Hello everyone, I’m here with my traditional Thanksgiving newsletter. As always, I’m happy to hear of everyone’s successes and congratulate you and your students on the great work!

There are some policy and price changes for next year I will outline below. Those who were custom clients last year have already been updated on some of these. I’m not going to do a deep dive on why I’m making these changes other than to say I’m trying to claw back a little time for myself, and for quality control reasons. If you have specific questions about these changes, reach out anytime. 

New Shows

New show music has been added to the website, with a few more to come. Check them out here: https://www.ccmusicdesign.com/new-music-for-2025/

New Policies: 

  1. I will not be accepting any new custom design clients for music or drill for the foreseeable future. If you were a custom client last year, your spot is secured. I do have a waiting list and if spots become available, I’ll offer the spot asap to the top person on the list, first come first served. Let me know if you would like to be added. I wish I could take on more, but I hit my max last year. (If you are a current custom client and want to go a different direction, please let me know so I can offer a spot to someone on the waitlist.) 
  2. I am no longer directly offering percussion or electronics/sound design services. (But will still be writing robust front ensemble sketches!) Rob Sullens is available to facilitate these requests through Bandology and if you’ve been using a percussion arranger you like I can get you directly in touch with them. But I will not be managing their deadlines, re-writes, billing, etc. And as always, I’m happy to collaborate with any arrangers if you have your own. 

New pricing for 2025 can be downloaded here: 2025 CCMD Pricing Sheet

Drill Sets Variable Calculator: Available Here – please download to your own device before using. 

I’ve created the above calculator to help you gauge exactly how much music you need (based on counts) for how many sets you desire. I often end up with way more music than needed for the amount of drill sets you would like, which results in very long holds, or very long transitions. (Any transition over 20-ish counts creates a myriad of issues. Especially if dealing with practice field limitations, many performers, or props to negotiate around). Follow the instructions and this should give you a basic estimate as to how much music you need to program depending on how much drill you would like to teach. Thinking strictly about total time doesn’t factor in tempo variables, so it’s not as accurate a gauge. This is obviously just an estimate as there are other items that play a part but consider it a tool to help with organization.  

Quick Design Thoughts: 

Here are some quick design considerations to think about going into next year. (Sorry guard friends…) 

  1. Exploit a theme, vibe, schema instead of trying to tell a chronological story. Based on analysis of top BOA groups and DCI from the past couple of years, this seems to be the trend. 
  2. Guard instructors are over-programming! Too many equipment changes, too often. This creates major continuity issues, unless you have 40 in your guard. (I will be pushing back on these requests more than in the past.) 
  3. Guard dots! Be diligent in checking their staging. They tend to go rogue sometimes which can ‘affect’ your ‘effect’ scores. 
  4. OK, last guard thing. Big Sound = Big Color and vice versa. We want to see what we hear. Horizontal work is louder than vertical work, fabric in the air is louder than fabric near the ground. (I saw one group literally place flags on the ground for body work right before the loudest and most climatic part of the show. Nah fam… this is not the way.) 

OK, I’m done with my “pet-peeves”. 🙂 

Thanks as always for the opportunity to work with you all. Reach out anytime if you want to talk about any of the above. 

Happy Holidays and have a great rest of the year! 

Chris