When I led a schola, I put all the music, translations and practice recordings on a website - behind a password, of course. It helped my own organization as well.

I also recorded lots of the Masses and extracted the music - which led to the Colloquium recordings. But I found that some of it could be painful to listen to, because every minor imperfection just jumped out at the listener. During Mass itself, people aren't nearly so critical.

Good point Carl, I should take the time to do this as well! I too thought of doing something like that Aristotle, thanks! This is great so far, any others?

Samuel,

I don't direct any regular choirs, but whenever I do retreats or similar events, I do the same thing. Makes things very simple. Bring your binder to rehearsal, and you're set.

Some thoughts about what helps me...in no particular order

Singers can see music well ahead of time through music lists (including PDFs and, in many cases, audio files) -- such as this one for Pentecost -- posted on the parish web site. A few days before rehearsal I also post a detailed rehearsal order which helps people prepare; I don't necessarily follow it very strictly, but it helps me stay organized.

Every singer has a box and is assigned a number. Their music packet for any given Sunday is placed in their box at least two weeks in advance (choral pieces go out individually earlier than that) by my administrative assistant. Each singer writes his/her box number in the upper-right hand corner of each piece of music so that when we sing it again, they get their markings. 99% of what we sing is downloaded off the internet or photocopied from a book (without violating copyright, of course), so singers organize their music in three-ring binders.

After a choir sings a Mass, all music proper to that Mass is returned and filed by my admin assistant.

On the piano is a box with sharpened pencils, with a sign on it that says "PLEASE TAKE A PENCIL."

In the back of the office we have a little "lounge" area, with Ikea furniture (a small couch, a chair, and a coffee table) with a mini-fridge and food cabinet. At every rehearsal there is plenty of water, coffee, snacks of all sorts, cough drops, etc. There is a long break at every rehearsal for social time. This is an important part of what keeps people coming back in our choirs.

A bulletin board by the door has choir/music-related cartoons, clippings from newspapers about music-related news, posters announcing performances that choir members are involved in, and other stuff.

My music library is still being created, but it is basically in five sections: (1) liturgical year, containing propers; (2) hymns; (3) choral music (i.e. polyphonic motets/anthems); (4) chants not fitting in any of the above categories; (5) organ music.

Something I have begun doing as of this past Advent is that when I prepare a music list (with all the PDFs and recordings, etc), I go ahead and create the music list for the same Sunday/feast the following year. Then when that feast comes around, I only need to do minor tweaking to prepare it rather than start from scratch.

Personally, I am the model of disorganization and incoherence. It's primarily my wife and my administrative assistant who are the brains behind the system I described. ;-) The previous system was melee.

Wow, this is a great post and jpal, your ideas are wonderful! I will surely take a lot of those great suggestions for our next choir season! We seem to be pretty dull as well by most standards so any extra 'spice' is always welcomed!

One thing I have always wanted all music to be is 3-ring binder holed punched. From the hymn book to octavos in order same idea as above. This is extremely helpful for choir memebers young and old.

I've printed the ordinaries on coloured paper too. This is very helpful. We have three for the year and they are printed on yellow, purple and green paper (8.5/10) sheets which is folded in half, like a little pamphlet. I put everything on it for the season that year, which repeats every week. I can't stress how it's made things handy!

I have a binder for everyone in the choir. Each binder is to have alphabetical page separators. There is to be a page protector for each letter of the alphabet and the octavos go in there in alphabetical order according to title. I dislike hole punching because the holes rip and then the music falls out.

I think I will also give everyone a simple folder where the music we are learning for the next few weeks can be kept. This way people aren't always flipping through a huge binder all the time.

Page protectors are wonderful until you need to mark the music. They can also add considerable weight.

Not regarding choir music per se, but some of the best money ever spent from my discretionary funds was to head to the Dollar Store and buy a dozen or so pairs of reading glasses, various strengths and sizes, and leave them in a box on the console.

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

The page protectors only hold the music. Choristers take the music out of them when we are rehearsing or singing. The members have all their music all the time. I don't pass out the music then collect, then pass it out, then collect.... I don't have children or a husband who would want to be my assistants (yet!)

Check out "The Catholic Choir Book" if you are new to music. It is online and it is free and has much of the Catholic traditional music you will need for years. (Sorry, this is not about storage, but I wish I knew about it much earlier!)