Contents
Why Tape Bind Music?
Tape binding music keeps multiple sheets of music joined together, which makes page turns much easier and protects against sheets getting mixed up in the wrong order.
Published music is rarely tape bound, as other methods such as saddle stitch (staple binding) produce a higher quality final result.
Instead, tape binding is used for:
Single-use recording session parts
Theatre parts with regular changes during the rehearsal process, so only the necessary pages need reprinting and rebinding, not the whole booklet
Big band parts
Other ensembles such as function bands
An advantage of using tape-bound scores and parts in recording sessions is that page turns are almost completely silent, unlike turning comb-bound pages which would get picked up by the microphones.
Types of Tape Binding
There are two types of tape binding:
Taping parts into an "accordion fold" - See the How To Tape Bind Sheet Music (Accordion Fold) blog
Taping scores into booklets - This blog covers how to do this below
Materials & Equipment Needed
High quality paper - We recommend 120gsm weight
Masking tape - This folds much better than Sellotape
Bone folder - To make sharp folds to keep the music flat on music stands
Scissors
Step-By-Step: Booklet Tape Binding
1. Print the music double sided, not single sided.
2. Lay out page 2 to the left of page of page 3, face up, with a gap between them of around 1mm. (Page 1 and page 4 will be face down printed on the reverse.)
3. Cut a piece of masking tape the length of the paper, and tape these two sheets together, making sure the edges of the paper remain not overlapping. If the tape is slightly shorter than the length of the paper, that's not an issue. If the tape is slightly longer than the length of the paper, then cut the tape so it's the same length as the paper. If the tape is much shorter than the length of the paper, the tape may tear over time, so apply more tape up to the edges of the paper.
4. Fold along the tape so that pages 2 and 3 come together and end up on the inside of the pair of sheets, and pages 1 and 4 are visible on the outside. Make sure that the left edge of page 1 and the right edge of page 4 line up perfectly, and that you can see about 1mm of tape between these. Run the bone folder along this fold to get a sharp fold. Put pages 1-4 aside.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 for pages 5-8, pages 9-12, etc., until all sheets are taped together in pairs. (Add 4 to the page numbers in these steps each time you repeat the steps.) If you have an odd number of sheets (e.g. the sheet with pages 13 and 14 is the last sheet), leave this untaped for now.
6. Repeat steps 2-4, taping page 4 to page 5, then page 12 to page 13, etc., until all sheets are taped together in groups of four (or possibly three for the last set, if there was an odd number of sheets in step 5, e.g. taping 9-12 to 13-14 makes three sheets).
7. Keep repeating this process (taping together sheets in groups of 8, then 16, then 32, etc.) as necessary until all sheets are taped together.
8. Apply one final piece of tape to the spine of the booklet (from the left edge of page 1 to the right edge of the final page). This will keep the whole booklet from falling apart, and stop the spine being sticky from all the tape coming through the 1mm gaps.
9. Double check the page numbers to check that you've taped all the pages in the correct order.
Tips
Here are some examples of how many iterations are needed for different numbers of pages:
If the music is 7 pages long (4 sheets of paper printed double sided):
Tape pages 1-2 to pages 3-4
Tape pages 5-6 to page 7
Tape pages 1-4 to 5-7
If the music is 14 pages long (7 sheets of paper printed double sided):
1-2 to 3-4
5-6 to 7-8
9-10 to 11-12
Leave 13-14 for now
1-4 to 5-8
9-12 to 13-14
1-8 to 9-14
If the music is 67 pages long (34 sheets of paper printed double sided):
1-2 to 3-4
5-6 to 7-8
9-10 to 11-12
…
57-58 to 59-60
61-62 to 63-64
65-66 to 67
1-4 to 5-8
9-12 to 13-16
…
49-52 to 53-56
57-60 to 61-64
Leave 65-67 for now
1-8 to 9-16
17-24 to 25-32
33-40 to 41-48
49-56 to 57-64
Leave 65-67 for now
1-16 to 17-32
33-48 to 49-64
Leave 65-67 for now
1-32 to 33-64
Leave 65-67 for now
1-64 to 65-67
The pages are taped together in this way (in pairs, then fours, then eights, etc.) instead of taping consecutively (1-2 to 3-4, 1-4 to 5-6, 1-6 to 7-8, etc.) so that the heights of the two piles that are being taped together are the same - e.g. when taping 1-16 to 17-32, both piles are 8 sheets tall, so it's easy to tape them together. Taping 1-16 to 17-18 would have one pile 8 sheets tall and the other pile 1 sheet tall, which would be very tricky to tape together.
You may come across this issue anyway for the final sheet, as in the 67 page example above, where you have to tape 1-64 to 65-67 (a 32 sheet pile and a 2 sheet pile). A solution to this is to apply the tape to the right edge of page 64 with the right half of the tape dangling off, not attached to anything, then turn the page 1-64 pile over so the unattached half of the tape is sticky side up, then lay down pages 65-67 onto the tape, with a 1mm gap, so that page 67 is face up, and page 65 lands on the sticky side of the tape.
Instead of cutting the tape with scissors, you can tear the tape, which will save you several hours if you have a very large pile of music to tape.
We hope you found this blog useful. This is our second blog in a series of music preparation blogs, so please subscribe to our mailing list to be notified of future blogs.
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: