Organising music

[Markus Faller]

Hi Karen

I order them (1) by the author of the music (Christy Lynn, Anne Crosby Gaudet, Tiffany Schaefer etc.) and within this collection (2) by difficulty (early beginner, mid beginner, late beginner, early intermediate, mid intermediate, late intermediate etc.). I put them in separate folders. I use a ring system from GBC clickbind. So it is possible to add new sheet music later. But there exist other systems which works as well.

[Karen Marks]

Hi Marcus, that sounds like a good way to go, mine is mostly Christy Lynn at the moment, but I do have some others. At least then I can make reasonable comparisons about the level. Thank you.

[Victoria Johnson]

I went from paper to digital, and I organize my music by author and then alphabetical order of the publication in both instances. Some of my books contain pieces at multiple difficulty levels so it is hard to sort them that way.

[Tara Carolin]

@connieL did a nice video awhile back showing how she organizes her music. So far I have only one notebook, but I am on the verge of expanding as mine is now full. For now I have separate tabs for songs I have learned (but no longer play much, with a subsection of songs I want to refresh sometime), songs in my active repertoire that I play at least weekly (usually no more than about 10 songs) along with the one I am currently learning, and songs I plan to learn which I have in approximate order of difficulty. There is also a section with tips and notes on playing the harp. Like I say, next time I do some organization, I will be splitting those into separate notebooks much like Connie LoPorto shows in her video. Maybe she can link to it here.

[Karen Marks]

These are great tips, it’s nice to have these suggestions, thank you.

[Connie Lo Porto]

Thank You. That Set up is great when your learning. Past, present and future books. And one with all the tips and tricks charts (like the circle of fifths) scales etc. Since last yr. my music collection has grown. I still use past present and future for my work and study. I had to get a bigger binder for my tips and tricks as I have learnt so much more. I now keep binders with names and tabs. Like Carol Kappus music and tips (magic hands) Tiffany Schaffer in Celtic, Anne Crosby Gaudet, and my collection of Christy-Lyn, Aili R, others and of course a binder on Deborah Hansen-Conant with challenges and motifs to develop my own music. Each of these binders are because they compose and sell music and I tab spring, summer, winter and fall with a section of their particular tips. I call them my recess binders. More than one musician can fit into a binder with tabs. I use to wonder why people down loaded so much music when it was always available on line. For me my online internet access stinks and those days I didn’t read music. Lol Now I am one of those score collectors too. But I print them all out. If you ever want a good collection of almost lead sheet music all in C with some accidentals try the books called Fake Music they have so many books and easy music you just improvise with it. Glad your enjoying the journey. Word of caution: keep the three plus one binder available. If you collect too much candy you will loose focus of your healthy diet.

[Lindsy A.]

Hi Karen,

I also organize all of my music in binders. I like to use pieces of blank paper and sticky tabs to separate sheet music by either type or genre. Also if you play multiple instruments, I would put each instrument’s music in separate binders.

[Victoria Johnson]

I have been purchasing digital sheet music for a while, but it was not until a year ago that I started using my tablet for reading sheet music. I store the files by author in my computer, but once they are in forScore (I use iPad) and the metadata were entered, they can be sorted in multiple ways which has been great. In forScore, we can make bookmarks of certain pages from a collection. I have been using that to bookmark individual pieces from books and accessing them that way. I don’t think I can go back to printing out my sheet music anymore!