So as not to take the scream thread off topic...
Here is the place to confess your inability to resist the lure of sheet music.

Katica hasn't yet said she wants to join but she probably needs to as she has just spent the last of this month's wage on sheet music.

Viol Tenor has confessed to problems restraining himself at early music festivals.

Katyjay has asked to join without giving details.

Appassionata and Violin Hero are running out of space for their music.

I still have quite a lot of shelf space (And a project to build a special "music bookshelf" beside the piano to save me crossing the room when I want another piece of music ).

However, I never know what to say to my teacher when he says "Bring all the music you've got at home along to the next lesson so we can chose a new piece."

I ran out of shelf space long ago and, as such, consider myself to be a recovering addict.

However, these days I tend to be more of a 'drug pusher' and spend much of my time trying to lead other addicts astray...

W

*Visions of Roseau arriving with pantechnicon of music* "Well, you did say all my music ...."

ha...yes, I have problems with that too. I end up taking a smaller selection..and still find myself muttering excuses about things being "on special offer"

I have tried to be a little more restrained over the last year, though my problem comes when my teacher asks me to get a particular piece of music, I usually have to buy it on the internet and it never seems worth paying P&P for just ONE piece of music....

In some ways being a recorderist can work in your favour - you go in to a music shop and then leave empty handed because it has no recorder section But then you find another music shop up the road with a significant recorder section and have to buy some to thank them for having something for you to browse (this was in Norwich).
I can spend hours in Brian Jordan in Cambridge, and usually feel compelled to come out with something. I do really enjoy browsing but sometimes there is nothing that jumps out - and it feels really odd to leave after browsing for an hour or so with a 'nothing I fancied today'.

I have run out of room for sheet music, but to be fair it doesn't have a large space. I may need to re-arrange things so the music can expand a bit - it's only four 'magazine holder' type things with well probably an extra one or two that could be filled with the overspill...!!

The music I do have is in a very nice order - I am a sheet music sorting addict. It's all recorder music, but it's organised by instrumentation (descant, treble, tenor, bass, duets and mixed [i.e. book contains pieces for different recorders] and within that alphabetically by composer or editor. Actually this works well when you think 'what shall I take to my music lesson today?' and you can't decide - you can just lift out all the Telemann in one go because there's bound to be something playable in there )

I keep it on a spreadsheet too - I always have that in my music bag so I can reference what I own at my music lessons if need be...

The shelves in my music room have broken all the brackets....it is only a matter of time before I (or one of my pupes ) get(s) pulverised by the whole lot coming down.

My sad database tells me I have 6256 pieces.....mmm....and I know it isn't up to date...mmm

Anorak-Bag x

I get given lots of music that I'm sure I will never play and have a thing for buying music on offer at a music shop in Derby! I also have a whole Amazon wish list dedicated to music theory books I'd like to buy!

"Hello. My name is katica and I'm an addict...."

The first time he asked me to bring it all in I said (without really thinking) "but I walk to my lesson." He did look very puzzled
These days I try to get him to be a little more precise (like which period, or which format: sonata, concerto, unaccompanied...)


I do that too And lots of mine is visibly second hand; there's this really cheap shop in London ...


I have exactly the same problem (and it's probably worse for me as I buy music for both my daughters as well and they're not yet old enough to being asking for extra music, so that means I end up looking at music for me ...).

I also can't understand why, despite the amount of music I have, I often don't seem to have what he specifically wants. And if he's actually giving me an excuse to buy more music, I can't say "no" can I?

Please sign me up.
Two weeks after being banned by my teacher from buying any more clarinet music for at least 12 months guess what.....?

I stacked all my music up in a big pile a couple of months ago and it reached 2.5 metres... that didn't include the organ music because I have taken that to church to store.
I do have a problem with buying sheet music. I am always getting new stuff even though there is absolutely loads of music I can't play properly and am supposed to be working on. Still it's a better addiction to have than some others and I don't think scientists have proven that sheet music addiction is hazardous to health yet.

