Guide · Choirs
How do you organise a choir’s sheet music?
By NoteStand · updated
In short
File everything by piece: one up-to-date version of the score, each voice’s part, the lyrics with their translation, each voice’s starting note and the practice recordings. Share this repertoire in one place for the whole choir, rather than by email or messaging, so every correction reaches everyone before the next rehearsal.
1. One piece, one place
The mess almost always comes from scattering: the score on a Drive, the lyrics in an email, the MP3 in a chat. For each piece, bring together:
- the score (the choral score, or one part per voice);
- the lyrics, with the translation and pronunciation if the piece is in another language;
- the practice recordings, ideally one per voice;
- the details useful in rehearsal: composer, key, tempo, duration.
2. One version, always up to date
A breath decided, a cut, a key change: if the correction goes out by email, half the choir turns up with the old version. Keep a single reference version, correct it, and have everyone read it in the same place. Mark the conductor’s decisions on it, rather than in a separate message.
3. Every singer in their voice
Sopranos, altos, tenors, basses, divisi: each singer should find their line without searching through four tight staves, and their starting note before singing. Link each document to the voice it concerns, and set each voice’s starting note once, at the real octave.
4. Lyrics readable where they’re sung
In rehearsal, in low light, on a stand a metre away: lyrics that are too small don’t get read. Type them rather than leaving them as an image, add the translation and pronunciation, and show them large enough. For singers who don’t read music, the lyrics and their voice’s recording are what matters most.
5. Paper or screen: force no one
Not every singer has a tablet. A well-organised repertoire serves both: everyone reads on their phone, tablet or computer, one tablet on a stand can serve three or four neighbours, and those who prefer paper print their part.
6. Rights, from the start
Note where each score comes from: free edition (CPDL, IMSLP…), bought, or used with permission. Photocopying a published score is a matter for your reprographic rights body (the SEAM in France, which offers choirs an annual licence). And each concert that performs a protected work is declared to your country’s collecting society.
With NoteStand
- Each piece holds its scores, its lyrics and its practice MP3s; a conductor’s correction is up to date for the whole choir, on every device.
- Each singer picks their section and finds their part in every piece, their staves highlighted and their starting note ready, at the real octave.
- Lyrics show at a real physical size, readable a metre away, with translation and pronunciation.
- On an engraved score, each singer hears their voice alone, played by the instrument they choose; the rights register keeps each score’s status.