V.com weekend vote: How much physical sheet music do you own?
Once you start playing the violin or another instrument, the sheet music starts accumulating.
These days, most or all of it can be collected onto a slim computer tablet, which is so useful (and still a bit amazing for those of us who started life back in the 20th century...)
However, books, scores, printouts of pieces - these all still have a place in most musicians' lives. They also connect us to the past - with markings from former teachers, pedagogy instructors, or one's own - these all reflect a lot of time, consideration and connection.
One of the many, many upsetting things that happened as a result of the Los Angeles fires is that a number of musician friends lost their entire libraries of physical sheet music. Sure, at least some of the music can be replaced, but it's difficult, expensive, and it will come without the particular markings and history that was attached. And that's not even to mention things like original scores or arrangements that weren't preserved elsewhere.
This week I wanted to talk about our collections or personal libraries of sheet music. I did do an estimate of my own, counting scores, books and pieces cumulatively, and I came up with about 775 works in my large bookcase and tucked away in various places. I do have a computer tablet as well, and I'd love to transfer the works that I most frequently place and teach onto that!
What is your situation with music? For the vote, just count each piece, book or score as one item and give your best guess-timate. Then tell us all about it. Do you have mostly physical music, or digital? How long have you been collecting it? What are some of the pieces you value most? Did you at any point lose, or unload a lot of it? How is it organized?
You might also like:
- Discussion: Sheet Music Organization
- Discussion: Going Digital: Which iPad sheet music apps / page turners are everyone using these days?
- The Virtual Musician: A Guide to Using Apps, Tablets and Technology for Performance and Teaching
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Replies
I never actually counted my music "score" library, but it filled 20 cubic feet of shelf volume until I started to reduce it last year after "retiring" from 75 years of regular ensemble playing.
If I were younger I would have gone "virtual."
I am also now in the process of giving away a 300+ volume library of books about music.
My iPad contains about 1,300 titles in forScore, but many are individual fiddle tunes or jazz lead sheets. Also thousands of tunes collectively in about 20 iGigBook fake books. In physical form, I've got a couple hundred books covering jazz, classical, early music, bluegrass, international vernacular, and method books for violin, viola, flute, piano, and bass. Thank heavens for IMSLP, which encouraged me to dump scores of photocopied parts. I "organize" the physical scores in cardboard magazine files from IKEA.
I love collecting physical sheet music or at least having it printed out. I prefer physical media in general; I like collecting CDs and vinyl records. It's fun to flip through a physical preface or liner notes, and it's easier to make a digital copy from physical media than the other way around (scanning sheet music, ripping CDs).
I find physical scores, especially in a book, more inviting than a PDF on a laptop or iPad. I have way too much screen time in daily life, so violin playing from paper provides a nice break from that. Etudes and exercises are a must for physical sheet music for me, and if given the choice I prefer rep to be on paper too despite the inconvenience of page turning. Plus, for some works still in copyright, I can only find physical editions.
I do have a large digital folder of sheet music, mostly obscure concertos and unaccompanied music, but I prefer getting an edition in a book if I have the money and it's something I want to play often. I've gotten a couple collections of pieces printed at my local print shop, and I'll likely do it some more.
Maybe next time I move I'll feel differently, but right now I could fit all my music in a couple Bankers Boxes so it's not a hassle yet.
My physical sheet music is inventoried in a Google Sheet. Each item has a unique index number and then all items are on the shelf in five main categories (violin & viola, piano, cello, chamber, jazz & pop), and within those categories by index number. So I do need the Sheet to find stuff unless I happen to remember where it is, but it's bookmarked on my phone and fully searchable.
I have about 400 items. Last summer, a friend of a friend gave me about an 18-inch stack of music because she was getting on in years and no longer playing. This trove included 60 unique items for cello (useful for my daughter who is studying the cello) and about 20 items for chamber, mostly string quartets.
I don't imagine switching to electronic for this music, but my decision would almost certainly be different if I were 30 years old instead of 60.
However -- what I would really like to have is a single indexed resource that combines all of my keyboard fake books, of which I have maybe 20. This wish alone might be worth the price of an iPad and software, although I think I could do it just as well with Excel and Adobe Acrobat on a Windows tablet.
Somewhere around 300 items, excluding the 100-150 marked orchestra parts I've held on to. I have it arranged in broad categories: study scores (about half of my collection), chamber music, viola solo, violin solo, and piano.
I do store some music in electronic form, but I don't own a tablet, so anything electronic needs to be printed before I can use it.
I'm too old to switch to tablet format! I have about 200/250 books on music, including some scores and miniature scores, but in another room there are two trunks of music that is 'resting', and an archive of recent choir and orchestra repertoire that might be reactivated.
Laurie, another weekend vote could ask how much recorded music do people have. I have about 250 complete operas alone, with some duplications admittedly: three each of Mozart's 'Idomeneo' and Monteverdi's 'Orfeo', for example.
