This article is written by Toru Hoshino, a jazz bassist and instructor based in Japan who teaches online lessons to students worldwide. In this article, he shares a little accessory tray he picked up for his music stand, and everything he ended up putting on it.
Contents
Everything I’ve Put on My Music Stand Tray
A stopwatch.
A metronome.
Rosin.
A pen.
My phone.
This setup also works fine if your phone has an AUX cable plugged in.
And a little reward for myself.
I eat it after I’m done practicing.
The Tray: A Dicon Audio MS-TRK Sheet-Music-Stand Tray
This is a small accessory tray, the Dicon Audio MS-TRK, that clips onto a folding music stand. It’s a plastic tray sized just right for the small things you need close at hand while practicing or performing — pens, a tuner, a metronome, guitar picks, maintenance gear, that kind of thing. The outer frame has a notch designed for a contact-mic tuner, so you can keep your tuner sitting level. If you use a metronome/tuner combo unit, this is a nice fit. You can also remove the outer frame if you don’t need it, and it comes with a non-slip sheet, so nothing’s at risk of sliding off. It’s a good fit for wind and string players too.
Product details
Body size: 14cm wide × 7cm deep (including mount) × 8cm tall
Tray size: 14cm wide × 4cm deep × 2cm tall (with frame attached)
Weight: approx. 60g
Includes a non-slip sheet
(Note: the music stand shown in the product photos isn’t included.)
If you just set a pen or metronome directly on a music stand, it tends to slide right off — so something like this is genuinely useful. It’s the kind of thing you’d think you could rig up yourself, but somehow never quite manage to.
This part clips onto the stand.
You don’t strictly need it, but it’s surprisingly handy once you have it. It’s unmistakably plastic, but it’s black, so it doesn’t look or feel cheap — it does the job you’d expect for the price.
Still, there’s something fun about a new piece of gear that gets you a little more fired up for practice. Hoping to bring that same energy to today’s practice session too.
Want Personalized Feedback on Your Playing?
Dialing in your practice setup is one piece of the puzzle — getting consistent feedback on your actual playing is the other, and that’s exactly the kind of thing that’s hard to do alone.
At Line on Bass, I offer an online lesson service where you send me a video of your playing, and I give you specific, detailed feedback — every single day if you want.
Students from around the world are using this to fix exactly these kinds of issues and steadily improve their jazz bass skills.