Rebinding music books?

[boxplayer4000]

I attended an accordion club last night. A side table was covered in dozens of good, hardly used it seemed, music books. One of the members was selling off his books, at whatever price a purchaser was willing to pay, to help boost the club coffers. He's getting rid of the books because he has all his music on-line and just uses his tablet (small computer) when he's on stage. Another sign perhaps that books, in all forms, have maybe had their day.

 

[Rosie C]

I love books, but the truth is that I nearly all the leisure reading I do is on Kindle. I have tried keeping my music on my iPad with "ForScore" but I haven't really get on with it - a clumsy colleague knocked it off my music stand, but I also realised I'd need to invest in a foot switch to turn pages. But, it would make a lot of sense for me to take the plunge again so I always have all my music with me - a few times I've been asked to perform a few songs unexpectedly.

 

[Glug]

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.

I am using some 2 ring binders from Ryman (I think https://www.ryman.co.uk/tiger-ring-file-a4-gloss-cover-20mm-clear-1)
Has 2x 20mm O-rings and is about full with 48 plastic sleeves, so 96 pages of music.
I really like them, clear cover also means I can easily see the bass button diagram that's the first page, and it's a nice thickness (22mm).

But I don't like the pages flopping around so after your comment I did some research and found this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004H4ASR0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It has 4x 15mm rings so will probably take 36 sleeves = 72 pages.

Amazon also has some 4 ring binders with 30mm O-rings.
But given my current folder has many tunes I can't play that shouldn't be an issue

 

[vivdunstan]

I’m in the UK and use these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000NMAUB4/

I get just the 20 pocket ones but they do come in larger sizes. Each has a set number of plastic pockets for sliding A4 paper into. I have various of these books stuffed with sheet music, either scans/copies eg from my French musette 110 books, or bought/printed digital music, or my own arrangements that I am working on in Notion on my Mac and go through various printed iterations.

 

[Alan Polivka]

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

I have an iPad but still use paper books because we play for some outdoors festivals where it can be difficult to see what's on a tablet in the bright Colorado sun.

 

[Valski]

I have done a couple of things with sheet music. In each case I scan each song so that I can either publish my own booklets that can be placed in three ring binders or folders for my own use or for collaboration with others.

Lately these scanned pages are uploaded into Mobile Sheets on my Samsung 12.5 inch tablet coupled with a Bluetooth footpedal for turning pages is wonderfully convenient. Previously using a 10.5 inch tablet was convenient but the additional 2 or so inches makes a substantial difference. If a collaborator is using Mobile Sheets we can share my set lists with minimal effort. Best of all at about $20 for a one time purchase it's quite reasonably priced. Can't recommend it highly enough.

 

[Pipemajor]

+1 for Mobile Sheets.
I originally had it on a Samsung 10" tablet which was fine, but when it refused to power up after a restart, I got a Surface Pro 10" which is even better. The downside was I lost all my original tunes and had to start afresh. Also I had to pay again as the Surface Pro uses Window 10, but that was no big deal.
What I like about Mobile Sheets is that the owner is readily available to answer any questions you may have and frequently updates the program automatically.