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Printing a book of Music Scores


Dirge

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The discussion about carrying music arround on an Ipad or whatever it's called lead my thoughts sideways. I have lots of my music on the computer; even old music often gets photographed (I never use the scanner these days) juggled a bit and printed so that I can carry it separate from its book or resize it. Then I have a loose leaf ring binder with lots of those pvc wallet things and the music gets shoved in those in pairs. Once in a while I have to go through it and swap the pieces I didn't take-to out and put other new favourites in. When I travel abroad I take the pages I'm using most immediately and nothing else.

 

Anyway. It would be nice to have a book of favourites, properly bound, to keep as the 'master copy'. As I have already got the 'pages' complete on the computer is it practical to print my own book? Or to prepare a book and give it to a professional to produce? Presumably the first thing I'd need would be a printer that took A3.

 

Has anyone any experience of this?

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The discussion about carrying music arround on an Ipad or whatever it's called lead my thoughts sideways. I have lots of my music on the computer; even old music often gets photographed (I never use the scanner these days) juggled a bit and printed so that I can carry it separate from its book or resize it. Then I have a loose leaf ring binder with lots of those pvc wallet things and the music gets shoved in those in pairs. Once in a while I have to go through it and swap the pieces I didn't take-to out and put other new favourites in. When I travel abroad I take the pages I'm using most immediately and nothing else.

 

Anyway. It would be nice to have a book of favourites, properly bound, to keep as the 'master copy'. As I have already got the 'pages' complete on the computer is it practical to print my own book? Or to prepare a book and give it to a professional to produce? Presumably the first thing I'd need would be a printer that took A3.

 

Has anyone any experience of this?

 

We have a "binder" at work which uses heat to glue pages to a spine and cover (usually transparent). I would guess that you could find someone like a photocopying shop that would do this. BUT it's not very robust if you go over a about 1/4" thickness of paper and the result won't lie flat when opened, which I'm sure is desirable for music. A compromise (though not so pretty) would be the spiral binding - they lie flat and have the advantage that you can shuffle pages in and out. I spent an entire summer one year scrunching paper in one of these in a office, horrible job, but earned a few pennies to keep me nearly solvent next term.

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Paul Hardy publishes his various collections of tunes which are available to everyone as PDFs or as a bound copy if purchased. Seems to work very well and I prefer to buy the bound copy (and use the ABC he provides to learn some of the tunes.

 

David

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I've never done it myself, but it looks like Lulu, CafePress, and The Book Patch will all print books to order for pretty cheap.

I assume it's the "master" angle your are really considering.

 

I will talk to me e-book format preparers* as they may have some thoughts. They take your (Word/or any other)file but Word would be easiest for you praps. They process it so that it comes out at the other e-end as a file formatted to work on a range of e-readers. A word file can include text and scans/photos of scores of course.

 

you could then print it out. This could then be bound most cheaply (I think) and attractively solid and posh looking as a thesis volume with usual gold lettering on the outside. You could also do your own gold lettering/design on the outside - watch out for a secondhand set of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-16-8MM-Letter-Steel-Stamp-Die-Punch-Set-A-Z-27-pcs-Part-Codes-/160774136031?pt=UK_BOI_Metalworking_Milling_Welding_Metalworking_Supplies_ET&hash=item256ee2a0df

A couple of us used to repaier and rebind and title books this way at school.)

 

And some Uni thesis producers will also print as well as bind for you. I know that is A4 usually.

(I assume you are not after vellum but if so there is an order of enclosed nuns in Switzerland I know who work in their little wooden cabins all day and will also do all the text in gold lettering with suitable pics!)

 

* Will take a little time as they were showing at the London Book Fair and probably still recovering.

If memory serves me right they told me three years ago when I helped them do some trials on various language booky-texts with drawings, that to convert a book, so that it is all formatted and ready to use/print/view on e-reader, they would charge an "individual" author about 30 quid. it takes summat like a minute to whiz through their system.

 

BUT I do not know whether they have done any with muzack content in A3 - hence the need to check.

 

For local binding costs (let us know result!)

http://duckduckgo.com/?q=thesis+printing+and+binding+university+of+christchurch

Edited by Kautilya
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The discussion about carrying music arround on an Ipad or whatever it's called lead my thoughts sideways. I have lots of my music on the computer; even old music often gets photographed (I never use the scanner these days) juggled a bit and printed so that I can carry it separate from its book or resize it. Then I have a loose leaf ring binder with lots of those pvc wallet things and the music gets shoved in those in pairs. Once in a while I have to go through it and swap the pieces I didn't take-to out and put other new favourites in. When I travel abroad I take the pages I'm using most immediately and nothing else.

 

Anyway. It would be nice to have a book of favourites, properly bound, to keep as the 'master copy'. As I have already got the 'pages' complete on the computer is it practical to print my own book? Or to prepare a book and give it to a professional to produce? Presumably the first thing I'd need would be a printer that took A3.

 

Has anyone any experience of this?

