Late last night (which I guess would be earlier this morning) I put the finishing touches on my latest piece for concert band, Turkey in the Straw. It’s still in the draft and reworking stages, but I’m excited to say that I finally have some kind of product that plays from beginning to end with relative cohesiveness! It’s been a surprising challenging struggle writing this piece, a sort of metaphorical cockfight (… but I guess that would be roosters, not turkeys…). Ideally, it should have been a “grade 3″ level piece, but, like everything else I’ve written, it quickly exploded into a “grade 4″. This isn’t a bad thing — I just suck at writing music for younger players which is ironic because I could probably never play what I write anyway. I’m finally excited, though. It’s also been difficult to see the “bigger picture” of the piece that now inspires me greatly. I’m hoping to have a final draft by Spring Break. Then, it’s off to MBM for their stamp of approval…