A Guide To Keeping Your Music Organized

One of the most helpful things a musician can do when learning pieces of music is keeping that music organized. The best tool for this that I have found, is a standard one-inch three ring binder. To keep your sheet music or tabs from getting ripped, I highly recommend getting plastic sheet protectors. The most important part, however is getting a set of dividers. You will use these dividers to break your music into three sections:

1. Tunes you have mastered: These are tunes you are comfortable performing for an audience. You can pull them out and play them front to back with little to no trouble. Each time you practice, you can pull these tunes out and play through some of them as warm-up.

2. Pieces you are learning: These are songs you are actively learning. Once you are warmed-up spend the bulk of your practice time working on addressing technical problems and committing them to memory. Once they are flawless, move them to section one.

3. Songs you want to learn: These are songs you are keeping to learn later. Once you master a tune on which you have been working, move one of these into section two, and begin learning it.

If you keep a neat music binder, you will find your practice sessions to be far less frustrating and far more productive.