Notebooks for Musicians: How We Started

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When we started Incredibly Useful Notebooks back in January 2015 — after making a small “Bucket List” journal as a test — we turned our attention to helping musicians. That meant creating a line of notebooks for musicians designed for use in high school, college, university, and conservatory classrooms, in regular private lessons, and for self-study.

For us, it led to the design of two important products for our small family-owned media company: a music theory notebook for the study of harmony, counterpoint, songwriting, and/or music theory, and a practice journal to help musicians, and their teachers, track week-to-week assignments, goals, and progress.

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What we came up with for a music theory notebook initially was a matte black softcover paperback. It has lined paper on one side (for note-taking, lyrics, lesson info, and/or class explanations) and lined music manuscript on the other for music exercises and examples, harmonic analysis, or even songwriting and composition. We knew it was a good idea from the very start because that’s what music students need! (We went with matte black because we thought many students would simple add their own stickers and decals on the cover with their university, music school, or conservatory name, or even their favorite sports team bumper stickers.) To date, it’s still our most popular version of the music theory notebook. We’ve also added versions with the night sky (stars!), an owl, and a penguin, among others.

What’s really special to us — as musicians and educators — is to read the wonderful reviews that have been posted online about these notebooks, especially when people post images (or videos!) of them using the notebooks. Very cool.

Other Versions: Spiral Bound

In case you’re curious, we do have a 200-page COIL-BOUND version of the music theory notebook over here on Lulu It’s a plastic spiral notebook with the same interior as our paperbacks on AZN. Check it out if you’re interested!

 

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