I'm planning to perform my graduate recital at SDSU during this coming fall semester. The faculty recommends that I postpone it until the following semester, because I still have to take a bunch of classes as well. So instead of postponing, I'll be preparing for it all summer. I'll have a recital audition (running through the program for the jazz faculty) in October, but I'd like to be ready to go by the time the semester starts in late August. I need about 80 minutes of material, half of which ought to be original compositions. So I need to compose a few songs, select and arrange a few others, and get a group together to rehearse.

I got started yesterday by composing a tune in Sibelius. I've used Finale for a few projects before, but I didn't really like it. The interface was clunky and it gave me too much power over minute elements I didn't want to change. I'd heard that Sibelius has a simpler interface, so I went about learning it yesterday. I found these awesome tutorials from composer James Humberstone and instantly loved it. Having now used both programs at a beginner's level, I'll be doing everything in Sibelius in the future.

As I followed the tutorials, I applied the concepts to a composition of my own in lead sheet form. I called it "Junior Rounding Third", because I'd been thinking about The Double after Griffey's retirement. (My dad took me to that game.) It's got some really tricky rhythmic ideas, which I actually heard in my head first without trying to be tricky. It reminds me of Chick Corea's "Tones for Joan's Bones" and "Chick's Tune".

Here's the lead sheet.