Herding Cats
Best. Analogy. Ever. Or at least the most accurate.
From the front end, it looks like my site is just sitting here, toodling along without a hitch. On the back end, I’m in a bit of a panic. That’s what you get for doing things yourself.
Apparently the theme I use (the thing that makes my site look like it does) is no longer up to the exacting standards of WordPress, and… skipping all the boring details… I have to redo the entire thing. (300+ pages. Okay, I admit it. That’s a plea for a little sympathy. Chocolate will be fine. ? )
When our cat isn’t napping in weird positions, he’s jumping off walls. Which pretty much describes the state of this poor site at the moment.
It’s a blessing in disguise, really. After decades of adding scores and pages piecemeal there’s no uniformity in the content here, so that can be fixed. After the change all the Personal Composer scores will be available so you can transpose to your hearts’ content. The fonts and sizes on the scores will all be updated. This is all a good thing. *she tells herself*
Fortunately I found one of these for sale on the internet.
The project is in progress, and will (I hope) (fingers crossed) (fingers really crossed) be transparent when the changeover happens. However, I do anticipate the site being offline for a couple of days, hopefully in late August, while I make the switch, so be sure you get what you need before then. I don’t want anyone waiting until the night before a practice and finding that the score they need is temporarily inaccessible.
One thing to note: I am discontinuing the use of Soundclick (since they refuse to move on from Flash-based players), so any recordings found only on Soundclick will be unavailable, some temporarily, some permanently. If there’s something there that you really like, download it now.
I’ll give you a couple of days notice once everything is ready.
There are a few new things in the pipeline… I’m working on a children’s album with two new songs… Katherine Wright did a lovely new setting for a hymn-text I wrote… and a new Christmas choral is running circles in my brain… but I won’t post them until after the switch. No use doing the same work twice.
Happy Tuesday. I’m off to lasso a few more felines. 
Handy info…
Since you asked: How to Find Translations on This SiteFinding translations here is super easy. This is what you do: […]
Resizing Scores Using the Personal Composer DemoStep by step instructions on resizing scores or text using the Personal Composer demo. […]- Transposing Using Personal ComposerHow to transpose .pc scores using the Personal Composer Demo. Step by step instructions. […]
Oh Sally, you make me giggle! You also make me so deeply grateful for you, your work, and for being in my life. I am the Saturday and Sunday soloist at a wonderful chapel in Attleboro MA as well as the occasional guest soloist at a church in CT. Every time I sing one of your compositions or arrangements, the pastors, congregation, and organists are in awe of your work and how it “touches the soul”, “is so beautiful”, or is “a gorgeous fresh take on” an old beloved hymn or carol. The congregations have actually applauded. (It’s not for me so much as it is for your works.) Time and time again I am asked where “that music came from”. The organists I work with are beyond delighted with the way you write so that it feels more like a duet with the soloist rather than an accompaniment that copies the melody. We cannot thank you enough for you, your work, and sharing your gift.
Chrys, you’re so kind! Thank you. 🙂
Hi Sally, You know you can build the new theme in a separate folder (password protect it) and then when all is done just move it to your home folder? This way you can stay online all but a couple of minutes. You can also back up all your pages and posts and upload them to the new theme.
Hope that saves you some time.
Yes indeed. That’s how it’s being done, and I’m hoping that the changeover will happen in 2 minutes instead of 2 days. But since, in my sad experience, my 2-minute jobs often hit unaccountable snags, I’m allowing (hopefully!) adequate time to make sure it all works. Fingers crossed!
<3 <3<3 <3 <3 <3 <3
I LOVED this! May I please receive the correct website info for your music? My computer “fried”… most of my info was gone. Thanks for this opportunity. I am putting together a stake women’s choir for the Xmas season, and looking for new material now.
We LOVE you Sally Deford. Thank you for sharing your compositions with the world. We know you receive blessings for this and your music saves souls and inspires many. THANK YOU!
Thank you, Esther! That’s better than chocolate. 🙂