This is a post for organists, pianists, and anyone who happens to work for a publishing company that produces sheet music.

Every musician is bound to have music books that do not lie neatly open because they are too thick. Often we resort to using other books to keep the one music book open. But this doesn’t help with page turns. Why can’t publishers bind their books so that they stay open on their own without having to break the spine of the book? Alas.

Here’s the suggestion: Use coil binding.

I took a number of my books down to the local print shop and for a few dollars a book they cut the edge of the spine off and installed a sturdy coil binding. Now the music lies flat and I don’t have to worry about it closing in the middle of a piece.

I suspect many musicians would pay a few extra dollars if a larger book was coil bound — especially when the thicker books usually cost $30+ a volume.