How To Saddle Stitch Sheet Music (Staple Bind)
- Matt Smith
- Apr 12
- 3 min read
Contents
Why Saddle Stitch Music?
Saddle stitching music is a reliable way of keeping the pages of a piece joined together. It involves printing the document double sided onto sheets of double-sized paper, before folding these sheets in half, then binding them together, usually with staples.
One major advantage of this method of binding is that it's much flatter than other types of binding, since half the amount of paper is used compared to tape binding, and no additional bind is needed compared to coil or comb binding. This can make the music look more professional on the music stand, and is a common choice for published materials.
Page turns are easy to perform with saddle stitched booklets, and pages won't get mixed up do to the robust binding of the staples.
One downside is that if there are any changes where a single page needs replacing, then the whole booklet will need to be reprinted, unlike with tape binding.
Saddle stitch can be used for:
Published music of any kind
Orchestral music
Single-use recording session parts
Big band parts
Other ensembles such as function bands
Types of Saddle Stitching
Any binding method where folded sheets are attached together at the fold to form a spine can be considered a type of saddle stitching. Some examples are:
Staples are punched through the folded spine - This blog covers how to do this below
Loop staples can be used instead so that the booklet can be inserted into a ring binder, though this is rarely used for music printing
Instead of staples, thread can be sewn through the spine to create a more handmade look, though again, this is rarely used for music printing due to increased cost for no real advantage
Materials & Equipment Needed
High quality paper, double the size that you want the booklets to be (e.g. to make A4 booklets, you need A3 paper)
Long arm stapler or saddle stapler - Either give the same result
Bone folder - To make sharp folds to keep the music flat on music stands
Step-By-Step: Saddle Stitching
1. Print the music double sided, not single sided, onto double-size paper. Make sure to use the "Booklet" setting on the print settings which will print four pages of your document per sheet of paper, in this specific order: The last and first page on one side of the first sheet and the second and second-to-last page on the reverse, and then the third-to-last and third page on the next sheet and the fourth and fourth-to-last page on the reverse, etc. (If your document's page count isn't a multiple of four, then the "Booklet" setting will automatically add blank pages to make it a multiple of four, which is needed for this method to work.)
2. Fold each sheet in half so that the smallest page number of the sheet is on the outside, with the fold to the left. Use the bone folder to make sharp folds. It's best to fold each sheet individually for the sharpest folds, rather than trying to fold stacked sheets.
3. Put the sheets back in the order that they came out of the printer, so their folds all slot into each other. Before stapling, double check that all the pages are in the right order.
4. Keeping the pages open, not folded, place the sheets down so that you can see the last and first pages, with the middle pages facing down.
5. Use the long arm stapler or saddle stapler to punch two staples into the fold, around a quarter from the top and bottom. Make sure to staple as close to the centre of the fold as you can.
6. Remove the booklet from the stapler and close the booklet.
Tips
If using a long arm stapler rather than a saddle stapler, it may be worth doing a test staple on a scrap piece of folded paper first, so you can line up the stapler guide as needed. If the staples aren't exactly on the fold, then the pages won't open up properly on the music stand, and the booklet may close by itself.
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LMP provides the highest quality music preparation services to clients in the whole of the UK and around the world, including score and part typesetting, music printing, all types of binding, transposing music, transcribing music, and more. Have a look at all the services we provide:
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