I’d guess-timate 500-600 - although I’ve never counted. When just starting the second year of my degree program, I inherited a trove of sheet music from the library of a neighbor and family friend who had played violin professionally. This lady had passed about a year earlier, and her daughter was now sorting out items from the estate. The daughter contacted me, preferring to give me first crack at the collection rather than send it off to a museum. That’s a lot of sheet music I didn’t have to purchase.
I have the books sorted by categories - methods, etudes, solo, chamber, orchestra. Never lost or unloaded items.
All of my collection is on paper. Though I’ve been computer literate since the end of the 20th century, I prefer to be free of electronic or digital devices when I’m practicing or playing music - except when making digital audio tracks, a skill I’ve made some progress at but where I’m still learning a lot.
One score I inherited was the Beethoven VC - Breitkopf & Härtel printing - full score + solo part and all orchestral parts.
The Brahms VC score is one I especially prize - an old copy in very good condition. If memory serves, it’s a printing by Simrock, Brahms’s publisher; but I’d have to look again to be sure. It has a few footnotes, showing what Brahms himself actually wrote for the solo part in certain measures. These are spots where his violinist friend, Josef Joachim, recommended changes to make the solo part better suited to the instrument. These recommendations found their way into the finished score. From what I’ve read, though, Brahms rejected most of Joachim’s other suggestions - and usually prevailed.
My archival system is like an archeology dig, by frequency of use in reverse order.
I voted 250-500. I like having the physical music. The only time I download from IMSLP or similar onto my tablet is when I download an orchestral part to practise before the first rehearsal when I generally get the physical music.
I may start to build more of an online library of solo pieces, but I think that's a little unlikely.
I don’t ask my wife how much fabric she has. She doesn’t ask how much violin stuff I have. Why are you asking such self incriminating questions?
An unabashed dinosaur here. And I estimate to have a few yards of sheet music!
far too much, what is the best way to digitalize?
Fun question! I had a large drawer stuffed with music books and sheet music. My wife got me a stand-up cabinet with tip-out drawers, which is holding some of the overflow, but desparately awaiting organization. All told, maybe 500 pieces, not counting original compositions (which are scattered all over).
I mostly go digital now (Adobe Scan is my favorite/free way to scan sheet music). Stuff from IMSLP I mark up in software. Paper music (such as for orchestra) I play, mark with pencil as usual, but then eventually scan to preserve the markings/memory :)
A local music store has a fantastic library in the back -- tall bookshelves stuffed with sheet music roughly organized by composer -- that I dream of mimicking sometime :)
I guessed on the conservative, lesser side - I've never counted. Most of them are IMSLP - FreeScore downloads I've printed off, some are books, and some are fragmented photocopies from the time I was getting back into music. Some are truly archaic, dating back from the 1980s, and some from the late 1970s. Some are scores for instruments I've yet to get, such as the ophicleide; some are for instruments I know reasonably well, but have yet to master, such as the guitar and the Hawaiian steel guitar; others are for instruments I've actively studied in one form or another, such as the violin, cello and trombone. One of these days I may yet get myself an ophicleide, and will probably write some duets for violin and ophicleide and some trios for violin, ophicleide and blues harmonica, just to annoy those who think they are incompatible ... :)
You have some delicious chamber music ideas Wesley... please turn them into realities!
I counted around 220 physical books, pieces, orchestra sets (score and parts). I did double count duplicates but did not double count piano accompaniments because for example, the main part(s) of a concerto or sonata is held within the piano part. Solos for Young Violinists has them sold together whereas with Suzuki they are sold separately from the main volumes. I also didn't double count other quartet or ensemble "books" where the parts are sold separately but it's the same piece or collection.
I'd estimate at least another 100: copies given by my long ago violin teacher, parts from my community orchestra participation in recent years, IMSLP or other printouts, all stored multiple pieces per folder or binder, plus childhood piano books that are not at my house. Digital is also hard to count and includes materials I opted to arrange or transcribe myself and if those existed as publications, some would be substantial enough to be considered standalone but some grouped and counted as one collection.
Another bookshelf would resolve the excessive piles of books on living room surfaces and a bunch of books that live in tote bags in a basket because they were so often carried out to lessons and groups that they never got permanent shelf space.
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June 15, 2025 at 03:00 PM · This B.C. (before computer ) dinosaur has zero electronic sheet music, though I must confess that I have reprinted stuff from imslp/pertrucci. I also own a lot of individual orchestra 1st violin parts for standard and difficult repertoire. (Not the 2nd violin or viola parts!) I have some inexpensive Dover reprint scores. For solos and concertos the scores will have an unedited version of the solo part that is a lot closer to an Urtext version. For a concertmaster, designing bowings for the string section it is more convenient to start with a score. As part of the gradual retirement down-sizing I brought two boxes to an orchestra rehearsal and told my colleagues to take what they wanted.