The Ideal Music Sketchbook

​As we rapidly approach the holiday season, I wanted to plug a little music resource that I’ve been working on! If you're interested in grabbing one of these by the end of the post, I'll post the links to them down there.

​As a composer who’s fond of pencil and paper, one of my most common recurring expenses is composition notebooks. I find it super useful to be able to jot down, plan, and workshop ideas anytime through the convenience of a paper notebook. Somehow the act of sketching on physical paper allows me to process and generate ideas more efficiently. However, I’ve never been able to find a notebook that does exactly what I’d like it to do. Most options offer lined paper for notes and manuscript paper for music, but that’s about it. I often find myself drawing in additional features every time when I need to put something on a timeline or brainstorm long term plans.

It was in my searching for a good notebook that the idea to make my own hit me. What if I could make a custom sketchbook that would offer everything I needed right from the start? A composition notebook for composers made by a composer? Well, I did it! It’s available now in hard and soft cover via amazon and on my website store as a digital download (for those who prefer a digital format!). 
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The Sketchbook:

If you're interested in learning a little more about it, I’ll give a detailed breakdown of the features I added to the standard notebook model below. The more I worked on it, the more I realized there is so much missing from the books we all settle for!
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Notes Index:

Something that always frustrated me about the average notebook was that I wasn’t able to quickly return to the notes I’d taken for a particular project as needed. I ended up flipping through page by page, trying to remember approximately when and in what order I had written things down in. A huge waste of time. My solution to this is a small index page at the start of each section.

With all the pages already numbered and placed into a grid, the user simply has to write in a small title to be able to rapidly return to the work or notes from whatever project they'd like. A big time saver, and a great way to keep things organized.

Notes Pages:

​Following the first Index Page is a section consisting of just regular lined note paper. Again, the pages are all numbered to help with easy organization. I spaced the lines closer together than can be often found in notebooks like this, giving the user a greater area for note taking while still maintaining a convenient small size. Each page features 27 lines and carries over to the following page allowing for them to be used individually or as a larger two page set.
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Staff Paper:

​For the staff paper, I also opted for increased concentration of staves per page rather than the large and obtrusive set up I’ve often found in other notebooks. Each page features 11 lines of staff, again carrying on to the following page which allows you to write per page or across two for a single idea. This is particularly useful when writing for multiple parts as you can increase the number of instruments shown vertically by using the two page option without reducing the length of space you have to write.

Timeline Pages:

​Following the typical note and staff paper, I’ve added a section of timelines to help facilitate the planning of piece structures or project due dates. I find I can’t write music without a sense of direction or trajectory, and creating timelines has always been my chosen way to always give me a path forward. Anytime I feel I’m not sure what should happen next, or I feel stuck on a specific spot in a project, I refer to my timeline to give me the answer. I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for solutions to this! The timelines are very basic, and can be altered to suit whatever need the user may have for it. The similar theme of using the notebook on a single page or two page basis continues, and you can easily connect different timelines to extend the range of a particular project.
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Calendar Pages:

​While we all have access to calendars on our phones and computers, I find it helpful to use a paper calendar when working out tentative plans. This can allow you to plan far into the future, which is super important when juggling commissions and other responsibilities. By planning far ahead, you can better account for the time you’ll need for each project well in advance. It’s important to be able to limit and manage your projects so you don’t take on too much at once. The calendar pages of the sketchbook are the perfect place to plan out your long term projects for the year to come.
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How to Get Yours:

If you’re so inclined, you can pick up a physical copy of this sketchbook at the following link: amzn.to/46tDB3i

Or if you’d prefer a digital version, it's available here: Composition Sketchbook

Please let me know what you think of it, if you’d like to see any changes, or if you want other kinds of notebooks made custom for specific instruments/artists. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Until next time, thank you for reading, and happy jamming!