There are probably a million and one ways of putting together a music collection, any of which will work. They all pretty much have the same thing in common: buy a piece of music and add it to your collection. So what do I have to offer? A couple of suggestions if you will...

1) Decide if you will collect CD's or MP3's or both. Personally I go for the CD's and from time to time add in some MP3's and convert a lot of my CD's into MP3's.

2) Determine a buying strategy. Mine is to purchase at least 2-3 albums every other month. In reality this works out to more like 5-7 CD's every 3-4 months, but at least it's consistent.

3) Spread out your purchases amongst the composers, genres, etc. of the classical music you do like. I tend to pick something up from Mahler or Dvorak, a Cello work, and then a couple of others amongst the various composers I like. And then every third or fourth purchase I pick up stuff that has pickled my interest. For example, I've come to really like what I've heard from Leos Janacek, but don't have anything of his yet. Guess what's on my shopping list?

4) If you use a site like Arkiv Music, make use of it's wish list to keep a list of music that you are interested in but haven't gotten yet. I tend to pick up most everything but maybe one selection per purchase from my wish list and I keep around 100-120 items there. This way I am sure to be in the mood for something(s) on the list when I make my purchases.

Anyway hope this helps!

I take a lot of pride in my classical music collection. Each piece of music that I add usually comes with a lot of thought, some research and information gathering and at least some appreciation of the musicical piece coming into my collection.

Within a reasonably short period of time, I've managed to put together a fair sized music collection, though I will be the first to call it small in comparrison to those who've been collecting a lifetime. I've identified various orchestras and conducters that I like, so if I am ever "lost" in figuring out which recording I want, I have some other factors such as these that can help make up my mind.

With this month the start of composer month, and that composer being Beethoven, I'm going to try and give some insight into how I select my music and will be using Beethoven as my example, from figuring out what to select to the where and how of it.

The reason why I am doing this is to hopefully give some insight into this process for someone else who may be completely new to the collecting of classical music recordings. If it helps just one person out there, then it will have been worth it.

Enjoy and more to come!

Of course, I also have to share my Mahler collection. Photos don't include my 9th by Rattle or my complete cycle on MP3.

Of course, I have to show off my Dvorak collection! This does not include what I have on MP3.

Just a few pages of my collection. In the near future, I'll be updating my collection with new CD cases which I will cover in a later post.