What do you do with the sheet music for long pieces?

[jsbflat]

I was wondering if anyone has any tips, or could tell me what they do when a piece they play has a great number of pages?  What I mean is, if you are playing without having memorized (for medical reasons I have little ability to memorize, so I need to look at the music while playing). I am trying to work through Beethoven's Pathetique, and the sheets are all over the place. It's not a real problem when I am just working on a certain passage, but when I would like to play a longer segment, it becomes difficult.  In the past I have taken a few pages and pasted them to a long sheet of cardboard, but that only works for about 3, maybe 4 pages.

I am also wondering how you store sheet music. Do you keep it in a file, in a binder, in a pile? 

Thanks for reading!

[dave_clifford]

I just paste my piece on a a4-size book, you can try learn to flip the page at the right time when one of your hand is not busy. You can also make a dog ear at the corner of the page to make you turn it easier. That's how i do  Pasting pages on a long sheet of cardboard is quite weird 

[brianlucas]

Put the pages together with a small gap in between them and put a piece of scotch tape over the sheets.  Then fold the pages together. Alternate the tape front to back so you are always folding into the tape. Z fold the pages and you should be able to flip it like a book.

Another option is to get a binder and clear sheet protectors and place 2 pages back to back in each sheet.

-Brian Lucas
www.pianoin8weeks.com

[bleicher]

In this day and age there ought to be a technological solution! I've seen a conductor conducting from an iPad, and apparently there is an orchestra somewhere that plays from computer screens so no need to turn the pages manually.

[jeffkonkol]

I usually set them up three across on the piano in an order where I can just move one to the side to get access to the next page at a logical pt in the music.

So pg 1 on the far left.... perhaps 2 in front of 3 in the middle.... and 4 in front of 5 on the right.  Sometime towards the end of 2, I slide it to the left, opening page 3.  Sometime during page 4 I slide it to the left opening page 5.  If i had a page 6 It could easily be behind page 5.... etc...etc...

I find it easier than turning

[nystul]

Binder and sheet protectors works very well, aside from glare in certain lighting.  You can turn page in a carefree manner without crumping the page or having it fall away.  It's also a pretty safe storage for the loose sheets.  Of course you have to take pages out of the protectors in order to mark things.

[jsbflat]

Thank you for your helpful tips!

[pianoplayjl]

In this day and age there ought to be a technological solution! I've seen a conductor conducting from an iPad, and apparently there is an orchestra somewhere that plays from computer screens so no need to turn the pages manually.

damn thats convenient!
I have 1 piece that is 8 pages. I spread it out over 4 pages. when my sister learnt this piece my piano teacher told her to spread it over 4 pages instead of 2.

[sucom]

I use display books which keep the music really safe, and allow easy page turning.  It's a bit of a pain having to take a sheet out to write on it, but the display books work so well, it's worth the effort.

[bwv772]

Or this: https://www.musicreader.net/