Music Database Template?
  • santillan92
    Posts: 9
    Hi all,

    I'd like to create a music database to organize all the music at our parish and am wondering if anyone has a template that I could inspire myself from? I am thinking of using Excel for this. Any advice on creating a good, well-organized library would also be appreciated.

    Thanks!

    Chris
  • Priestboi
    Posts: 155
    Feel free to inbox me :)
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    Sharing is good - hint, hint...
    Thanked by 1Spriggo
  • Mike Shawaluk
    Posts: 58
     
  • JDE
    Posts: 588
    We must be on the same wavelength . . . I've been working on a similar project. Current librarian uses an Excel spreadsheet, but columns are used to contain multiple data attributes. I'm thinking I should use SQL to make the new version, but I'm still hashing out the relations.
  • bhcordovabhcordova
    Posts: 1,164
    Instead of Excel (which is a spreadsheet program) use Access (a database program) You can set up fields for title, author, book, song #, etc. in tables and get the info however you want to view it.
    Thanked by 3ZacPB189 Choirparts Gavin
  • ChoirpartsChoirparts
    Posts: 147
    MS Access is a great database program. I have used it for many years for all kinds of "large" data files. The drawbacks ....it is not as simple as a spreadsheet, and not always included with MS Office. If you already have MS Access ... that's the way to go. If you have less than 100 items in your library, then perhaps MS Excel would work well for you .
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,471
    If you already have MS Access ... that's the way to go.

    Yes but why buy it when you can get Apache OpenOffice, or Libre Office, for free and use their database component (called Base). Both these are in the public domain, and at least as good as MS Office for most people. OpenOffice Writer also integrates with LilyPond for placing music in text documents.
    Thanked by 2Choirparts CHGiffen
  • donr
    Posts: 971
    I use Microsoft OneNote, everything is broken into tabs like:
    Advent / Christmas / Lent / Easter / OT / Other / blacklist
    Each Tab has different sheets that I name 1st Sun in OT, 2nd Sun in OT, etc, etc.
    Then in the body of each sheet I have three tables for Year A, Year B, Year C.
    It is laid out very nicely and I just copy and paste a table into an email each week and done.
    Or you can share your OneNote with others and they can access it via the web.
  • bhcordovabhcordova
    Posts: 1,164
    Take the Excel spreadsheet and import it into Word. Use Word to edit the data (using ,, for blanks), save as a cvs file, Import into Excel. Viola - you have your spreadsheet set up the way you want.
  • PaxMelodious
    Posts: 442
    You need to tell us what you mean by "organize all the music at our parish" before anyone can possibly suggest a template.

    For example, do you just want to keep a list so that you can filter by composer, meter, key, key-type (major or minor), season, etc?

    Or do you want to generate usage reports for your church-copyright organisation?

    Or do you want full text search over the lyrics?

    Or do you want to "tick" each service's selections, and have that auto-generate a pretty looking set list for that service?

    OR ... lots of other possibilities here.
  • santillan92
    Posts: 9
    PaxMelodious: yes, I realize my initial post was quite vague.

    I guess I'm mainly looking for something to keep an inventory to start with. Though some fancier additions, such as generating reports, might be nice in the future. I want something fairly accessible which is why I figured something like Excel or maybe Access would be best (though I realize not all Office Suites come with Access).
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