🎬 Proofreading Checklist: What the Score Hides (and the Parts reveal)
Every orchestrator knows this moment: the score looks perfect — but once you extract the parts, things fall apart. Missing dynamics, unclear slurs, or a mute marking that never made it across.
That’s why I treat the split/condense process as more than housekeeping. It’s a built-in proofreading step. Below is some of my personal checklist — three things I always double-check when moving from score to parts:
1. Player indications – who plays what, and is it clear in both score and parts?
2. Dynamics – does every entrance have a dynamic, even after rests?
3. Technical instructions – are mutes, slurs, and text markings copied over correctly?
Get these right in the score, and your parts will almost build themselves. Miss them, and you’ll hand players something that leaves them guessing.
Whether you write with separate staves for each player or condense them directly into the score, you’ll eventually have to split voices or combine them. Trombones 1 and 2 may share a staff in the score, but they’ll each need their own part later. That’s where the real proofreading begins.
For me, horns are the giveaway: if they’re written separately all the way through, I can usually tell it’s someone not used to the workflow. Horns almost always need to be condensed. Woodwinds are different — they’re often written on separate staves because one of them is doubling piccolo, English horn, bass clarinet, or contrabassoon. In that case, keeping them split gives the conductor a consistent page layout across the whole project.
But whichever way you go, the process of splitting or condensing is more than just housekeeping. It forces you to re-examine your material, and very often you’ll catch things you missed. Think of it as a built-in proofreading step.
1. Player Indications
Here’s a small example: when copying out the oboes, I suddenly realized my little passing note raised a question. Should both oboes play that first C, or only one?
That also triggered a second check: how should oboe 2’s slur be? Sibelius’ explode function will copy things over, but it’s on you to decide whether the slur belongs in each part:
My rule of thumb for the score: keep both, unless space is so tight that it muddies the layout.
And while the score only needs a single dynamic on the downbeat, oboe 2’s part must state the dynamic on beat two, so the player knows exactly how to enter:
2. Dynamics
Another common trap: expanding material across octaves. If you copy material from oboes into flutes and clarinets, this often happens:
It sounds fine in playback. But when I extract parts, I realize the flutes and clarinets never got a starting dynamic.
Playback doesn’t complain. Musicians will. Mark a p (to conform to the oboes) when you hand over the phrase.
3. Technical Instructions
Sometimes the score looks perfect. Take these trumpets — slurs marked, phrase clear:
But as soon as I extracted the parts, trumpet 2 was missing a dynamic and the “con sord.” instruction:
Trumpet 1’s part even carried an unnecessary “1.” marking:
The lesson: the score isn’t the final word. Parts need their own layer of attention — especially with technical text like mutes. They have to start, stop, and cancel at the right moment for the player, not the conductor.
Three Rules I Keep in Mind
Never leave the conductor guessing who plays what. Horns are usually condensed, woodwinds often split. Use a2 or parenthetical repeats as your house style demands. Some house styles repeat (a2) on every single or every left page so the conductor never has to flip back.
Every entrance gets a dynamic. Some house styles restate a dynamic after every full bar rest or after a multimeasure rest. It’s never wasted ink.
Proof every bit of text. Dynamics, articulations, mute instructions, doubling labels. Italics, bold, placement above or below — whatever your style guide says, consistency is king.
The truth is: all of this is easier if you’re meticulous in the score from the very beginning. Write dynamics at every entrance, phrase markings clearly, and player instructions consistently. That way, when it’s time to extract, the parts will come together smoothly — and your musicians will thank you for a score that doesn’t leave them guessing.
The real takeaway is this: don’t wait until the parts to discover what’s missing. Train yourself to look at your score as if it were already the parts.
Ask yourself: Would the conductor know who plays this? Would the player know when and how to enter? Is every instruction unambiguous?
If you make that mindset part of your process, you’ll catch the mistakes early, your parts will fall into place faster, and the musicians in front of you will always get a clean, confident message from the page.
Treat your score as a rehearsal of the parts — and you’ll never hand out pages that leave anyone guessing.