So I recently re-started playing the oboe and MrB is complaining that I am accumulating too much music...

I currently have 5 books plus 1 on order and debating another. It totals over 100 individual pieces/studies, although most of them are fairly short. I like to play a variety to stop me, MrB and my neighbours getting bored!

My old music from when I learned before has also been located and is on its way to me - not sure how much there is though yet but at least 2 more books.

So am I being excessive? How much do other people have?

I would be best placed to answer your question in feet rather than books. There must be at least four feet worth which is accessible and another two feet or so of old stuff in the loft! That's for four instruments though.

2 filing cabinets and 3 boxes of music!

That's reassuring; although I suspect MrB would be horrified if I told him!

A lot of people here own a lot of music, as can be seen in this thread

Spooky, I was just searching for this thread to post a link too - I'd just found it and then realised you'd posted it.

Of course the answer to the question "how much music do you own?" is always "not enough!"

I measure it feet too - I think if you stacked it on the floor the 'pile' would be more than three feet high.

But that's three instruments over more than twenty years... and there's more at my Dad's house that technically belongs to me too.

Thanks, I had had a quick look to see if there was already a similar thread but didn't spot that one in my browsing. I think I can order my next book guilt free by the sounds of it! :-)

We would measure ours in terms of 'rooms' - two rooms filled and counting...

W

I think you can regard your self as an "amateur" / "beginner" until you start measuring in shelf-yards

A shelf of piano and another shelf of mixed clarinet, horn, flute and bassoon. It strangely all migrates off the shelves and ends up in a big heap on and around the piano and then is unable to find its own way home.

I've got about 6 - 8 inches, spread over two instruments. Granted I have lost all of my old music for/from school and I've only been playing the violin for two months... Though I have at least another foot or so in my wish list on amazon!

I tell my OH that it's a pretty mild sin, all things considered, and I've got about 5 shelves of music !

.

My parents had a whole book shelf totalling over 2.5m tall that was filled. and no-one even plays anything in the house!!! (still refusing to let me take some though).

I only have 1-2 ft of music and want to get more...

By the sounds of it I think it might be a better measure to ask how much of that music people actually play though, and how much has been stored for a bit too long...

I don't know which is worse, having several shelves of music, where you only play half, or having several rooms and playing all of it...


Obviously either one is a musicians right!

I estimate my piano and organ music (together with a few Violin Sonata volumes for when daughter visits) together to be around 10 feet of shelf space !

In the music room I have two shelves of vocal scores - about 6 shelf feet. I always buy a copy of everything I perform, apart from the odd item that's out of print. I reckon I've performed well over 90% of what's there

The shelf-feet of musical scores only show how many musical scores we own. Owning the score does not mean that you own the music. To own a piece of music you need to know every detail of it intimately, deeply, and unforgettably.

On that basis I have about 12 shelf feet of scores, and I own about 2 hours of solo piano music.

Far too much, for far too many instruments...

This sounds a bit - dramatic - to me! I own my car but do not need to understand how to fix the engine to say so!

Getting to the point where I have several copies of some of the better known pieces. Teach said to me last lesson "why do you need any more? There's loads of good stuff here!" and I looked at her as though she were ma', ma', m, m, m, mad!

Ha! I love that movie so much!

But musical scores are not like cars. A car is a car. It gets you around.

A musical score is NOT music. It is just a representation of it (and an incomplete one at that). I do think it is an imoprtant distinction, and not a bit of pedantry. a few sheets of paper with black and white dots and squiggles are not music.

Agree, but then the music is in 'you' not the score so is it really about 'knowing' it, etc?? I'm only just getting into this lark but while there are a few references to what the composer intended surely there iis room for the performer's interpretation too, no? IMHO each performance is always going to be at least subtly different to the last

That was my question though...

Ahhhh ...
In that case about 12 shelf feet worth which is at least 200x more than I shall ever be able to play well

It gives you plenty to work at and aspire to though!

a bit more than I did yesterday but compared to most people I have very little

'Fess up. What have you just acquired?

I have probably comparatively little - at the moment it is approximately half a bedroom floor's worth. Maybe some sort of filing system is in order...alphabetic by composer, publisher, chronological by date of composition or by categorisable genre?

Bought - Masterworks for clari and piano, and one of the new clari books published by Trinity

Acquired - a pile of stuff including the Krommer, some of it is for flute and one piece for oboe

The unaccompanied one?

About 6 feet of shelving...covering violin, piano, singing, flute, recorder and a few oddments.

In my husband's eyes, too much....and in mine, not enough!

Erm, I think some of us would disagree with that statement A car is certainly not a car, you can't compare the beauty and driving experience of this -


with something like this -


As far as music goes I've got lots, well over 100 books, if not getting on for 200. Much of it is teaching resources and most has been gifted to me.

Yep haven't had the chance to have a proper look at it yet but no doubt I'll get round to it


btw P*P, I agree

Some good stuff in those though they've also turned out to be good ammunition for teachers....

OK, the Triumph might be nice to look at, but the Hyundai is more likely to get you from A to B without breaking down.

In a similar manner it would be nice if someone bought me some sort of fancy leather bound set of Bach's organ works, but for actual playing purposes I would be more likely to use tatty copies or internet print outs.

Mmmm, that's true..........

A. This would be my choice:





B. Over 300 albums of musical scores

I couldn't even begin to count.

90% of everything on all 3 piano diploma lists at least.

Add to that an equal amount of works that most people have never heard of.

Add to that 100+ flute/keyboard/recorder books from when I was learning.

Add to that orchestral scores.

Add to that a box literally bursting with naughty photocopies/printouts.

That much.

Very nice car!