Rebinding music books?

[Beemer]

At present (and I'm sure in the future) I play piano and piano accordion using music books. Nearly all are glue bound and impossible to lay flat without pages turning involuntarily. I know all about minimising the effect by flattening at multiple page sets, but I have many books that do not comply. In the past I have had the spine of some books professionally guillotined but I don't want to do this for several dozen books. I plan to weigh down the book and sever the spine using a Stanley knife. I then would spiral bind instead of comb bind as the former allows smoother page transitions. All that said I am confused about the physical size of music books. At 9x12" they are wider and taller than A4 and so I am uncertain which binder punching count to choose. Anyone here done this?

 

[Ventura]

i have (had for decades) both spiral and comb binding machines
here in the studio. They all can accomodate longer paper to do
the hole punching, it is the spirals or combs that you must make sure
you order in the correct size/length

Combs are more versatile for thicker books, spiral are handy for
thinner books like for caroling in my opinion, but combs work well
on thin books too, so if you only can afford one type, i recommend
a comb binder

comb bound books can also be re-done easily if you want to add
a few songs at a later date.. just pop them on the machine and
stretch it open again

spiral also require a needle nose plier to reverse bend the spiral
on both ends so it stays in place.. older machines are inch but
a box of spirals from China will be metric so you have to finger
stretch them a bit. Wider spirals are available in flexible plastic
as well as metal

the punching machine acts as a holder while you thread the spirals
into place, the comb binder simply relaxes the comb into place
once you load the sheets

 

[Tom]

Ditto on the comb binder. Just be warned - once you have one you won’t be able to stop making books you may or may not ever play……

 

[JerryPH]

3-ring binders with plastic sheets are good and keep the sheets clean for longer term, however, given a choice, grouping songs in to smaller combs books is way better at transporting and organizing for gigs.

 

[JKJ]

3-ring binders with plastic sheets are good and keep the sheets clean for longer term, however, given a choice, grouping songs in to smaller combs books is way better at transporting and organizing for gigs.

That’s what I do even when playing at home.

For piano I generally scan and laser print those pieces from my books I like from and those I’m learning and slide them into plastic sleeves with 3-holes and put them into binders. I like narrower 3/4 or 1” binders and look for the less glossy sleeves to minimize glare. (Among other reasons I find small binders easier to page-turn quickly)



And those several times I’ve played for outdoor weddings the binders sure help if it gets a bit windy!!

I do the same for me sheet music so I can keep the originals on file and work from the copies.

JKJ

 

[Beemer]

i have (had for decades) both spiral and comb binding machines
here in the studio. They all can accomodate longer paper to do
the hole punching, it is the spirals or combs that you must make sure
you order in the correct size/length

Combs are more versatile for thicker books, spiral are handy for
thinner books like for caroling in my opinion, but combs work well
on thin books too, so if you only can afford one type, i recommend
a comb binder

comb bound books can also be re-done easily if you want to add
a few songs at a later date.. just pop them on the machine and
stretch it open again

spiral also require a needle nose plier to reverse bend the spiral
on both ends so it stays in place.. older machines are inch but
a box of spirals from China will be metric so you have to finger
stretch them a bit. Wider spirals are available in flexible plastic
as well as metal

the punching machine acts as a holder while you thread the spirals
into place, the comb binder simply relaxes the comb into place
once you load the sheets

Thanks for your advice.

 

[JeffJetton]

I generally scan and laser print those pieces from my books I like from and those I’m learning and slide them into plastic sleeves with 3-holes and put them into binders. I like narrower 3/4 or 1” binders and look for the less glossy sleeves to minimize glare.

That's what I usually do too. I've got separate binders for Italian, German, French, and "Other". And yes, the "no glare" kind of sleeves are definitely the way to go.

I would say though, that if I were systematically slicing off the spine of a bunch of music books in order to rebind them, I'd strongly consider running the pages through a scanner while I was at it. Take advantage of the fact that they are, temporarily, loose pages.

Then, if I ever did fall to the dark side and start using a tablet one day, I'd be all ready to go.

