How to Organize Your Music Sheets

Organizing music sheets

 

Glue music sheets together. One to the other. A stupid but effective job. If you want to play, you can get started without having to sort through sheets first. If you are still sorting all the time, then something is wrong with you. Once you print your music sheets on your HP Printer (with the help from 123 HP setup), immediately glue your notes together and do it right!

Turning the page is usually unpleasant for a musician. Because he doesn’t really have his hands free for that. The music should continue. Stay in the flow according to the given rhythm. And don’t stop all two sides. Two pages of a music book fill up quickly. Especially if you have sheet music with several voices, which is standard for piano or organ.

And then there are always music books that do not stop properly or unintentionally turn the page on their own. Also, a good reason to make a copy. Then you can play completely relaxed. Without the fear that the music book will fly towards you at any moment.

Oh yes, and the music library would be there too. Maybe you copy one or the other piece from music books in the library. It should be added at this point, however, that I can not give legal advice or recommendation on copy conditions.

So there are many different reasons that can give you a whole stack of individual sheet music. And thus a hopeless mess. Or an overwhelmed and disappointed by the result sticky musician. So what’s going wrong?

You don’t keep order when copying

Copy with structure. Always nice in order. And don’t let anything or anyone dissuade you from doing anything else. Be sure to leave the sheets in the order in which they come out of the copier. It is not important where the leaves are up and down. You look at that again when gluing anyway.

But don’t mess up the order! Searching for individual pages in a large stack of leaves is no fun. If you don’t believe it, give it a try. And I prophesy to you that you will only do this once.

You copy to DIN-A4, although your copier can also do DIN-A3

Your photocopier can also do DIN-A3? Perfect! You save half of the adhesive work if you copy to DIN-A3 instead of DIN-A4. You can fold the A3 sheets well in both directions and thus easily bend them in the desired direction, set them up flexibly, and store them.

With smaller copiers for the home, you rarely have this option. But if you have the opportunity for A3 copies, then definitely use it!

You don’t glue your notes together

You have individual sheet music. Everything is loose. If you want to play a piece, you first have to sort hands. How annoying!

Or look for missing leaves. Even more annoying!

Or they sail you individually from the music stand because three leaves next to each other are already too much. All very ugly. Don’t you think?

Don’t do that to yourself! Glue your sheet music neatly together. If you are lazy at this point, you will often have to pay for it later. Every time you want to play the piece with the loose leaves. The time you spend gluing the sheet music together will be saved many times over later.

You’re using the wrong gluing technique

Some mean it particularly well and pull the tape along the full length of the A4 sheets. Definitely holds. Also does a lot of work. Your adhesive roll is empty in no time. Would be for a musician who spares no effort to cope with everything.

The real problem is: the edges are very firm and are difficult to bend in the desired direction. As a result, the notes are often not smooth. And when it comes to folding the sheet music for storage, I wish you a lot of patience!

I strongly recommend an adhesive technique that saves time, adhesive material, and patience. Turn the individual sheet music on the back and apply a short adhesive strip in three places, top, bottom, and middle. This is done quickly, stands stable and smooth, and can be folded wonderfully. My favorite adhesive technology for years!

With only two adhesive joints, the sheet music becomes significantly more unstable. Especially if they stand longer, the tension of the paper decreases, and it curls and collapses. So it’s better to use a third adhesive joint.

Glued so you can fold the notes as a book. Or set up long lanes and flexibly define the pages for turning pages. When you practice, you can fold the notes so that you can always play the corresponding section without turning the page. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

 

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You feel that sticking notes together is a chore

A mountain of paper, all the sheets have to be glued together. What a job! When gluing notes together, hardly any musician shouts hurrah. Nevertheless, you don’t have to find sticking sheet music together boring. This stupid work is great for giving your attention to something else on the side. For example, beautiful music.

When you listen to what you’re gluing, your anticipation of playing the piece yourself grows. Gluing can even be really fun! And you’re motivated to keep sticking because you know exactly why you’re doing it.

And if you stick a leaf incorrectly, don’t get angry. In the time you would do this, you have long since cut the leaves apart and glued them back together.

When you’re done, you can proudly place your glued notes on your music stand. They are now just waiting to be played.

You keep your sheet music as the only pile of paper

Your sheet music is now neatly glued together, but you wonder how you can store them now? It really makes sense to look for a few tools for sorting and storing.

Otherwise, the painstakingly glued notes together will turn into chaos in the end. In addition, you also want to find pieces again when you are looking for them.

Sheet music in the folder

You can sort your sheet music into one or more folders. But better not to punch! Otherwise, you may not be able to see individual notes. They have then perforated away. Only punch if you are really sure that the edge is wide enough. From his own experience, however, he never is on all copied sheet music. So keep your hands off it.

How do you then get the notes sorted into a folder? With transparent covers. Put each piece in an A4 sleeve. So you can scroll through the folder piecemeal. You then have a good overview and quickly find when you are looking for something. Additional colorful separation pages can help you to further divide your sheet music collection into composers or other categories.

For a good overview, a folder with transparent covers is a great choice. It can be a bit unfavorable if the pieces are too long. If there are too many sheet music sheets next to each other, the folded sheet music may be too thick to fit into a foil.

However, it is the case that not all DIN A4 covers offer the same amount of space. So try out transparent covers from different manufacturers. Some shells are very tight. Others have more leeway. A long piece with a lot of sheet music fits into this.

However, the clarity gained is also time-consuming. You have to pull the pieces out of the case to play. And above all, laboriously put it back in. Therefore, consider whether this variant of note storage suits you. Or whether this effort is too great for you.

If you play many different pieces, again and again, you will be better served with my next suggestion for storing sheet music.

Binders for storing sheet music

Your glued sheet music is also in good hands in binders. Here you can no longer browse through the individual pieces so comfortably. But packing and unpacking the leaves is much less complicated.

Thin folders for your sheet music

If you want a little more order, I recommend many thin folders. With stickers, you can also label them on the outside. Each folder then contains a small number of pieces.

These are then well sorted and also ready for transport if you want to take a selection of pieces somewhere. However, if your sheet music collection grows a lot, you may need very, very many folders and storage space for it.

Thick folders for larger stacks of sheet music

If you can do without delicate sorting in favor of more uncomplicated handling, I recommend thick binders. Really thick. Several centimeters thick. You could also call them boxing. In terms of shape, they look like a stack of copy paper. A large stack of sheet music fits into such a folder.

The notes are quickly stowed away and quickly taken out again. Thick folders are also the most space-saving method for storing notes. So if you have a lot of notes and there is not so much space in your apartment, thick folders are ideal for picking up sheet music.

Have you already glued your notes together and kept them tidy?

Have you already accumulated a few more sheet music? Then you should think about a system for storage by now at the latest. What’s your favorite for storing sheet music?

No matter what kind of folders or folders you choose: The sheet music can be neatly stowed away in the closet or lined up on a shelf.

If you build up a neat collection of sheet music, you will create a wonderful treasure. A whole chest of valuable resources for you and your instrument!

And neatly glued together and sorted, it is also fun to rummage through your sheet music collection again and again! You will be amazed at the inspiration you can find here after a few years.