SwingDJs

I've got my own system of labeling and identifying the songs in my book. I'm happy with my system, I'm just curious as to which info other people carry.

My sheets include at least:

Track number
Song title
Vocal (male/female or none)
BPM
Musician
Track length.

Sometimes I include more, such as the singer's name or whether the track is by a small group. It's hard to cram so much info into an easy-to-read sheet, though.

As I said, I'm happy with the info I carry, but I'm wondering whether or not there's a way I could improve it and make things easier. Any ideas?

Printed:
Track #
Song title
Bandleader (or most important person I can find associated w/ it)
Track length
BPM if I know

Hand-written in white space as I find out:
BPM
Sound quality
Whether it's got a lot of energy
How great of a dance song it is overall (thickness of pencil circle around the track #)
Where pops are, if any, or where to cue it to.

Sometimes I put dates, vocalists' names, etc.
If I felt like I could read it, I'd try to find room for a little picture of the album cover, but my main thing is consistency, so I'd have to have a picture of every cover or my eyes would stray too much to certain albums every time.

I keep the following pieces of objective information in my book:

Artist
Album
Title
Length (time)
Tempo (BPM)

I will usually also mention the vocalist in situations when the main artist I am listing is not the vocalist (example: Count Basie is the artist, Taps Miller is the vocalist).

I leave the subjective qualities (feeling, energy level, style, perceived speed, etc...) in my head.

Jesse

Track
Song
Artist
Length
Notes (which is notes to myself about the speed, style, energy of song, etc.)
BPM (if I have it)

Tina

JesseMiner wrote:I leave the subjective qualities (feeling, energy level, style, perceived speed, etc...) in my head.

this is why you rock.

title/artist, vocalist if diffrent/album
length, bpm
genre and category
notes on the group-size instrunemts ect
mood
period-general date, and sound
what type of dancing it works for and how it rates for dancing

Al Cooper & His Savoy Sultans _Fish For Supper (152-7) ['41] _Classics - Complementary Tracks (CD 1) _08.wav

I only keep this info for songs I rip and put on compilations. And except for the penciled marks, all info is in the title of the .WAV file. It works for me.

Song, Artist, BPM, length if it's over 5:00, edited (if edited), and penciled circles for the best tracks.

Sometimes I wish I had kept track of source album, but that makes the title longer. Length would be nice, too.

# song, artist, duration, bpm, rating/energy

I would like to somehow alter my tracklist printer to print personnel on the back of the card i print playlists onto. That's my next project...

i do all my cards by hand -- this enables maximum design control.
my cards range from a bare track list all the way up to to artist name, tracks, time, BPM, dance style, music style, and musicians, along with some kind of combination of stars, plus signs, smiley faces, hearts, exclamation points, etc. On one corner of my desk is my essential book-processing materials: Uniball pen, Crayola markers, gold and silver sharpies, gel-pens (including glitter gel-pens), and stopwatch. My cards are all on various colored paper too (light blue = big band, yellow = smallgroup / mainstream swing, orange = rhythm and blues, green = also blues, pink = dinah washington)

Yes, and in case you were wondering, I am completely INSANE!

Track, title, artist (if it's not the same artist for the album), duration. Everything else comes from memory or previewing first. I don't get to hung up on BPM.

01 Song Title 03:45

And on the side is Artist & Title

-FF