How To Manage A Large Collection Of LDS Sheet Music
Whether you are a musician, private collector, choral director, or other music enthusiast, you may find that it's exciting to buy new LDS sheet music. It can be awesome to get your hands on a great song that you want to share with others, and soon a collection can build. It's probably a great deal harder to keep that sheet music organized. However, getting and staying organized with your sheet music is crucial if you want to be able to access the sheet music to the songs you need when you need them.
Alphabetize Holders and Magazine Racks
A large collection requires thinking outside of traditional sheet-music storage options. Many types of LDS sheet music will fit perfectly inside magazine holders, and magazine racks can be a cool way to display sheet music. You may utilize a variety of storage options, too. For example, you may opt to display your favorite sheet music in front-facing racks, while you alphabetize the rest in magazine holders.
Binders and Bookshelves
One way to organize a large collection of music in a way that's easy to access and also aesthetically pleasing is to buy over-sized binders to store and protect the music. Get sheet protectors that have holes punched in them, and make sure that they are sized correctly for storing standard sheet music. From there, place the sheet music for each individual song in a separate sheet protector. Organize the sheet music in the protectors into alphabetical order. You may organize it based on the song title or the composer's last name. For most situations, it's easiest to find when you organize the pieces by song title.
Once you have the sheets alphabetized, label binders accordingly. Assign one letter to each binder, then place the music in their sleeve covers in that binder in alphabetical order. You may end up having multiple binder for letters that are common for the start of song titles. For example, if you find that a lot of the songs in your collection start with "T", you may find that you have three binders that are labeled "T" while you likely only have one for "Z".
Filing Cabinets
Although having filing cabinets can give your music office a more "executive" feel, it can go a long way to helping you be organized in a quick and easy way. No matter how big or small your music collection may be, filing cabinets can be a good solution for storing sheet music in a way that can grow with your collection. As you continue to collect sheet music, you can simply add on another filing cabinet every time you need more storage space.
Store music in a filing cabinet by designating which song goes in which section of the cabinet in alphabetical order. You may also choose to separate songs by age group, genre, or some other heading that helps you more easily differentiate song types.
Finally, keep in mind that organization is very important, whether you are collecting a large collection of vocal, instrumental, piano, choir, organ, or oratorio LDS sheet music. Take the time to develop an organizational system that fulfills your needs and allows you to easily access the music that you use on a regular basis. Organizing your sheet music should ultimately make your life easier and provide you with a way of staying in control of accessing your favorite tunes whenever you need them.