I'm not so sure about that

I've only got a small stack so far... keeping a close watch on myself..

Can I join too. After having bought up just about every resource book for early years over the past 10 years or so, I've now returned to my instrumental roots and after just 6 months have filled an entire ikea bookcase of piano and flute music. <embarrassed>

But that's not my true addiction - since discovering IMSLP (thanks to this site) I now have an extensive library of pdf files on my laptop. It's like being in heaven.

I think I must sign up the entire family.

OH has organ and choral music ad lib, (and he has a separate room to keep it in, away from other music), Sonny Jim has trumpet, guitar (not much of that, it's all in his head) and drum (same as guitar really) music, Teenviolinist has violin, singing and some piano music, and I have piano music ++.

Plus the odd few bits of music that are left overs - such as early stage cello music, and music magazines - do they count??

It's wonderful - worth learning French violin clef for from my point of view (It is G on bottom line - so just like bass clef really...)
Flute can use normal treble clef with a given key signature; put French violin clef and different key signature at the front as well, and a recorder can play it - without having to re-write the music. Definitely a good thing in the times of manual engraving and printing, etc.

Well, let's see:

Music Room: an Ikea shelving unit with base storage. In the base are odds and sods like treble, tenor and bass recorder, foot rest (from when I had a go aty lute), various music stanmds and other paraphernalia.

On the two sets of shelves above that, about 8 shelf-feet inall are all of the vocal scores as I have a copy of almost everything I have ever perfomred in a concert (minus a few out-of-print items such as a piece of Kenneth Leighton and an American C19th female composer whose name escapes me at the moment). There also 8 of those A4 magazine storage type boxes that have piano music in them.On top of this unit are more of those A4 things: two with alto sax music and two with cello stuff.

Study: there are 5 large Ikea bookcases in there, plus two short ones, plus some CD storage ones, plus my desk and the other computer. There is one entire shelf of viol consort music plus a couple of those A4 things with tutor books in etc; there is half a shelf or so of recorder music, plus tutor books; there is a hlaf shelf or so of lute music and tutor books; there is best part of a shelf of early choral music which I've picked up at workshops etc. There are several shelves of music theory/history book, including a few facsimile editions (e.g. Simpson, Morely, Dowland) and several volumes from the Musica Brittanica series (I'd like more but at about GBP75 each they're a bit pricey). That's about one entire bookcase (ish). The others are filled with books on other subjects (let's see: astronomy, history, photography, hill walking, cookery, gardening....).

Oh, and there are over 2,500 CDs in there as well....

All I can say it's a good job Brian Jordan's bookshop is a long way away (sadly he died last year) or I'd be in really serious trouble!

I don't have a problem at all - like Oscar Wilde, I can resist everything except temptation....

I have music I have bought absolutely ages ago and just have not got round to learning or even just playing them through.

I still have a large musicroom.com wishlist...........

Er... well for those of you that haven't seen my stash....

Last weekend I gave away approximately 22 kilogrammes of unwanted sheet music from my collection. This was duplicates of stuff I have already, or some piano music I was never likely to play.

That was, I estimate, around a tenth of the music I had.....

The rest is more-or-less contained in around 25 metres of shelving in my music room. Except the stuff that's out on loan at the moment, of course.....

And the bits I can't find but are likely to be somewhere else in the house....

And the stuff I ordered from America before Christmas which is on its way over the Atlantic to me....



And that's before we talk about instruments....

Was that just the stuff you posted? I have several kilogrammes more of it in my music room waiting to be found a shelf....

May I join, please?

Yes, that was the stuff I posted.

25 metres .......... *faints*

I'll join too.
I could stop whenever I like but it's not a habit, it's a collection...so that's ok then.
Actually compared to some around here Iv'e hardly got any...so I'd better order some more....

As the guy who used to run the record shop I used to frequent said to me one day: "You're not a serious collector below 3,000". By that reckoning I'm not sure where I stand. I have about 2,500 CDs and 700 LPs.

