how do you organize your sheet music?

[bananafish]

I find it very hard to find the "best" way to organize sheet music that I printed from the computer. They scatter, they fly, they hide, and eventually they go missing.

I notice a lot of people download sheet music from the internet, how do you organize them? Do you put them in some kind of a folder? If so, what kind of folder? (it'd be nice if you could show me a picture, or provide the name of it.) I used to put mine in those folders with plastic holders, but they glare from the slightest light sources.

So, please tell me, how do you organize your sheets?

Here's www.officedepot.com if possible, may you link the product for me? (You can use any website you find the most convenient.)

Thank you very much.

[pianistimo]

plastic holders is what i use too.  and yes, there is glare.  hmmm.  i don't really know of anything else but lamination (which also has glare) - but the good thing is that you can three hole punch it.  actually i think laminating works well because there isn't as much glare as the pocket holders. 

i went to my daughters school and just asked if i might be able to laminate a few things - as i was helping to laminate stuff already for her class.  it makes the pages last longer.

ps just make sure you know how to turn off the machine if you need to.  those things are hot and if you lean forward and get your hair or finger stuck.  ouch.  you'd be really hurting. 

[bananafish]

Thank you Planistimo. Lamination seems to be a good (rare, too?) idea, but my concern is: how do you make notes on it? The surface seems to be too smooth to hold any pencil markings.

[faulty_damper]

I will print it out on heavie, off-white (to reduce eye-strain) paper and go to a printing store and have it spiral-bound with a presentation cover (which is clear on front and black on the back cover).

I only use this option on certain music that is hard to find and/or the price too steep to purchase.  The cost should be cheaper at independent printing services.  Don't go to Fedex-Kinko's as the price is heavy.

This option works well if there are a lot of pages that will be bound.

It is also possible to have it printed on larger stock paper, like a book so it will be stapled.

[alwaystheangel]

you caan get those page holders that are anti glare.
I use that and a binder.  it's like 4 inches thick!

[ted]

I don't bother organising mine at all. A large cabinet is full of it and the rest is lying around the floor. As I hardly use any music these days it doesn't really matter.

[quantum]

For most of my music it's plastic sheets in many binders.  I usually only put the ones I intend to play into the plastic sheets.  The rest are neatly stored in the boxes that the platic sheets were purchased in.  Nice thing about them is they are a good size so they can be stored on the shelf along with the other music. 

One of my teachers has this really neat idea of using an artist sketchbook, shrinking the music a bit and gluing them on.  The advatage is no page turns.   I've seen her fit like 30 pages of music on one of those huge sketchbooks - it was necessary as the music was the non-stop minimalist kind, and page turns were impractical. 

I've been really looking into geting myself a cone binding machine.  But they are expensive.  Maybe I can get one second hand, from an office or something. 

[sklebil]

I glue the printed scores in old notebooks and magazines. No glare. Perfect. My colleagues are eyeing me suspiciously though when I walk around the lab pulling out catalogs etc. out of the trashcans 

[pianistimo]

lots of good ideas.  never thought of that one, sklebil. 

ted's idea made me laugh - i also have some piles around.  the wind blows and all the pages are messed up.  except for the ones that i taped together and run sideways for a mile.  after taping them - usually i accordian fold them and then let the last three pages just hang out like a sore thumb at the back of the music stand.  sometimes i have to turn my head sideways if it won't stay on the rack.

[leucippus]

I've placed all mine in large 3-ring notebooks.  Although all of my pianos are large accoustical uprights and I can place a whole 3-ring notebook easily on the music rack and open it to the pages I want to play.  In fact I often have several 3-ring notebooks on the piano rack at one time.

Of course, any piece of sheet music can easily be removed from the notebook too, but I seldom need to do that.

I can see where this might be a problem with an electronic piano that has a flimsy music rack though.  The notebooks can grow quite large if you print out a lot of music.  Or you can keep thinner notebooks and just have more of them.

[thalbergmad]

I tend to print on 120grm printspeed as you can scribble on your fingerings without sticking your pencil through the sheet.

Often, i have the sheets wire bound with laminated covers.

I then leave them lying around in a mess and my mum picks them up and files them on my bookshelves.

Thal

[bananafish]

All of these are such good ideas. I didn't even know anti-glare plastic holders existed. I espeically like faulty_damper's idea about having it spiral bounded, and the ones about gluing them onto notebooks/sketchbooks/catalogues. That sort of has the same effect as spiral bounding them (except they are cheaper looking... but who cares? Right?)

Keep them coming! :p

p.s. I've been playing Bach's Italian Concerto from the Dover edition. Just two days ago, I found a downloadable public domain copy on the net. Guess what. It was the exact edition Dover used... That made me think twice about buying sheet music from now on (especially from Dover Publication).

[bananafish]

Thal, why can't moms take the hint to stop shelfing them away when we keep on throwing them back on the floor?

They are slow learners. How shall I discipline them?

[thalbergmad]

Thal, why can't moms take the hint to stop shelfing them away when we keep on throwing them back on the floor?

They are slow learners. How shall I discipline them?

Refuse to pay the housekeeping.

Thal

[invictious]

1 word, rubber bands.

Damn, that's 2, how about I rearrange that.

Rubberbands.

Much better.