About a month ago I bought the Grey Larsen tutorial for Irish flute and tin whistle. I like the system, but found myself not working with it very much due to the poor ergonomics of the 480 page book itself. It was impossible to keep the book open, and it refused to lie flat. I ended up trying to use a big gaffer’s clamp to hold down one side, but I couldn’t turn the pages…it was just unworkable.
So, today I went over to a friend’s who owns a table saw. We clamped the book and pre-drilled three holes, then trimmed about 1/16" off of the bound side with the table saw.
It now resides in its own soft-side three-ring binder. The book lies perfectly flat, and the pages turn beautifully. It’s about to see some serious use.
i have this problem with so many music books too and tend to just suffer through it. when i was in high school, we had a print shop in our high school. i bet a small print shop would be willing and able to cut off the glue binding (with a device actually meant to do this) and would also be able to drill the three ring binder holes (with a device meant to do this too.) i would think the charge would be minimal.
Great idea! I have been meaning to do that myself. I have one of those spiral binder machines that binds it with a plastic binding, might be just the ticket. I might even read it then…
I mentioned to Grey Larson, the difficulty of keeping the book open, and he said that the publisher forced him to only make one big book.
Yeah, Kinko’s does stuff like this. I have a lot of books I had spiral bound there. While you’re at it, get the cover laminated too. It makes a huge difference.
I have Grey’s book as well and I found that if I placed it on a music stand and tilted the stand back to about 45° the book lays open for me just fine.
I think your solution is inventive, though! I’m just lazy.
I’m new to the forum, 7 months on whistles, and 2 months on the Irish flute. Just a week and a half ago, I brought three of my music books to Staples, and had them put the books into spiral binders. This is really great not to have to fight with the book to keep it open! One of the books was Grey’s/whistle & flute tutorial. Because of the thickness, and the fact that the spirals only went up to 1", I think, I had them put it into
two books. It wasn’t expensive either - just $10.?? to cut 3 spines off & spiral 4 books. If you’re thinking of doing this, go for it, you’ll be glad you did. Well, this is my two cents for the first time.
Well, I took Grey Larson to Staples, had him divided in half and made 2 spiral bindings. Just in time because he emailed the students to be in his class at Timber Flute Fest in Elkins WV in 2 weeks. He will use “The Glen Allen Reel” “The Mountain Road” “The Lonesome Jig” “A Fig for a Kiss” and “The Rights of Man” to start with. What a pain in the arse it was to keep his book on a stand. Thanks for the Staples Advice.
The other two teachers teach other types of music. 3, 2 hour classes a day for a week. Plus dancing and other stuff.
Yes, Kinko’s does that for about $12. I had my copy of Larsen’s book divided into two sections. Much easier to hold while reading, and each half stays put on my cheap music stand.
(The benefit of being “instatutionalized”) 