We've got far too much music too. the book shelf is filled and we now have 4 large really useful boxes with suspension files in stacked up looking for a place to rest. I had a really bad spell before Christmas with ebay

Seems I can't count. There are SIX two metre high Ikea bookcases in the study, not five, and they're all full

They are just on a metre wide, six shelves, so that's 36 metres of shelf plus about 3 metres in the music room...ohh and there's a bookcase on the landing, call it another 3.5 metres. So that's about 42 / 43 metres of shelf

So, I don't have a book problem do I?

I have so much music that I will never in my lifetime play even a half of it! But it looks nice on the shelves and I like to try segments from pieces that I love but cannot play yet! Sometimes it is nice to follow the music when I listen to a recording.

May I join, please?

I have nowhere near as much as some of you, but nevertheless, the various collections are expanding rather more rapidly than I would like.

One of the problems is that we have music for lots of instruments: piano, cello, violin, viola and harp, plus chamber music, choral music and songs, and a bit of recorder music. My younger daughter has been on at me to learn the oboe for a while and so far I have refused. There are a number of reasons for that, but one of them is that I don''t want to have to start buying music for yet another instrument!

I have to out myself - another addict. I've no idea how much it all wieghs, except that it's far too heavy for the approx 15 metres of nasty MFI shelving it's currently using. I would get rid of some of it. But I really do intend to play the organ again some day, and some of the stuff for manuals only sounds OK on the piano. And the too easy piano stuff was handy for beginner flautist and cellist to play together. Then there's the clarinet books that are way too easy, but hey, some of the pieces are still just fun to play every now and then. And the ...

The excuses just prove that I'm not ready to take the cure yet.

No, as long as you don't have a shelf shortage

My dining room which is doubling as a music room as it contains the piano, is as well stocked if not better stocked than a music shop. My daughter plays flute, piano, alto sax, and ukelele. Son is on piano and cornet, husband on alto sax, but using daughter's old music, and some of his own, and me on bassoon. My worst tests of my sheet music addiction come when I pass a local charity shop, which has boxes and boxes of the stuff! I've come to the conclusion that I may as well put my bank account in the name of June Emerson

The worst thing about this (for me anyway) is I go once, find loads of things, force myself to put some back, and then come back six months later, find that the pieces I reluctantly put back have still not been sold. So what I can I do but buy them

Gosh, and I thought I had a lot of music. I seem to be a mere beginner compared to some of you.

If the sons have left home now, a lot of their music hasn't, so there is a lot of trombone, piano and violin music scattered around the house. A lot of the oboe music was bought for (if only it was bought by) our younger son, but that is now being very effectively re-cycled.

None of my local charity shops seem to have sheet music Probably just as well as I've just ordered the complete set of Bartok Mikrokosmos because of another thread on here, plus two other piano pieces for my grade 8 exam. My brain is repeating a mantra "you can never have enough music".

I think I need help Yesterday, I wandered in to Stafford as I had to kill a few hours. Never been there before, but I found the music shop and I had no choice but to buy some music theory books

Today, I went into Shrewsbury and I had to buy some cello music

Another lot arrived in the post box today!
And what is more I'v ehad the email to say the next lot has been despatched.
Now, what shall I order today?????

My name is Dripdrip and I'm not an addict, apparently. I only have 2 and a half shelves of an Ikea bookcase. Must try harder.

Oops, another book fell into my bag in Forsyths yesterday.

Did you go in that music shop at the top of Wyle Cop almost opposite St Julians Craft Centre?



You Mancunians don't realise just how lucky you are to have this pianists and musicians Mecca in your city. There's absolutely nothing like it in Birmingham, you have to travel into Worcester for a decent place similar to Forsyths/Mickleburghs (Bristol)/Chappells(Soho) and to Leamington Spa for a sheet music/classical orientated music retailer.

All there is are guitar shops that have incredibly limited sheet music/AB exam stuff.

See, we have SRP playdays where people bring second hand music, all of it suitable for your instrument, to be sold for a pittance. What's a girl to do?

So, how much music is "A lot?" Let's try to measure it in reasonably standard units like filing cabinet drawers or Foolscap box files... how much do you have?