 

[Ventura]

the nice fella who ran the old Roland V-Accordion newsgroup was a
pioneer of the tablet users, and several others in that group as well,
even coming up with footswitch page turning solutions !

now all this is pretty easy to do via bluetooth, and lots of apps,
but not for me. I put the books together during learning phases
and to organize as reference material and sometimes to help
with creating setlists and shows

but then i eventually memorize everything and it is all moot, just
part of the learning process for me.. but the idea of a lifetime
of simply scanning and holding your entire working experience of music
on a Tablet is no doubt going to be a huge help to young Musicians

 

[Beemer]

Here in the UK two ring binders are the norm in stationary shops. When these are stood vertical the outside edges of the pages angle down. I assume this does not happen with four ring A4 binders and I could order these on line and they will accept A4 sleeve holes.

 

[Beemer]

I have an Opticbook4800 book scanner. This can scan still bound book pages edge to edge without getting that darker band of the spine area that normal scanner give. I have Vuescan software that can do timed automatic scanning so I just have to turn pages, after each pass.

 

[JKJ]

I have an Opticbook4800 book scanner. This can scan still bound book pages edge to edge without getting that darker band of the spine area that normal scanner give. I have Vuescan software that can do timed automatic scanning so I just have to turn pages, after each pass.

Rats, another $500 tool I didn't know I needed until now.
It looks like the A4 paper size will cut off a little on some of my music books but not enough to compromise the content.

Can it be set to scan to a USB thumb drive or SD card as well as to a computer? I do that often with the scanners on my printers.

JKJ

 

[Beemer]

Scanned image can be automatically scaled to paper or screen size. Aspect ratio can be preserved. Output can go anywhere. In my case to my Qnap NAS. If you buy a Opticbook4800 the supplied software does not work reliably with Windows 11. This is why I use Ed Hamrick's superb VueScan scanning software that works with all scanners both for paper, negative and transparency medium.

 

[JerryPH]

Scanned image can be automatically scaled to paper or screen size. Aspect ratio can be preserved.

Scanners are cool and all, but I find the PICTURE to PDF option in Songbook Pro works really well and it auto adjusts the color and size (removes margins to minimal), so old yellow pages are corrected to white and A3 sizes European pages are slightly reduced to fit super nice on the 12.3" iPad pro that I use.

 

[EuroFolker]

JerryPH, you’ve made my life better by bringing that app to light!

 

[Beemer]

Scanners are cool and all, but I find the PICTURE to PDF option in Songbook Pro works really well and it auto adjusts the color and size (removes margins to minimal), so old yellow pages are corrected to white and A3 sizes European pages are slightly reduced to fit super nice on the 12.3" iPad pro that I use.

I guess you meant A4 not A3.

 

[JerryPH]

I guess you meant A4 not A3.

Yes, thanks.

 

[cestjeffici]

I've been using these:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MBXB3Y9?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

It's easy to move pages around and it lets me write on the sheet as I work out fingering.

 

[JKJ]

I find the PICTURE to PDF option in Songbook Pro works really well

I’m comparing software and hardware solutions (during my down time) and see the Songbook Pro on the apple App Store. It doesn’t give a price but mentions “in ap purchases” - is there a significant cost to get full functionality? Not that it matters much, just curious while I make notes and list options.)

One goal is to transfer some of my printed piano music to digital and display on an iPad, turning pages with a bluetooth foot control. (My Lovely Bride got me a new 12.9” iPad Pro just because she’s so nice)
For scanning hardware, OpticBook 4800 was mentioned but I see there is a 4900 version now (which appears to scan in higher resolution)

My 2nd goal is to edit scores and create arrangements for piano and accordion. I saw several people are using Musescore and a few others. Is there one program to rule them all or does it make more sense to acquire a suite? (I’d FAR rather rely on the experience here rather than download/buy and try everything)

I’m also studying the thread “Sheet music software for accordion arrangements” which describes Notion, Staffpad, and others. I have midi keyboards I could hook up for input if needed.

Advice?

JKJ

 

[Glug]

Worth noting that Musescore software is free from Musescore.org.
Musescore.com is possibly related, but is a score sharing site with fees.

I'm mostly using Musescore 2 but the current version is 4.

 

[Rosie C]

Worth noting that Musescore software is free from Musescore.org.
Musescore.com is possibly related, but is a score sharing site with fees.

I'm mostly using Musescore 2 but the current version is 4.

I use both - Musescore 4 software to arrange all the music for our band, and I pay a subscription to Musescore.com for download access to their library of tunes. Typically if we're learning a new piece I'll see if there's something on Musescore.com first that I can base an arrangement on.