traveling with music

leftovermagic84

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So how do you take your music along with you when you travel around? I'm talking lyrics and chords, ideally as compact as possible. Right now I have a 3 ring binder, but the uke itself is more portable than the music. What are you guys using?
 
Right now, three ring binder. One of these days I hope technology catches up where we can store thousands of pages in a "notepad" device in various formats and call them up as desired. There are some products out there, but the limitations are too great. The biggest one is money. It's hard to beat $1 for a real notebook vs. several $1000's for the electronic equivalent.
 
I literally have stacks of 3 ring binders of ukulele/guitar music. All my songbooks are also in PDF and stored on my Palm Pre cell phone. I can plug it in through the USB cord at any print shop, like Kinkos and print the sheet music I want to at a distant gig. I printed out 4 (large) songbooks and left them in the Philippines a couple of years ago. The added weight of those books in the luggage would have been extremely expensive. Ric
 
I've always traveled with a folder, like one of those old-fashioned school folders with a pocket on each side for holding sheets. You can take as much/little as you like in it, less bulky than a 3-ring binder. Just pick out the pieces you want to work on while you're away. :)
 
what about them electronic readers??? could you upload your music onto it? it'd be great if you could for personal use and use the usb to print.
I'm sure that would work and probably even be a good solution if you already own a Kindle or an iPad.

But to me, it wouldn't be worth running out to buy one.

I'll stick with carrying a limited amount of sheets when I travel. Say I know my downtime is going to be one or two evenings in a hotel. I don't need my entire collection of sheet music, just what I plan to work on in that limited time.
 
If I have to take something, it's usually a 3-ring binder, but, after a few awkward experiences when I first started playing, out I began memorizing all my songs so as to avoid the problem altogether. If I'm playing solo I play everything from memory, but if I'm playing with other musicians, that's not always possible.
 
For most of my music I carry my 3-ring binder. But I'm working on transferring my stuff to approx. 4x6 card stock for use with my Kani Ka Pila Klip.
As you can see from the link the clip attaches to your headstock and holds small music cards. They even sell a nice starter set of classic old songs with the picture of the original sheet music on one side and lyrics and chords on the other. The cards fit nicely in the zipper pocket on my case, and the klip folds
down to fit with my tuner in the storage compartment in my case.
 
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Someone here on UU shared a cool little thing. If you take your sheet music or tab music and reduce it a bit, trim the paper, fold it in half, many sheets will fit into a DVD box and it makes a nice music stand when opened. I am in the process of creating a bunch of these for trips to the beach or park with friends. The little tabs in the box keep the sheets intact. Thank you, whomever I learned this from. I have shared this with many.
 
We have an app called My Songbook on our iPhones. It basically downloads songs from Chordie and other sources. You can even put in just lyrics and add chords yourself if they are not available on-line.
 
Whilst I do keep a copy if my music in PDF on my iPhone, and some on my sony reader, I rarely use them.

For me, like so many above, ring binders with songs printed and slipped in clear plastic wallets.

Reason is simple, they are easier to read, certainly easier for others to read playing along, and as I do so much jamming in the pub or at parties, the ring binder is more resistant to spilt beer than my iPhone!

That said, iPhone is always on me and useful to check stuff where ring binder not with me.
 
In the cockpit we keep a clipboard that has a back that opens up. Much smaller than a binder and keeps music from blowing away. Got it at Officemax.
 
i just recently bought a phone that has a document reader (not a smartphone) and it has saved my life for this problem. i have songs that are pdf, doc, docx, and txt files and it displays all of them. so, while i still have my 3 ring binder of music at home, i always have my music on me where ever i go.
 
I am also using a single large 3" binder with page protectors. I don't memorize for two reasons: I don't get paid, so I am not going to spend the time; I have way too many tunes to memorize. I don't sing--purely instrumental fingerstyle--and read all my tunes from sheet music. That hasn't turned out to be practical with an e-reader of any sort. I used to keep separate binder for each genre (jazz, blues, rock, classical) but now I just pack the single large binder in the bottom of the duffel.

I personally would love to see a tenor or baritone ukulele case with a gigantic pocket to hold music.

Jon
 
I think I may have found something that works. I'm cutting down a folder with the three hole prongs in it. It holds just like a 3 ring, but it's a lot slimmer and more flexable. I figure I'll cut it down to about 5x8, so it will be a two prong folder, but a lot smaller.
 
leftover - You can get a 5 by 8 two-ring binder that is made for 5 by 8 index cards. Office stores will have them or probably a Walmart. I have also considered reducing all my sheets to that size and placing them in the small binder.
 
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