Problems with music manuscript paper.
Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 11:33 am
Hallo. I'm not sure if it's too far off-topic here, but I thought I might seek opinions here about something that has long bothered me.
Are many people here composers? Do they compose on a computer, or do some use music manuscript paper and write their music by hand in the old-fashioned way? I have considered using a computer, but I have never found a music notation program I felt I could be happy with in the long term (I did investigate this some years ago), and just don't trust computers not to crash and destroy years of work along the way.
For most of my life I wanted to be a composer and have tried writing music on and off over many years - but I find the apparent lack of even nearly suitable music manuscript paper to be a real problem, and it has unexpectedly proved a real hurdle to my own composing efforts. Perhaps I am fussier than most, because I suppose many composers manage to find paper that is reasonably acceptable to them, if not ideal. I am here talking mainly about the common sort of paper with 10 or 12 staves which you would normally use to compose piano music, which has been my main area of activity.
The main problem is that there is almost never enough space between the staves, which means that, in even slightly complicated music (and my music does tend towards the dense and complex), markings belonging to one staff are very likely to bump against those belonging to the next one up or down. This is made worse if you tend to put in full pedal markings (as I do), and have a preference for using leger lines rather than frequent 8va signs, which I don't like because they destroy the visual shape of a horizontal line or arpeggio. I suppose the solution is to just leave an unused staff between every system, and I have done that, but it often means you don't get much music on a page, and page-turning can then become even more of a problem than it might already be.
But my problem is worse than that. I like to use loose-leaf paper punched with holes to put in a folder or binder, so that I can organize the pages in any order, and I might want to rearrange pages while I am still doing rough copies and maybe inserting passages or changing the order of things; and it also makes the music convenient for playing at the piano. And using this style of paper limits things hugely further, because not many types of manuscript paper are made like this. You do occasionally see them at newsagents', but there are multiple problems with this: they are usually printed in faint blue, so you can hardly see the lines at all in any but the very brightest light - and the staves are ridiculously big, and the space between them ridiculously small (often not much wider than the width of a staff itself). They are probably just designed for primary school kids to do their theory exercises, and they may suffice for that, but are not good for much more than that. Nonetheless, I have used them for rough copies, because the ability to shuffle pages around seems to be something I just can't do without. (I don't have any manuscripts yet that I regard as more than rough copies, and perhaps never will have until I have decent paper to write them on.)
Other types of paper may come in pads of single pages that you tear off, but there is no way of putting them into book form to play at the piano; yet other types come in double pages that fold in the middle, but using those would seem to require a near-perfect ability to predict from the very earliest stages of composition the final page each passage will appear on - and I find it impossible to predict that in advance.
I am considering getting thousands of pages printed specially to my specification, with holes punched in for folders, and plastic reinforcement down the edge to prevent the holes from tearing with use - but this could be a rather expensive way of getting suitable paper, so I haven't quite decided to jump yet and go ahead. But I am feeling it may be the only way I will ever have acceptable paper to compose with.
So, if there are other composers here, I was just wondering what type of paper they used (would it be acceptable to mention brands here?), and just generally how they organize their manuscripts. Any opinions or thoughts or personal experience would be appreciated.
Does anyone feel so dissatisfied with available brands of paper that they have had their own printed? Are there really good brands around and I have just never known the right places to look for them?
Thanks.
Regards, Michael.
Are many people here composers? Do they compose on a computer, or do some use music manuscript paper and write their music by hand in the old-fashioned way? I have considered using a computer, but I have never found a music notation program I felt I could be happy with in the long term (I did investigate this some years ago), and just don't trust computers not to crash and destroy years of work along the way.
For most of my life I wanted to be a composer and have tried writing music on and off over many years - but I find the apparent lack of even nearly suitable music manuscript paper to be a real problem, and it has unexpectedly proved a real hurdle to my own composing efforts. Perhaps I am fussier than most, because I suppose many composers manage to find paper that is reasonably acceptable to them, if not ideal. I am here talking mainly about the common sort of paper with 10 or 12 staves which you would normally use to compose piano music, which has been my main area of activity.
The main problem is that there is almost never enough space between the staves, which means that, in even slightly complicated music (and my music does tend towards the dense and complex), markings belonging to one staff are very likely to bump against those belonging to the next one up or down. This is made worse if you tend to put in full pedal markings (as I do), and have a preference for using leger lines rather than frequent 8va signs, which I don't like because they destroy the visual shape of a horizontal line or arpeggio. I suppose the solution is to just leave an unused staff between every system, and I have done that, but it often means you don't get much music on a page, and page-turning can then become even more of a problem than it might already be.
But my problem is worse than that. I like to use loose-leaf paper punched with holes to put in a folder or binder, so that I can organize the pages in any order, and I might want to rearrange pages while I am still doing rough copies and maybe inserting passages or changing the order of things; and it also makes the music convenient for playing at the piano. And using this style of paper limits things hugely further, because not many types of manuscript paper are made like this. You do occasionally see them at newsagents', but there are multiple problems with this: they are usually printed in faint blue, so you can hardly see the lines at all in any but the very brightest light - and the staves are ridiculously big, and the space between them ridiculously small (often not much wider than the width of a staff itself). They are probably just designed for primary school kids to do their theory exercises, and they may suffice for that, but are not good for much more than that. Nonetheless, I have used them for rough copies, because the ability to shuffle pages around seems to be something I just can't do without. (I don't have any manuscripts yet that I regard as more than rough copies, and perhaps never will have until I have decent paper to write them on.)
Other types of paper may come in pads of single pages that you tear off, but there is no way of putting them into book form to play at the piano; yet other types come in double pages that fold in the middle, but using those would seem to require a near-perfect ability to predict from the very earliest stages of composition the final page each passage will appear on - and I find it impossible to predict that in advance.
I am considering getting thousands of pages printed specially to my specification, with holes punched in for folders, and plastic reinforcement down the edge to prevent the holes from tearing with use - but this could be a rather expensive way of getting suitable paper, so I haven't quite decided to jump yet and go ahead. But I am feeling it may be the only way I will ever have acceptable paper to compose with.
So, if there are other composers here, I was just wondering what type of paper they used (would it be acceptable to mention brands here?), and just generally how they organize their manuscripts. Any opinions or thoughts or personal experience would be appreciated.
Does anyone feel so dissatisfied with available brands of paper that they have had their own printed? Are there really good brands around and I have just never known the right places to look for them?
Thanks.
Regards, Michael.
