Out-of-Print Book "the guitars friend" for Music Decor

Music books, song books, sheet music, hymns, hymnals, new releases, or out-of-print books may be  the diamond in the rough that will light up your music décor.  These might be new, vintage, or even antique, and on the rarest of occasions, you might even find some that appear to be older than dirt.

What appears to be a rare find, "the guitars friend", recently caught my attention because it is an out-of-print book.  It is a catalog of musical instruments, supplies, parts, accessories, and books. The copyright date is 1977.  Included in its pages are evaluations of the best in electric guitars and acoustic guitars, banjos, dulcimers, mandolins, fiddles, recorders, flutes, harmonicas, concertinas, drums, and more.  You can read more details about it at http://www.preservationsound.com/?p=3001 and there you will also find a 13-page excerpt from the book that you can download.  Learning more about this book will help you decide if it is a good fit for your music décor. As to sources where this book and others might be found, it is hard to pinpoint, but eBay, a book sale, or a yard sale might be a good place to start.

These diamonds in the rough could be music books about or for specific instruments, not just a guitar, but perhaps a 12-string guitar, accordion, organ, piano, hammered dulcimer, violin or classical music from the great composers.  In fact, one day I was sorting through a stack of old stuff that I had forgotten about in my music filing cabinet and ran across a dozen special pieces of classical music called Progressive Series Compositions 97 to 100 years old. These even showed the grade of the composition. 

Why do I call them special?  Because this classical music has a picture of the composer on the front, and had been revised to include a biographical sketch of the composer and a healthy discussion of how the music was meant to be played, along with the music composition itself, and on the back page was a note to the music teacher, basically telling the music teacher they are the judge of its merit.  WOW!  How cool is that!  If you were a music teacher, could you see that in a frame on your music wall? 

How many times have you been to a flea market or a yard sale and come across music?  Did you ever think about framing a piece of sheet music or creating a type of mural in a frame using multiple pieces?  You might even find old hymn tunes that have been decoupaged onto old stained blocks of wood designed to be displayed on the wall.  I could go on and on, but only your imagination limits the opportunities that await you with the discovery of musical treasures.

B# (be sharp), keep an open mind and train your eyes to seek the unusual and unexpected.  However you choose to define rare finds, diamonds in the rough, or the catch of the day makes no difference. Do not stress if you have days when treasures that will enhance your music decor are no where to be found. The main thing is to have fun, enjoy the journey, and keep smiling.

Your comments are welcome.