The Best Way to Organize Your Choir’s Music, Folders, and Robes

Here’s how to organize your choir’s anthems, folders, and robes.

It’s a simple, even obvious system.

But it took nearly 20 years of church music ministry for me to encounter it.

Here’s the gist of it:

Number everything—even the choir members. And give them ALL the same number.

For example, choir member Susan is #3 on your roster. Her anthems are all #3 and her folder is #3. Ideally, both of those live in cubby #3. And the hanger for her robe has a #3 tag.*

And that’s it!

*Should you number your actual robes? No, in my opinion, you should not. [Ducks to miss the flying tomatoes.] Here’s why: when someone’s weight fluctuates, when they get pregnant, when they grow taller (because don’t we all want some younger people in our choirs?), they should be able to get a better fitting robe while keeping the same roster number. Point 2: Really, writing actual names in the robes?? Just skip that nonsense and hang a numbered tag on the robe. [There endeth the rant!]

Seriously, how simple does it get? I can’t believe I didn’t encounter this system until last year.

Everything gets easier using the same number. If someone’s music is left out, you know who’s it is. And it alleviates the “but I didn’t get that one” problem – everyone has their own *specific* copy of the music, and they are responsible for it.

Here’s what it looks like in action.

These photos are from when I was the interim organist at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer (Cincinnati) last year. Thanks to Mike and Liz for setting it up and introducing me to the system!

As you can see in some of the pictures, they took the system up a notch by making erasable hanger tags for the robes. They also put tape at regular intervals on the rod that held the robes, and numbered it. It’s a great way to keep robes orderly and with space between them so they can air out. (Upgrade: use painter’s tape instead of masking tape. Much easier to remove if need be.)

Image via.