[00:03:51] Saad:The single most common mistake I see, especially with people coming from grad programs, is jumping into Sibelius too early. The notation program creates this finality — once it's in there, it's mentally hard to revise the bones.

[00:08:14] Marcus:Yeah, that's exactly where I'm stuck on Tide Glass. The harmonic field feels right but the rhythm isn't landing.

[00:08:42] Saad:Pick one parameter per work session. You already named it on your piece — "rhythm against sustained harmonic field" — keep that as the only thing you're developing this week. Don't open Sibelius yet.

[continues for 73 minutes...]