Lord is it really that bad now? I had my early musical years in Birmingham and whiled away my Saturdays wandering from Allegro (posh and intimidating with limited stock) to the one whose name I could never remember then down Smallbrook Queensway's scary subway to the all hallowed James Pass. All my pocket money went in "Passes". It had music for everyone and everything, with an instruments (school based) section upstairs full of the weird and wonderful. There was no pretention, just brown box file after brown box file, floor to ceiling, filled with amazing stuff, sorted by instrument and including harp music and all sorts. Each instrument had a different "room" (little cupboard) and they provided chairs for the serious addict who was happy to spend the entire day rummaging in boxes, whilst they also had a section out front for the non-rummagers who wanted to buy popular items such as AB piano and violin books. And every day there was an unkempt-looking musician (usually, but not always, me) sat on a chair in those little cupboards eye deep in little brown boxes slavering over music. I nearly needed to organise a memorial service when I learned that Passes had gone. A good 3/4 of everything I own has that telltale Pass price sticker on it. My local music shop here is not bad, but there isn't a huge amount of stock, and it's really not for the rummager, you are constantly in the way if you stop and leaf through things. They want to help you find what you are looking for and get you out again. I once got a cup of coffee brought to me in Passes.

I went to visit a friend in London. We went to Boosey & Hawkes. He didn't stand a chance. I quote "Next time I go music shopping with you, remind me to bring camping equipment".

I have a similar addiction to weakness for interest in books.

However, there is a huge pile of music on top of the piano, and the Piano Tuner is due soon, so it will all have to be cleared away. The only problem is, that process seems to take at least a week, as every piece needs to be looked at and bits played before it can be put tidily in a box.

SB

Not much of an addiction; more pages and pages of loose sheet music everywhere. Some of it is not even in order. Sometimes I play a piece and I get to the 24th page, which is from a different concerto. It is really bad when you have misplaced a stack of symphonies and end up printing off the whole thing again, only to find the former was under a sheet of paper.

And one more thing. I want one 5 page piece in a 200 page book of music. This is extremely annoying when exam boards (or friends) specify a particular arrangement of a piece from a particular book/volume. I'm looking at you Scarlartti and Bach!

The ABRSM's change of piano syllabus has presented me with real challenges this month. I've really tried to be strong, and so far have only bought 7 books, (in addition to 4 harpsichord books). My piano teaching friend has just bought all the grade books 1-8 with CD - I'll encourage her to join the forum - we both need help!

"Self-help" isn't the same as "help yourself to more music" is it?

(my latest order has been dispatched...)

I have yet to kick the habbit. or for that matter even cut down............

Why did I chose an instrument with so much lovely music available to someone of my level!?

Has anyone tried Nicorette patches or hypnosis? Or anything else? Like putting the piano syllabus in the loft so it's a real effort to go and get it to order more music. (Trouble is, I keep needing it for lessons).

Why did I choose to play violin, viola, recorder (all sizes down to bass), flute and dabble at the piano? That's never going to lend itself to a small selection of music, is it? Oh, and then there are the songs, the choral anthologies, the time I saw Carols for Choirs on a stand in the music shop and nearly had to be carried out on a stretcher.

I didn't buy much new music today...

I am a saint in comparison to all that. I ONLY play the violin, allbeit to a very high standard.

Ooooh, I ordered some music before I went on holiday...5th July (just checked the calendar), and I've not got it yet. Must follow up with an email, suspect it has had to be special ordered or something, rather than going astray at one of my neighbour's, but at least an email to the shop will let me know!

..And it's arrived.

It's books about music and technique and performance practice and stuff like that rather than being actual notes to play.

That doesn't count does it?

Does it?

No, you're OK Katyjay - I don't think that books about music count (this sounds like a Weight Watchers meeting doesn't it - only we're counting crotchets not calories!) They have to be that nice slightly larger than A4 size, with a shiny pretty cover and have pristine manuscript paper and the new sheet music scent - ah - yes!