Post 562: USING MOLESKINE MANUSCRIPT NOTEBOOKS FOR JAZZ

Until recently, I was only vaguely aware that in the stationers' shops there was a variety of elegant notebooks made by a company called Moleskine. Then I discovered that Moleskine produces a neat pocket-size (9 centimetres x 14 centimetres) notebook for the writing out of music. It has 192 pages of quality paper, each ready printed with eight staves. 

There is also a 'pocket' in the back that can be used to store business cards, for example.

Perfect, I thought, for making copies of the trickiest tunes and the ones easily forgotten because they are not often played, and also the tunes that have a Verse that is sometimes needed in addition to the more familiar Chorus.

So I bought three of these notebooks and have been filling them, to my great satisfaction. They are becoming - to me at least - little treasures.

Moleskine Pocket Music Book

I began by numbering the pages. I tried to keep the tunes roughly in alphabetical order, though I am also maintaining an Index which directs me to any tune at a moment's notice.

A typical 32-bar tune can usually be contained within one page. But for the longer tunes (with three parts, for example), I allow a couple of pages.

I shall also enjoy looking through the tunes and memorising some of them during bus journeys, of which I undertake plenty.

I think these little books will be extremely useful to me. Maybe I can recommend the idea to you too, if you don't already have something of the kind?