How do you handle music at events (books/sheet- the written stuff)

[carol-michaletz]

Is everyone here fabulous at memorization and can memorize their entire repertoire, or there others like me who just can not memorize well, nor retain it for long?
If so, (I’m hoping I’m not the only idiot here!) – do you just keep changing books? I’ve been thinking of copying the pages I use (I own the books, I wouldn’t sell or give away so hopefully I wouldn’t be doing anything wrong) and putting them in a binder which I could then change out, have in order I wish to play, etc. Does this sound feasible, or does anyone have a good/better idea?
Thanks.

[Angela Biggs]

My understanding of the copyright laws is that it’s okay to make a copy for personal use. Which makes sense, because some of the books I have — mostly vocal books, I guess — are ridiculously difficult to keep open. In fact, as a vocalist, I was trained to photocopy my music and arrange it in a particular manner for the accompanist, bring the original to each audition to prove I have it, then put the book back in my bag. (I had it memorized, of course, so I wasn’t using the book and the copy at the same time.)

For my harp pieces, I make photocopies and keep them in a binder for the sake of practicing., because it’s easier for me to keep my focus if all I’m doing from one piece to the next is turning a page. (Keep in mind that I’m not working on major scores at a level where I’d want to keep my notes for many years.) Though I do memorize most of my pieces in the course of learning them, I’ve found the collection of hole-punched photocopies to be invaluable in organizing my music for performances later on, whether the pieces are still memorized or not. Everything is right there so that I can make very easy decisions about keys, styles, and tempi; I have the option of using the music if I don’t have it memorized anymore; and I always bring just one binder to every performance. — which does not hurt my image as a reliable and organized musician. As a system, it works well. As long as it isn’t illegal, I recommend it. 🙂

[Allison Stevick]

That is legal, and a good idea! I do it, and it works very well for me. I put it in a single black binder, so I don’t have to juggle several books.

[barbara-brundage]

Personally I never much liked using binders, because unless your repertoire is pretty limited you get into the big fat ones and turning pages with those huge rings isn’t the fastest. But these days it’s not an issue because I just bring an ipad instead.

[kreig-kitts]

Barbara, have you tried the Peak iPad stands?

[barbara-brundage]

Hi, Kreig. I’ve seen them, but they don’t work so well for me, since I like being able to keep my ipad in the case when using it on a gig, so I just bring my Anderson folding wooden stand. The ipad stands I’ve seen are all either heavier than that or slightly flimsy, IMHO, for using where people are likely to bump into you.

[Allison Stevick]

I didn’t mean that I put all the music I own in a single binder–it is true that that would have to be very large and cumbersome–I just organize for the type of gig it is, then I know what songs I’m taking and playing. I guess I’ve never played longer than 2.5 hours at a time, so I haven’t had to get a gigantic binder. I have a thin one, and it holds the music I need for that length of gig.

[carol-michaletz]

Thanks everyone. You’ve pretty much answered my question. I was also thinking of just putting the music I would need at the time in the binder. That way I would have it organised in the order I wanted, could practice it that way and get used to where I would need to make key changes, etc. Really appreciate your input.
BTW, I’m afraid I’ll have to stick to the “old fashioned” ways, I don’t have the new-fangled techie things like Ipads, etc. Don’t even know what they are let alone how to use them! LOL

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