Having just dropped my loose leaf pile onto the floor and spending half an hour putting them back in order.....

BTW is sheet music like socks? As there were some missing pages even though it was complete before...

What recommendations does Piano World have of binding them and putting them back together? With of course easy removal, I considered comb binding as you can lay the pages nice and flat, but I have not yet mastered the dark art of page turning yet, its voodoo I tells ya.

Front running is treasury tags so I can take out the pages I want as I need them without the need to turn pages. Or one of those binders which contain clear plastic wallets and removing them as necessary.

A tablet or e-ink reader might be nice but I scrawl notes all over my sheet music.


What do you use?

Mine is pretty much a giant mess.

Pieces I am years away from playing stay mostly on a bookshelf; current pieces for lessons are in a tidy little stack that moves between the bench and the music desk, and there is a bunch of random and fun stuff sort of all over the place.

I have bound and unbound music.

The music that is bound with comb-style binding I play as is. For other music, I will find a copy (often IMSLP) and print out a pdf copy (or make my own copy or arrangement using MuseScore or the equivalent).

For the loose pdf printouts:

1) Non-current--place in one of those plastic sleeve holders with three-ring binder capability and put it in a three-ring binder. I don't like to play from sheets inside the sleeve holders--the glare is a problem and early on I might write a fair bit on the sheet.

2) Current--I use colored manila folders for each piece. I can go straight to a particular piece and besides, the rainbow effect is cool. The manila folder helps keep the sheets upright on the music stand and can even be used to extend the music stand.

I print on a single side (no page turning) and tape two sheets together, side by side. That also helps stability on the stand, along with the manila folders. Using the manila folder extenders/supporters, I can get four sheets in front of me. If I ever get to longer pieces, I'm in trouble.

While learning a new piece I usualy use a photocopy(I write notations on these) and use a clean copy for the looseleaf binder.

For books, if they are spiral bound I use the photocopy to write my notations on and play from the book after learning them. I do like the idea of the colored binders though for the copies I have. I have some sheets and books that are light years ahead of my abilities yet; they live on my music cabinet/shelf as of right now

I like to scan my scores into the computer as PDF files. Then I can just print them out as I need them. I generally keep the scores I'm currently working on in a 3 ring binder, but my organization is all on the computer. I also have been known to add metadata to the files to make them easier to find, things like title or composer.

I'd recommend either trying to organize 'em and put 'em up on a bookshelf like malkin or something I've have good success with - using three-hole-punches and keeping things organized by category in a binder (or several )

I'm using punched pockets to keep loose one-side printed copies of my music together. Works fine for me. I like the one-sided copies since I can spread them out over the music stand, scribble on them, and I don't have to flip them halfway while playing.

I keep the pockets in a ring binder and this sucks. It's hard to browse through the music and the pockets always get stuck at the place where the ring opens.

Super-Hunky once posted a picture of a giant piece of cardboard that he used to tape sheet music onto in two rows. It could easily accomodate up to 8 pages at once.

My eyesight fades at the rate of 1/r^3.
where r is distance from my eye to the sheet; r^3 is r cubed; i.e. goes south fast.


Jesting aside, the two-tier method of Mr. SH is something to think about. Hmmm.

Thanks.

In the end I settled on some envelopes. Just sorting it into can play and can't play, which thinned the pile out considerably! As many of the pieces went into the can't play envelope!