POST 588 : MUSIC POCKET NOTEBOOKS UPDATE

I mentioned a couple of months ago that I had discovered for the first time pocket music notebooks (made by Moleskine). I have since had a lot of pleasure filling them with useful straightforward lead-sheets of tunes played by traditional jazz bands - particularly those that are the more difficult to remember, or that have verses worth hearing but rarely played.

I have made such progress that I have filled three books, with a total of over 400 tunes so far. Of course, I also keep and regularly update an Index, so that I can find any tune in a moment.

Although they truly are pocketable, I like their robustness, the amount of space they give on and between staves (just right for me) and the way the books stay open at the desired pages when playing an instrument.

Moleskine Pocket Music Books

I intend to start a fourth soon. However, I have noticed (as at late-February 2018) that Moleskine seem no longer to be producing the notebooks for music in pocket size. So I may have to buy a plain pocket notebook and draw the staves myself. That should work just as well.

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?