I published two books of music last year. I didn't need A3 paper (and you may not either since the print programs can usually be instructed to fit the page). In the US most of the commercial printing places (Kinkos, Staples, Office Depot and the like) can spiral bind the music for you. Spiral binding is a good way to go because the music stays flat and you can add covers to strengthen things. DON'T get those horrible plastic clamp kind of binding though. Go with a real spiral binding. To make things useful for yourself be sure to arrange the music in some consistent fashion (mine were alphabetical) and create an index with page references. If you've access to Adobe Acrobat you can collect the PDFs together into a single file and add header or footer page numbers easily. In the process it is a good idea to check to be sure any two page pieces are arranged so page 1 is on an even numbered page and page 2 is on the following odd numbered page. Then both pages will be available when the book is open.

 

Finally, since your favorites will change with time the spiral binding can be removed and new pages inserted and the collection rebound with minimal difficulty (if you stick with the same binder so the holes line up).

 

If you are thinking of a publication there is lots more to consider, but I rather gather that is not the case.

 

I see several folks are responding right now, so my apologies for any repetition...

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Thanks folks; it looks more practical than I thought.

 

(The A3 printer comment was because I was thinking in terms of trad bookbinding and assuming you'd need to print 2 pages on each sheet and assemble them into little folders that then get stitched together to form the book)

 

I have a lot of music now, looted from the internet or copied from old books I own all lying about in chaos, and I have also acquired some bound collections of Victorian sheet piano music over the years which suggested this idea in the first place. It would probably be my 'master reference' More to keep it all safe than for daily use (although why not?) A sort of literary back up file.

 

I tend to agree with Chris though, spiral binding is not nice, however sensible it may be; I think if I was going to spend the time collating it I'd want to go the whole way. Whether I'll ever find the time is another matter. When my hard drive dies I'll regret it...

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When my hard drive dies I'll regret it...

Reminds me of the pre-PC experience of a friend of mine: Leaning over the side of a boat, his address book fell out of his pocket. :o

 

How many people ever made/make backups of handwritten documents? :ph34r:

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When my hard drive dies I'll regret it...

 

Erm. Yep!

sounds like bitter experience

Been there. Around Christmas time last, my computer crashed and it was not repairable. There is a backup of the data, but I don't have access to it. Severely put a crimp in my playing.

 

Thanks

Leo :(

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I don't agree with your feelings about spiral binding, especially for music. That is, IMNSHO, the best solution for "working" collections. Still if you really want to bind things into a "real" book here in the states you can get it done for quite a bit of money. I had one done for about $45.00 perhaps 10 years ago and that was a very small book.

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I just looked at Lulu as it happened; they didn't do an A4 sized book but one near it was $20 plus 2 1/2 cents per page

 

100 page b/w book for that didn't seem to be too bad, and they had all sorts of helpful software to help you assemble it. I was quite impressed.

 

One day.

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I just looked at Lulu as it happened; they didn't do an A4 sized book but one near it was $20 plus 2 1/2 cents per page

100 page b/w book for that didn't seem to be too bad, and they had all sorts of helpful software to help you assemble it. I was quite impressed.

 

Lulu certainly can do A4 books - my session and annex tunebooks (http://www.pghardy.n...tina/tunebooks/) are available through Lulu at A4 size, and are nicely wire coil bound, which means not only that they can be laid flat with double-page spread open, but can even be folded back on themselves to show any single page.

 

Costs are less than you said - If I buy a copy of my own session tunebook book at author's pricing, it is about £5 for 140 pages (plus postage, unless you get one of their free postage offers). Costs for this sort of on-demand printing have come down quite a lot over past few years.

 

Regards,

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When my hard drive dies I'll regret it...

 

Erm. Yep!

sounds like bitter experience

 

Almost, but not quite! The reality has always struck me as being awful but somehow I've managed to avoid such a disaster. More by good luck than good management I have to say. :ph34r:

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  • 1 month later...

Just found this thread, so I still have some reading to do....

 

For the record, there is also a site called createspace.com (Create Space), for publishing.

 

I can't remember why I chose Lulu over create Space, but I did, some time ago. Maybe I simply understood the mechanics better.

 

Anyway, as for Lulu, I have just over the past few days got my husband's autobiography (...god help us all...!! blink.gif) published there. I haven't yet received final (I hope final) proof of his book, but when I do I'll hit the 'approve' button to take the next step in making it available for distribution.

 

It's already available on Lulu, just can't go elsewhere until further steps are taken. However, it's very findable via Google and so on.

 

 

 

My mother just published her first novel. My daughter and her husband did a music CD. I'm going to get something published one of these days....

 

I think I'll probably use Lulu again.

 

I'm thinking a hardcover spiral bound, though...

 

EDIT:

...and I wasn't done.

 

My dog was barking angrily at me while I posted my previous bit, and he got me frazzled.

 

Anyway, to continue...

 

I would probably use Lulu again to publish some form of a 'scrapbook' that would include photos, tunes, recipes, whatever. Sort of anything I felt like including.

Edited by bellowbelle
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