Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Keep open your sheet music. But how?

Hi all. A simple cry for help: what is your tip for keeping open glued music books that just want to snap shut? Years ago we had a piano with two hooks on the note stand, which you turned up. Practical.

These hooks seem to be completely out of fashion now. So what to do? I can crack and fold and press all I want, the music books still snap shut.

My old piano teacher used washing line pegs. Ugly if effective -- but not practical for more than two pages.

Your secret tips?

I use this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000OR4L8G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Despite the pictures it has two metal pieces that turn up from the bottom of the stand to stop pages flipping over. I also generally keep the lid of the piano entirely closed so as to give the strings and frame in as consistent an environment as possible. Cheap and cheerful

Personally, I gave up. All my sheet music is on a tablet now, using MobileSheetsPro for Android, with a Bluetooth foot switch for page turning.
I took all my old books to a copy shop and had them cut off the spines for me (and if necessary also a bit off of the other side, to get it down to A4) so I could easily scan everything with the document scanner (with feeder) that I already had.
No more snapping shut for me and no awkward page turn pauses either.

Music page holder--four prongs. Can be positioned with a few pages free to allow page turns. For large books, place the inner prongs only several dozen pages back, and it will still hold the book open.

http://www.the-music-store.com/stor...926&gclid=CNTwqK_DwcwCFdM2gQod0TkFMQ

http://www.amazon.com/Music-Book-Cl...8-2&keywords=music+stand+page+holder

I think piano techs can obtain and install the metal stays that used to be common on an upright's music desk. I've never seen those on a grand.

My music desk has a high molding and a deep, curved, ribbed "well" that sometimes holds the score open too much, creating crinkles at the bottoms of pages as they are turned.

Spring-type clothespins. They're scattered all over the music room. I think every Manhasset has a couple clamped to it. They will definitely anchor more than a few pages at a time.

Larry.

I use a clothes hanger- one of the ones with 2 clips on it. I cut off the top that hooks over the wardrobe rail. Having problems at present but if I can I will add a photograph later.

A couple of times, I've taken bound books to the copy shop, had them cut the whole binding out so they were loose pages, then re-bind with a coil binding. Just have to make sure they pick a coil large enough to make the pages easy to turn.

I' ve found the coil binding to be better than the comb binding, by the way.

Tinypic is working again.


I couldn't get a decent image on the piano as it is black. I think this is sufficiently clear.

I take anything that won't stay open to Kinko's and have them spiral-bind it.

I don't buy any music books that won't stay open!

Regards,

I bought a used Ibico binder for $25 (and it came with a few boxes of plastic spines) and convert them to spiral bound.

Good morning Philip. Do you not have a slight problem when you need to turn the page?

What music is it?

I think it is a wildly complex arrangement of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'

Otherwise known as "Scintillate, scintillate, infinitesimal nocturnal illuminant"!

Cheers!

My local sheet music store will convert books to a spiral binding for a couple of bucks, whether I bought the book from them or not.

Another tactic that I've used a lot for the past two years, but somehow never figured out previously, is to place the book on top of the tuning pegs, in front of the music desk rail where it would normally sit (on a grand piano). This makes it pretty easy to keep a large book open, although it doesn't work for fast page turns.

You know, I was told long ago that there's a very specific way to work with a new book (music or text) to promote laying flat and preserving the binding. It's rather tedious, but you flatten and press near the binding for the first and last page, then do the same for the next-to-first and next-to-last page, and so on, until you come to the middle of the book.

Can anyone confirm this?

RP:

Yes, indeed! This is a technique I use for any moderately recalcitrant, unco-operative volume. It works every time, except for Dover! It may seem tedious, but the technique helps stretch the binding without breaking it and the end result is pretty permanent, so that music books continue to lie flat.

I don't think one could do this with old volumes where the glue (if it's a glued volume) has dried out.

Regards,

Lol, Bruce pour me a glass of whatever you're having

The Steinway Library of Piano Music scores give directions to limber up bindings exactly like that.