Miscellaneous Notebooks

[wakyct]

I will admit I'm a bit of a notebook and pen/pencil nerd, and as I've started writing some exercises out I was wondering if there is a music notebook that has interchangeable key signatures. Here is my DIY solution,

Also if you have a favorite sheet music, or any other kind of notebook, please share!

 

[mizmar]

What value is there in writing/exchanging the key signature?
You could just think to yourself "I'm gonna play this in A" then "now in Bb"

 

[wakyct]

For me as a deliberate exercise in reading. Otherwise I would just play the whole thing from memory and not use the notebook.

 

[skeller047]

I sporadically keep a notebook, kind of a diary of things I’m working on.

For these kinds of exercises, I just make one or two notes, then take them through all 12 keys. Couple examples from the last few months (I keep other fragments in the same book, specific to a tune, or an idea for a new tune, etc…)

I worked on the II7-V7 idea for about a week, the second line is a simpler version of the first (in Bb instead of F…) The pentatonic one I learned many decades ago, but I never worked on the second line, with the second interval inverted. I’ve been doing that as my scale workout a couple times a week for the last month.

@wakyct if you are working on improvisation there is no benefit to writing exercises out in the way you did. You have to internalize them in every key, and not be looking at the paper or screen while you go through that process. If you plan on publishing an exercise book, that’s one thing, but for your practice benefit learn to do this kind of thing without the dots. Keeping a diary is good though…

BTW for notebooks, that’s a Passantino book, they’ve been around since I was a kid, and they are excellent.

 

[atwl77]

That's a pretty neat way to swap key signatures, though personally, I feel like it is unnecessary. Even when I am sight reading something, I never look at the key signatures except at the beginning. Once I internalize, "this song is in A major", I'm reading all the dots as A major without needing to refer to the key signature.

And on the subject of notebooks, I tried to use them but they ended up gathering dust as I tend to prefer to keep them digitally. Can't resist easily being able to transpose for alto or tenor in MuseScore (the PC software, not the website), or having backing tracks come attached to PDF scores in MobileSheets on a tablet.

Also, I'm kind of a fountain pen nerd myself, and those things generally don't work well with the kind of paper that sheet music books generally tend to come with.