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Anyone who has played for a church service knows the need to change from one hymnal to another quickly during the service. During the past 3 weeks, I have been exploring how best to do that.
The church in which I work uses 2 hymnals regularly. The congregation has book-sized versions that sometimes have only the voice parts. The keyboard versions, however, are much larger.
The service music includes a hymn here, a sung response there, etc. This is not a liturgical church, but there are just as many pages involved.
Both hymnals are published in ring binders. One binder is the size of the Oxford English Dictionary! The pages in each are difficult to work with because of the large rings.
During the service I play both organ and piano, moving from one to the other more than once.
First attempt
Three weeks ago, I removed the pages I needed from the keyboard version of the hymnals. The pages were loose, though, which felt risky.
Following the service, it took quite a while to reassemble both hymnals. Again, the pages are hard to turn. So turning from page 24 to page 359, for example, must be accomplished in sections.
Second week
During the following Sunday, I kept the books intact. This meant changing from piano to organ and back while carrying both books.
While at the piano, it came time to use the smaller, regular service hymnal. With that open to the page I needed on the music rack, I needed to find a place for the larger hymnal.
The choices were to:
- Leave the larger hymnal open to the page needed next.
- Close the hymnal and find the page later.
But problems arose with each choice.
- Leaving the hymnal open made the book to wide to fit on the piano bench. With the hymnal placed in one direction, I would have been sitting on ½ the book; if placed in the other direction, it would have fallen to the floor.
- Closing the hymnal would create difficulty in finding the page I needed. Turning pages in clumps takes more time.
- Open or closed, setting the hymnal on the floor wouldn’t work. It’s too heavy to pick up by leaning over. In addition, there are people who object to any religious book being placed on the floor.
My solution that day was to leave the hymnal open, placing it on top of the organ. But to retrieve it, I had to stand and walk a few steps over to the organ and back, which seemed to be a distraction as well as time-
consuming.
I needed to think of something else.
Third try
A friend (thank you!) had suggested removing the pages I needed and placing them in a smaller binder. That way, all the music for that service would be organized, secured, and easily portable.
I wanted to try that, but spending a lot of time putting the hymnals back together was a problem still. This Sunday’s service music included 4 pages from each hymnal, completely out of order in every way.
And then I had an idea. Why not mark the place where each page had been removed with a Post-it?
So I did that on Saturday after practicing for the service.
With a big pink Post-it in each blank space, visible well above the top of the page, reassembling the books was much faster.
So that’s the plan from now on. I recommend it.
How do you handle the music books during services?
Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!
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Katrina Querriera said:
Hi Gretchen,
One of my customers is a church pianist and told me about how her recent experience handling her music during the service. Her books didn’t sound quite as hard to handle though as your gigantic church binders. Sounds like you get a real work out on Sunday mornings:) Nonetheless, here’s what she said:
“I like the fact that it [You Turn Music Page Holder] helps the pages stay open — in addition to the fact that you can mark pages (as bookmarks) throughout the book with the treble clefs [clips]. I recently used YouTurn in playing as a substitute pianist for a church. I was able to mark pages in my solo arrangement books for Prelude, Special Music, and Postlude which made it easy not only to find the page for the next song but also to turn the pages easily and keep them open.”
Please check it out at http://www.youturnmusic.com.
Gretchen Saathoff said:
Awwww… I do try not to drop the music on the floor…
Gretchen Saathoff said:
Hi Katrina,
You customer sounds very happy! I’m glad that the page holder works so well for her, and for others.
The hymnals I’m dealing with have D-shaped rings, which make the pages impossible to turn easily. The smaller binder with everything in service order worked quite well, though. So that’s my plan.
pianoteachersuzanne said:
One way to get around this problem does use more paper, so some would say it is not eco-friendly; but it works well. Photocopy the pages you need in advance (reassembling the binders as you go). Tape pages together as needed, or put them into page protectors in however many binders you need (perhaps one for the piano and one for the organ). My preferred method is to staple or tape the photocopies into manilla file folders, one page per side of folder; or, for longer pieces, using only the two inside spaces and multiple file folders, so that I can line them up across the piano desk and never have to turn a page. Of course, the photocopies could simply be made on cardstock and then taped together.
Regarding copyright law, check with the publishers if you wish. However, my understanding of copyright law is that this type of photocopying would be fine, as long as you do not distribute the copies to others or attempt to use the photocopies to avoid buying another book.
Gretchen Saathoff said:
Hi Suzanne,
Thanks for your comments!
Knowing how my brain goes blank during services, one binder is plenty! If there were two, I’d probably end up with the “other” one at some point. Running laps to retrieve music from the organ or piano would add something to the service, don’t you think?
Bottom line must be that everyone needs to figure out what works for them!