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This is something I think about a lot. If you aren't making physical copies of your music, I think you really should. Not just in burning CDs or whatever, but also in notation (and MIDI) so that the music can be re-created in the future if you lose the recordings. It has been noted in the 21st Century, that future generations will likely have no photographs of us, because no one develops physical photographs anymore. Facebook and Instagram are already no longer the monolithic media platforms they once were, as "alternative" platforms like Gab, Bit Chute, etc. are seeing record growth. In short: Facebook and Instagram will probably not be around in the future. But this is where, alongside SIM cards, where the bulk of the photos we take now are. What this means is that, in the future, your grandkids may not be able to find a single photo of you from your adult life. The SIM cards are long gone; the websites either offline or passwords to accounts long forgotten. The same is true of a great deal of music written over the last 40 years, at least. It's all digital. Many, many songs that people have written (especially over the last 15 years) exist entirely in cyberspace. It only exists as "backups" on HDDs which can and will eventually fail, on Box or Mediafire accounts that won't be around eternally, and no physical transcriptions of it exist. What this also means for us is that, you could be this really great musician and composer, but in 60 years? Your descendants may be completely unable to hear anything you ever made, over the course of your entire life. As if you never existed at all. Burn CDs, make cassettes, make sheet music, and many copies of it.

It sure was

I write my sheet music with pencil, should I switch to pen or just photocopy them?

Hi. I've been a busy bee for the past 8 years since I last posted here on YC. I have a publisher now - Woo Hoo! - and I've had several works recorded, published, and marketed through them. This is a work that I plan to submit for publication in next year's release. My writing is geared specifically to middle and high school concert band programs in the United States. But enough about that. "Appalachian Heart" is a work I wrote for my mother. She's an equestrian - someone who rides, raises, and cares for horses - who dedicated her whole life to raising hers and ensuring they found good homes. When I was a kid, I would wake up to the sound of horses galloping up from the valley to the barn next to my room. The work is basically a pastoral or chorale of this. Imagine a sunrise, hearing her call to the horses, hearing the stir of hooves hitting the ground as they galloped up to greet her, the calm serenity of them grazing in the field during the day, and their return to the barn in the evening as the sun sets. This is the essence of the work. I scored marching band bass drums to be performed in unison to illicit the effect of horses galloping from a distance, growing in volume and intensity as they get closer. Bear in mind that this is written for attainability and not necessarily meant to be terribly difficult or nuanced. Still, I think it achieves a nice effect, and I hope you enjoy the group that performs it - this is the California State University, Fresno, Wind Orchestra directed by Gary P. Gilroy from their concert last May. Cheers, -A