Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner How do you organize your music?

My music is arranged chronologically and by composer. On my first bookcase, the first shelf contains early music followed by Purcell, Croft, Bach, Scarlatti, etc.

The second shelf is the Classical period leading into the Romantic period, and the third shelf is Romantic leading into the Modern.

I have a second bookcase that contains a miscellaneous collection of older poor editions that I no longer use, but don't want to toss (really bad Schirmer for example), and my newly created spiral bound internet downloaded printouts.

I take out what I want to work on then eventually put the old stuff back on the shelf in order. Right now I have my Scarlatti (all 8 volumes) stacked next to the clavichord and my Beethoven and Mozart sonatas on the chair next to the piano.

John

What you are working on now, John Citron, is incredible.

But, I have a question for you.

What has happened to your digital music?

The ones that are on that new gadget that you place on the music rack and it shows up as an LCD screen that you touch when it gets to the bottom so that you can view the next page?

Did that just not work out?

Do you enjoy playing from written score more?

Just wondering, as I thought it might be something that others might enjoy.

Me? I love well written scores but just have not yet found the monies to invest in books that might have one piece I am interested in playing.

I was thinking $10 a week for such, but that might turn out to be $40 a month for one! And then I still wouldn't have the music that I currently want.

As for my music organization?

Latest acquisitions which have helped me organize my classical piano / teaching / organ / music

Found on Craigslist (now with no curtain)






Standard mahoghany front...not yet used as it needs some touch up refinishing to be done this winter.

Then there is a the cabinet that my Mom made for me when I was in HS. Can't seem to find the pic of the insides. I want to ebonize the outside of this one to match the satin finish on the MH. Not sure how to do so.

Most of them are on my piano... Other are in the rest of house:)

I'm surprised to see so much horizontally stored music! Here is my main music bookcase:

<img src="https://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/Clavichord.jpg" height="480" />

It was originally custom-made to hold my LP collection, but I soon started using it for music. I had it made to match the finish on my piano.

Even though the shelves are tall enough to accomodate the largest scores, I cram more music horizontally on top of the other scores.

Shelves, top to bottom:

• organ collections; some French Horn music
• piano, by composer; some organ music
• organ, by composer
• piano collections, pop music, full scores to musicals
• binders from previous musical productions

I have two other bookcases which are half as tall; one contains more binders from previous productions and another contains unsorted music collections that I have inherited from various sources; it is currently inaccessible due to a very large stack of books in front of it.

I also have a waist-high pile of unsorted sheet music (divided into several stacks) and I have probably 100 more music binders in cardboard boxes throughout my house.

My piano duet music is in a pile by the piano, next to my collection of jazz and ragtime books; I also have a collection of antique sheet music nearby, unfortunately not alphabetized.

I have a ton of unsorted organ scores standing vertically on my floor - I need about six additional feet of shelving to accommodate it.

I have another collection of organ, piano, and vocal music at the church - it fills two rooms.

Bruce, please edit your post and replace

with

You may have to experiment with the height value until it is at an acceptable size.

This should change when we finally get our remodel done.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by BDB:
This should change when we finally get our remodel done.

OK. That's a scary amount of sheet music.

This is a fun thread. I'm thinking about going into our living room and taking a picture of the top of our piano, which is covered with flotsam and jetsam ranging from Henle editions of Mozart and Beethoven sonatas to piano arrangements of Harry Potter music and (shudder) current popular tunes. My daughters both play, and they know not to destroy my music. So they just put it down horizontally, somewhere on the 6 foot expanse of the piano. I know this isn't great for the finish, but I don't want to discourage them from playing. So I just try to make certain that I rearrange things periodically and reshelve my music properly when I haven't played it in a while.

I'm going to quit posting now. I'm digging a deeper and deeper hole trying to get it right. It must be time for bed or something.

Bruce, please edit your post and replace

with

You may have to experiment with the height value until it is at an acceptable size. [/QUOTE]

whippen boy :

Might there be an error in the URL you gave me? I tried to use it, but the image came up blank.

Regards,

Well, we're on the second page now; perhaps it doesn't matter.

Regards,

Bruce,

You have to take out your image completely, and then replace it with the exact text I typed, starting with the 'left carat' sign and ending with the 'right carat' sign. So... you are replacing the square-bracket img entry.

I hope that makes sense.

Anyway, if you could do it it would be nice for people who are still on the first page. Otherwise, folks have to scroll left & right to read through each post.

Here is the result I get:

<img src="https://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/DSC_0162.JPG" height="400" />

I have hundreds, if not thousands, of sheets stored here (not the bottle!):

<img style="border: 10px solid #fff" src="http://tuanvo.com/pw/WD.jpg">

It's the size of a pocket dictionary and holds all my music, videos, software, documents, and sheet music.

I can plug my external hard drive into a laptop, and put it on a piano and switch between sheets with a mouse. I bend the screen all the way back so that it is parallel to the base, making it straight like an unfolded Gameboy DS. I then just place it right onto the sheet stand.

I have a few sheet music collections in book form, but I don't want to wear, tear, and crease 'em to death.

Also, I'm bad at photocopying my books. It always seems to trim off the chunk that happens to be at the vertex of the book.

<marquee> </marquee>

whippen boy :

Much obliged to you - as I am sure other readers will be.

Next time, I'll just set my camera for smallest image, then I won't have this resizing dilemma which just didn't work for me.

Thank you.

Regards,

LL,

Thank you for the compliment.

There are a couple of reasons why the digital devices ended up on the wayside. The first device has too low a resolution for my vision as it is now, and the device had a big delay when turning pages with lots of notes on it. The big delay was like milliseconds, which in musical terms is equal to long a time between page turns.

The second device was my tablet PC, which had a crash and needed a new software install. This is all fine and dandy, but the software needs to be reauthorized again because it thinks it's a new machine! I haven't gotten around to doing anything about this at the moment.

The other reason is I too like the feel of real books. There is something missing in the digital world. In particular it's quite difficult to write notes on the music when necessary, and when you do they're not permenant. They only exist for that copy of the score.

John

EEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWW!!!! All the neatniks make me shudder! I have music here in the room with the computer and three cabinets of music in the room with the pianos and my efforts to organize by composer, style, period all go for naught as I continually pull out items and rarely replace them back in their slot! I give credit to my mother for TRYING to get me to be neat but her efforts didn't succeed.

Fortunately, I generally know where everything is but sometimes I have to do a lengthy search. Are my piles as neat as BruceD's and others? I'm sure John Citron would either have a good laugh or wonder what I was thinking when I put my music on the shelves. Essentially there is no order in the librarian sense. I certainly would NOT post a picture and put myself up for the giggles, 'ha ha ha's', and outright raucous laughter that would ensue when viewed after the very organized, neat, sensible pictures already posted.

My pianos are littered with music that I pull out and neglect to put back. I suppose I can credit it to my 'artistic temperament' but it's just a poor excuse for being lazy!

In stead of using the books tho, I do photocopy what I plan for a program, tape the pages together in sequence so that it unfolds and minimizes page turning! Except for lengthy compositions this works well and for sections where continuity is needed it works for that as well. I dislike writing in my books/music so the photocopies are not valuable or permanent so writing on those are no problem.

Anyway, kudos to the neatniks and I'll plod along in my unorganized rubble envying those who are so very meticulous about order.