Organizing Your Sheet Music
If you’re anything like me, you have about a zillion different pieces of sheet music, audition cuts, callback pieces, etc ever-floating around your home. While I truly believe you should never throw out a piece of music (you ever know when you may need it), I also truly believe that the most efficient way to store all of your music is in an organized manner.
Auditions pop up at a moment’s notice and every once in a while (no matter how fabulous your audition book is) you may not have a song in your book that works for the show. If your music is scattered throughout your home and random sheets are floating in your car/under your bed/shoved in bags, etc. you will be hard pressed to find whatever song you decide to look for. Even without a specific song in mind, you won’t know what you have without a little organization.
I highly recommend giving this method a try: organize your music first by genre, then alphabetically. Genre can be defined as simply up-tempo and ballad or can be even more specific such as, belty up-tempo, belty-ballad, legit up-tempo, legit ballad. Other genres you may choose could be Golden Age ballad, Golden Age up-tempo, contemporary ballad, contemporary up-tempo, etc. I personally prefer the former, but you should always use what you feel is the most accurate and helpful for you. Heck, you can even get super organized and say Legit Golden Age up-tempo, Legit Golden Belty up-tempo, etc. if you’re feeling like an organization star!
Once you have you music divided up by genre, then it becomes a simple matter of the alphabet. I organize my own music alphabetically by song title, but you can organize by show, character name, whatever works for you! Finally, make a table of contents for your binder(s). With a table of contents, all you have to do is open the binder to see a full list of everything you have and where it is. It’s that easy! So even without a specific song in mind, you can quickly glance at your list and narrow down your options.
It may take a few hours to get all of your music sorted, but I promise you will be so relieved once it’s done. The next time you have an audition pop up or a friend beg you for sheet music they know you have somewhere, you’ll be thrilled that you can grab a binder and flip to the right song in minutes. Let me know your favorite organization techniques in the comments!