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 tape binding over other binding methods is the ability to stretch out a part into a three page spread if there is no better page turn solution.
Types of Tape Binding
There are two types of tape binding:
Taping parts into an "accordion fold" - This blog covers how to do this below
Taping scores into booklets - See the How To Tape Bind Sheet Music (Booklet) blog
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: Accordion Fold Tape Binding
1. Print the music single sided, not double sided.
2. Lay out page 1 to the left of page 2, both face up, with their edges touching.
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 touching without a gap, and without 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 pick up the sheets and fold the extra tape around the back. If the tape is much shorter than the length of the paper, then page turns may become more difficult and the tape may tear over time, so apply more tape up to the edges of the paper.
4. Flip over the two pages so they are face down - no need to fold yet.
5. Place page 3 face down to the left of the face down page 2, edges touching.
6. Tape the back of pages 2 and 3 together, as in step 3.
7. Lift up pages 2 and 3 with your left hand while keeping page 1 on the table, and then fold along the tape between pages 1 and 2. Run the bone folder along this fold to get a sharp fold.
8. Place page 4 face up to the right of the face up page 3, edges touching, and tape these together.
9. Lift up pages 3 and 4 with your right hand while keeping page 2 on the table (with page 1 underneath page 2), and fold along the tape between pages 2 and 3. Run the bone folder along this fold to get a sharp fold.
10. Repeat steps 5-9 until all pages are taped together.
11. Fold the last page.
12. Double check the page numbers to check that you've taped all the pages in the correct order.
Tips
You may find that when you print your music with a laser printer, the pages curl up at the edges which makes it very hard to line up the paper to apply the tape. The two solutions to this are to go into your printer settings to turn the printing temperature down - this may be called "reduce printing curl" (this will slow down printing, but reduce paper curl), or put your printed music under a heavy flat object for a few hours, to flatten the music before taping.
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 parts to tape.
We hope you found this blog useful. This is our first 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: