Hi MG,

Glad you liked it! Thank you for the suggestions and for playing around with it.
>>quote: The playback happened to be at measure 390 at the time. So I tried copy/pasting all of percussion 1, measure 387 to percussion 2, measure 388; then I pasted the first two beats to measure 389.

I like that. I made the change you suggested and kept it in.

>>quote: Again between Beetle Juice and Alabama Heart and Soul, I tried a couple of things, but although I think I like silence filled better, I didn't find any sounds that sounded right.

I need to work on the silence in that section. The instrument sound change at meas.#567 Percussion2 is for the agogo. That is the "washboard" in the original composition. It doesn't come in until later, but I was thinking of filling those 2 measures with the washboard as an introduction to Alabama. By the way, Alabama was just put in last night because I remembered you liked it, so I slipped it in for you.

>>quote: The silence before the finale might be needed, but I find myself wondering what the effect of sliding that F chord into something very dissonant and long held, with a gradual decrescendo might be.

Yes, I wanted to give America some degree of "seriousness". The tempo goes from 112 bpm to 69 bpm, but I made the tempo change 6 beats too early and that caused too much silence. I decided to leave it that way because I was thinking of writing a single snare drum part to put in there ( sort of like 2 quarter notes and a 2 beat drum roll and repeating that once more ). It kind of reminded me of a military funeral march, with the cason type procession. I need to put some more thought into that. I want to make a mood change there.

I think I got a little carried away and made it too long. My wife's comment was "23 minutes? Since it is a 'competition', why not make it 2 separate performances between 2 competing bands...then we could pick the winner". I love her! She is my harshest critic!

Thanks again for your help and guidance!!
Fred