What’s in Our Music Bag?
Having a dedicated music bag is an important part of staying organized and making sure you have everything you need to play your instrument. This bag is where you keep your essentials that you don’t keep in your instrument’s case. For those of you with portable instruments, keeping certain things in a separate place from your instrument is great because it avoids potential damage. This post provides you with a list of recommendations to keep in your music bag.
What Should it Look Like?
Your music bag doesn’t need to be anything fancy. We recommend something with a thick or waterproof material and a closure of some kind (zipper, button, velcro, etc.) to keep its contents safe. Having a music bag with multiple pockets is additionally helpful for organization. Examples could include a backpack or travel bag that you aren’t currently using. As long as it’s a good size, clean, and in good shape, it’s a perfect music bag.
Instrument-Related Tools
We have an abundance of some extra instrument-related tools at BTB for you to keep with you inside and outside of your lessons. These are the things that you use on a regular basis that are specific to your instrument. Below is a list of examples:
- Extra Rosin – Strings
- Capos – Guitar, Bass, or Ukulele
- Drum Sticks or Mallets – Percussion
- Valve Oil – Brass
- Practice Pad – Percussion
- Guitar Picks – Guitar
- Tuner – All Instruments
- Extra Reeds – Woodwinds
- Metronome – All Instruments
- Mutes – Brass
Be sure to ask us if we have a specific item you’re looking for!
Other Tools
All musicians share a need for this category of tools. These are the things that you use when you’re not playing your instrument, but instead during your lessons or practice sessions. Here are some examples:
- Pencils for Music Pieces
- Sealed Water Bottle
- Extra Microfiber Cloths for Cleaning
- Hand Sanitizer for Before You Play
- Hair Clip/ Hair Tie/ Head Band to get Long Hair out of Your Face
- Paperclips for Music Materials
- A Notebook to Write Down Important Tips
Music Materials
One of the most important categories of things to keep in your music bag is your music materials. These could be practice materials or pieces for a performance. It’s a good idea to keep your music materials organized and in good condition by using folders. Many practice materials come in the form of books, but get a folder if they are printed on regular paper! Any folders will do as long as your materials fit. We don’t recommend stapling any music materials because staples make it difficult to play through a longer piece of music without having to stop and adjust what page you’re on. Like we mentioned before, use paperclips instead of staples to keep your printed materials organized.
Music Bag No-Go’s
Your music bag exists to make your practice sessions and lessons easier, so you shouldn’t have anything in it that keeps this from happening. See the list below for examples of things that should never go in your music bag.
- Open or Loose Food – Crumbs or debris could get on the contents of your bag and transfer to your instrument, which is never good. Use your time during a lesson or practice session to focus on your instrument, not your snack habits.
- Non-Music Materials – Keep your music bag organized by keeping unrelated materials in a different place. This bag is just for music!
- Dirt/ Sand/ Dust/ etc. – Before you determine what bag will become your music bag, make sure it’s clean. There shouldn’t be any debris in this bag from its previous use. Shake it out or wash it if your music bag gets dirty in anyway.
- Writing Utensils Besides Pencils – You should only write on your music materials with pencil just incase they include a practice book that you’re borrowing or you need to make adjustments to your notes. Pencils also don’t leak like pens or markers and are erasable, so you won’t have to worry about permanent, unwanted marks on your music materials.
Does your music bag look like this? Let us know below! We hope we inspired you to make your own music bag or add something new to yours. Thanks for reading and we’ll catch you next week with a new post!
As an institution that is a beat above the rest, Breaking the Barrier School of Music provides quality music lessons in a family atmosphere to students of all ages and skillsets. For more articles like these or information on this school, visit https://btbschoolofmusic.com/
