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My Portfolio / Documentation / Ukulele Book

Personal project: Transforming handwritten music notes into a book 

Aim: Create a book using Adobe InDesign and Illustrator to reduce reliance on hand-written notes for learning and playing the ukulele.

Problem

 

After picking up the ukulele in 2019, I had begun writing detailed, colour-coded notes on squared paper for learning the ukulele and related music theory, and started putting together my own song book with ukulele chords.

A desire for perfectionism clashed with the inevitability of minor errors. Handwritten notes couldn't be modified after they'd been written. Unfinished notebooks that had suffered from too many pages being ripped out were eventually abandoned for a new notebook that was in line for the same fate. This was time-consuming, costly, wasteful, and bad for my wrist and back. 

Two years later, I gave in to the idea of digitising my notes, but I wanted to keep at least some of the style and imagery that characterised my notes. I'd grown attached to my hand-written notes on squared paper. I considered creating my own font and typing my notes on a gridded background, but I also needed to be practical about my time. I settled on doing what I could with Adobe InDesign and leveraging my existing knowledge of Adobe Illustrator to create images and chords to include in the resulting book.

Music theory notes
Many of Horror Ukulele Notes
Music notebooks

Process

I began transcribing my notes into a project in Adobe InDesign –– researching, writing, and creating diagrams and illustrations as I went. As such, the following parts of the process were conducted in parallel. 

Creating a book

Using Adobe InDesign, I transcribed and added to my ukulele and music theory notes in a book layout. This included a growing songbook with ukulele chords in later chapters.

Diagramming

Using Adobe Illustrator, I created chord charts and other diagrams based on those already in my handwritten notes. I exported these as SVG files and added them to my ukulele book.

Illustrating

Also using Adobe Illustrator, I created single-line drawings, similar to my hand-drawn line art. I added these to open spaces in the songbook chapters of my ukulele book for decoration.

Two pages in Ukulele book

Diagramming

 

Using Adobe Illustrator, I created chord charts and diagrams that were similar to those in my handwritten notes. These colourful diagrams were designed to help me understand and remember relevant music theory. 

I exported these diagrams as SVG images to add them to the ukulele book in InDesign.

Because I needed chord charts to be the same size and have the same spacing every time I imported them into InDesign, I created a chord diagram template, encapsulated within a transparent border. ​

Dolphin line drawings
Single line drawing of a tree next to ukulele chords

Creating a book

 

I took this task of digitising my notes for an error-free reference and easier maintenance as an opportunity to learn the basics of Adobe InDesign, which involved a combination of watching YouTube videos and experimentation.

 

This was also an exercise in personal growth; I added personal reflections and continued to add to the book as I went, including adding my own songs.

Comparison between written notes and digitised notes

Illustrating

 

I created decorative illustrations using a technique I learned in an Adobe Illustrator course for beginners by Dan Scott.

At the time I started the book, I was creating and experimenting with single-line art as a side project (see here for an example). I had been including single-line drawings in my music notebooks, and so I sought to also include single-line drawings in my digital version.

Outcomes

 

This personal project resulted in a digitised book that could be printed. I choose to keep it in digital form because I still add to it periodically.

 

I typically use the book for my own reference, but also sometimes share parts of it with people who request it. Below are some screenshots of the book in its current state at the point of writing this portfolio use case.

Challenges and learnings

Because I was relying on skills I'd already picked up in Adobe Illustrator and then learning by doing in Adobe InDesign, I didn't always choose the best practice solutions for what I was trying to achieve. Specifically, adding SVG images to InDesign is less efficient than just adding the original Adobe Illustrator files to the book. It also means I must make sure the SVG images are always in the same folder as the Adobe Indesign project, otherwise the images become blurry. This was pointed out to me in public forums when I couldn't figure out how to solve a problem I was having with the sizing of a particular image.

Reddit feedback on the use of SVG
Reddit feedback on the use of SVG 2
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©2023 by Dr Jeunese Adrienne Payne

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