Sheet music is very expensive and on the whole you can say that each song you sing will cost around £3 per singer to purchase. Multiply that by an average of 12 songs per performance that amounts to £36 per singer per season.
Copyright laws prevent photocopying of music unless there is an original per photocopy somewhere within possession of the choir. So if you keep all your music on a tablet then that is allowed as long as the choir has that original copy for you.
A lot of music can go missing, can be damaged or written on and then that has to be replaced which is an unnecessary expense.
Please only ever, ever, ever, mark your music with light pencil marks that are easy to erase and erase them before handing the music back.
More and more people are using tablets and it certainly saves a lot of paper and makes it easier to make notes. I see a future where all singers will have a tablet and the MD will just airdrop a piece of music to all and that will make life so much easier as it will not require storage of however many individual copies of however many pieces that are in the choir’s repertoire. How that will work with costings I have no idea at this stage.
Music issued to you is not yours to keep unless that has been specifically stated. If you wish to mark your music with highlighter pens etc then please buy your own copy or consider using a tablet.
Music is very expensive and needs to be kept as pristine as possible for future use. Sometimes choirs sell their music to other choirs or rent scores from libraries to keep costs down.
The administration of the music is a lot of work for the choir’s librarian so please consider them, they will appreciate it.
Exercise
If I were to take a look at your sheet music now would you be happy that it is in good condition and or only has light pencil markings on it if the copy belongs to the choir? If no, please consider how you might change that.
