Adding a spiral binder to music books

[alexwaston]

I've got several perfect bound books of songs that cover multiple pages for each song and it's a PITA to try to keep the pages flat. I've been thinking of having the books spiral bound but am concerned that there isn't enough room on the left margin of the page and the spiral cutouts will have removed some of the info on the bass and treble clef's.

Has anyone done this with success? I don't want to ruin a fifteen or twenty dollar book of songs by guessing it would be ok.

Other suggestions other than photocopying the third and fourth pages of a song?

[Colin Nicholson]

I regularly use my "Rexel" binding machine to bind together piano music/ theory notes etc. with plastic spiral binders (black, red or white).
The rectangular punch holes are cut fairly near the edge of the paper, and no where near the start or end of clefs/ brackets/ musical directions etc. I also protect each book with a separate plastic back page (or card), and the front cover I sometimes use good quality tracing paper - bought separately. Can be printed back to back (card), and for a 3rd page, I sometimes sellotape this to page 2 RH edge and cut about 5mm off the edge of page 3 to allow it to fold inwards.

Best way is to practise and experiment with it.
You can buy binding machines/ plastic spirals in Staples.