Going on month four with my Sweet D (no longer playing flat, thanks to Sweet & Co.). Slowly transferring fiddle tunes I know. It’s great fun.
I find Grey Larsen’s book “The Essential Guide etc” to be a wonderful source for information as there are no other Irish fluters in my area. But the way it is bound makes it bloody inconvenient to use. So I thought I would ask this august board if anyone has found a nice way to un-bind the book so it can be hole-punched and put in a folder. (Sorry if this has been discussed here before.)
The only way I think you could do it would be to take it to a commercial bindery—I’m sure there are some that do small jobs. They would use a guillotine to trim off the spine and the glue holding the leaves together. I should think that they could also drill the holes to your specification with a paper drill. You could include the front and back cover in the drilling so they could be part of the loose leaf book. They might, in fact, be somewhat more attached to the first and last leaves than just at the spine----I don’t know. The individual leaves would be somewhat vulnerable at the holes, you would need to be careful when you turned them. But other than that, it seems like it would be a good idea. I wouldn’t try to do this myself because the book is rather thick and trimming off the spine neatly would be impossible in my opinion. Even if you broke the book into small sections it is fairly hard to trim a thin stack of sheets really nicely.
You would want to be careful that the holes didn’t cut into the text. They would need to be a certain distance from the edge to prevent easy tearing through the inner edge of the leaf but not as far in as the text. I don’t know how much room there is in the inner margin, so just the one thing to think about.
I spoke with Grey Larson about this binding problem when I was at his workshop class, if it would be possible to make two books. He said he was forsed by the publisher to make one big book. He suggested taking it to a place and have them make it into a spiral binder.
I started with a Sweet D about 11 months ago, and I use the Larsen book, so we have a lot in common.
I got around the book problem by photocopying the pages with tunes on them. I have a small folder of photocopied tunes to work on (along with others) that I pull out when I am practising.
I also have Lesl’s Mike Rafferty book, which is a great source of tunes written out for flute. Plus, like you I am working out tunes I used to play on banjo. It is amazing how easy it is to pick up a tune you already know on another instrument.
Does anyone have the Larsen “encyclopedia” for flute? I probably don’t need more tunes to work on, but it would be a good reference for tunes I want to learn but can’t find anywhere else.
I also photocopy the pages I want to work on. For example the ones with exercises to practice ornamentation. I also have Lesl’s book. Don’t you think we could ask Lesl to add an index with the tunes that have been recorded by Mike Rafferty saying in which CD they can be found?
You are right. I am sorry, I should have looked better before suggesting anything. I haven’t started working with the book yet but I will very soon, it is certainly a very valuable and useful resource.
Xaquín
I wanted to be able to prop my copy of “Essential Guide…” on a music stand. For $15, Kinko’s shaved off the book’s spine and spirally bound the book in two parts (using the original front and back covers and two see-through plastic pages). I’m extremely happy with the result. Very much worth the expense.
I had a very valuable knitting book rebound at an Office Max, and they did a TERRIBLE job. I would NOT go to an office superstore, nor would I trust a Kinko’s. Take it to a pro…tell them that if it can’t be done WELL, you don’t want it done at all.
The $65 book I had ruined… the girl cut the binding off before she realized she didn’t have a ‘comb’ long enough. The holes were right on the bend of the binding, and both covers ‘ripped through’. She didn’t pay attention to aligning the pages, so some of them were at an angle.
Terrible job. She just shrugged. I screamed to the manager who kindly allowed me not to pay for the honor of having a book ruined.
Despite good advice to the contrary, I took my copy of Larsen to a local big-box store copy center where the nice person behind the counter assured me they could shave the binding off and spiral-bound the book. When I went to pick it up later, the copy center manager said he had bad news for me. The job had been done so badly he offered no charge and to reimburse me for a new book. When he showed what they did I understood. Many of the pages were uneven, some with hole punches on opposite edges(?!). On some pages, the punched holes were so close to the edge that I expect they will rip soon. But you know, it does work. That is, I can open it up to any page and place it on a music stand. I have ordered a new copy from Larsen, which the manager has already reimbursed me for, including shipping.
So there you have it. Someone could write a ballad about this.
Apparently it depends a lot on the competence of the person behind the counter. I suppose sometimes it is pretty hard to figure out which side of the book is supposed to get the holes punched in.
You might have better luck at a professional print shop (i.e., not a chain like Kinko’s or Office Max).
I would definately recommend checking out a professional print shop. I just bid a job for a client who wanted me to call her local Kinkos. It was almost impossible to communicate the very basic specs to the kid on the other end of the phone, and it took them two days to respond. When they did, the price was $125 more than the quote given to me by the local print shop, which only required a quick call to communicate the specs and a five minute wait while they calculated the price and called me back. Let’s hear it for the pros!
My students use a book somewhat thicker than Larsen’s. They usually take them to Kinko’s or a print shop. After shaving off the spine, the shop 3-hole punches them. The covers go into the plastic pockets on a ring binder. It looks quite nice and they can take out sections as they need them.
I don’t think we’ve had a mishap in all the years they’ve been doing this, but we don’t use the comb bindings.
oops, i suppose i should have been more clear.
i mean a non-risky, non-kinkos type place.
i don’t know that i’d trust a kinkos in my dummyheaded college town.
