Topic: Page turner for sheet music set up?
Hi there,
If you are using electronic sheet music on something like an Ipad, could you share your setup and thoughts? I am interested in both the hardware and software.
Thanks!
- wws
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- Key Fumbler
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Re: Page turner for sheet music set up?
wws wrote:
Hi there,
If you are using electronic sheet music on something like an Ipad, could you share your setup and thoughts? I am interested in both the hardware and software.
Thanks!
Some people prefer an E ink solution.
- Luc Henrion
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Re: Page turner for sheet music set up?
Key Fumbler wrote:
wws wrote:Hi there,
If you are using electronic sheet music on something like an Ipad, could you share your setup and thoughts? I am interested in both the hardware and software.
Thanks!
Some people prefer an E ink solution.
Very (very !) expensive...
- Key Fumbler
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Re: Page turner for sheet music set up?
Luc Henrion wrote:
Key Fumbler wrote:wws wrote:Hi there,
If you are using electronic sheet music on something like an Ipad, could you share your setup and thoughts? I am interested in both the hardware and software.
Thanks!
Some people prefer an E ink solution.
Very (very !) expensive...
Yes.
- sharpnine
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Re: Page turner for sheet music set up?
wws wrote:
Hi there,
If you are using electronic sheet music on something like an Ipad, could you share your setup and thoughts? I am interested in both the hardware and software.
Thanks!
I play piano and accompany choirs and musical groups professionally, and I have been using this setup for the past 5 years:
iPad Pro 12.9" (3rd gen.)
PageFlip Firefly Premium Bluetooth/USB Page Turner Pedal (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ILVHBKC)
forScore app for iOS
I think this is a great setup. I have all the sheet music I use on my iPad, a huge amount. And it is all synced to any of my other iOS devices such as my phone and a smaller iPad. This can be really handy--I can add new sheet music or update my set lists on my phone, and they sync to the large iPad. The sync feature requires you have icloud space (subscription) and may require forScore pro. However forScore (even with pro) is very inexpensive by any standards. And you only need a small amount of extra icloud space to enable sync.
The Firefly is great for flipping pages, it's big enough that I can easily feel it with my left foot, and is very solid, doesn't flip the page accidentally. It will not slide around on hard floors. And if you accidentally leave it on for days it won't run down the battery, it goes to sleep. I've been on the same battery for a year.
I don't use forScore to scan music--I use another inexpensive iPad app Turboscan, which does a better job of scanning. It gives better results (using the iPad camera) than I can get with my flatbed scanner. When I am at a choir rehearsal, say, the director will hand out sheet music, and I'll take 2 minutes to scan 5-10 pages and load them into forScore, and hand him back the sheet music. I can't handle turning pages by hand anymore. :-)
Also, with this setup, you never need a piano light. I do fine even if the room is dark. Choir pieces require page turns very often (maybe every 4-5 measures) and the pedal turner is the best way to go. You only get to see one page at a time but you get used to it and it works. The appearance on the piano is great--just the one iPad up there, and nothing else. Very simple and clean, and easy to travel with (I used to lug so many books of music around). I could go on and on--going to the electronic sheet music changed my life as a performer/accompanist.
- stephenll
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Re: Page turner for sheet music set up?
ForScore Pro also has several ways of turning pages without physically touching anything. The camera can watch you and control the page turns by: turning your head, winking, or by moving your lips.
- kanefsky
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Re: Page turner for sheet music set up?
sharpnine wrote:
You only get to see one page at a time but you get used to it and it works.
forScore has a Dual Page mode that will let you use a second iPad to see (and flip) two pages at a time.
- sharpnine
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Re: Page turner for sheet music set up?
kanefsky wrote:
sharpnine wrote:You only get to see one page at a time but you get used to it and it works.
forScore has a Dual Page mode that will let you use a second iPad to see (and flip) two pages at a time.
Yes that's a great feature, and I'm looking forward to upgrading my iPad, and keeping the old one, so I can do two at a time.
- sharpnine
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Re: Page turner for sheet music set up?
stephenll wrote:
ForScore Pro also has several ways of turning pages without physically touching anything. The camera can watch you and control the page turns by: turning your head, winking, or by moving your lips.
Yes it's an innovative feature, and takes advantage of the fact that your face is always right there in front of the camera.
I've tried to use it, though, and found that whichever gesture I used, it looks weird--like I have a tic. I don't think people watching me perform would understand I am turning the page, and it would be a distraction. :-)
- wws
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Re: Page turner for sheet music set up?
sharpnine wrote:
I play piano and accompany choirs and musical groups professionally, and I have been using this setup for the past 5 years:
iPad Pro 12.9" (3rd gen.)
PageFlip Firefly Premium Bluetooth/USB Page Turner Pedal (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ILVHBKC)
forScore app for iOSI think this is a great setup. I have all the sheet music I use on my iPad, a huge amount. And it is all synced to any of my other iOS devices such as my phone and a smaller iPad. This can be really handy--I can add new sheet music or update my set lists on my phone, and they sync to the large iPad. The sync feature requires you have icloud space (subscription) and may require forScore pro. However forScore (even with pro) is very inexpensive by any standards. And you only need a small amount of extra icloud space to enable sync.
The Firefly is great for flipping pages, it's big enough that I can easily feel it with my left foot, and is very solid, doesn't flip the page accidentally. It will not slide around on hard floors. And if you accidentally leave it on for days it won't run down the battery, it goes to sleep. I've been on the same battery for a year.
I don't use forScore to scan music--I use another inexpensive iPad app Turboscan, which does a better job of scanning. It gives better results (using the iPad camera) than I can get with my flatbed scanner. When I am at a choir rehearsal, say, the director will hand out sheet music, and I'll take 2 minutes to scan 5-10 pages and load them into forScore, and hand him back the sheet music. I can't handle turning pages by hand anymore. :-)
Also, with this setup, you never need a piano light. I do fine even if the room is dark. Choir pieces require page turns very often (maybe every 4-5 measures) and the pedal turner is the best way to go. You only get to see one page at a time but you get used to it and it works. The appearance on the piano is great--just the one iPad up there, and nothing else. Very simple and clean, and easy to travel with (I used to lug so many books of music around). I could go on and on--going to the electronic sheet music changed my life as a performer/accompanist.
That's super helpful, thank you for taking the time to write that out!
- Willfredwin
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Re: Page turner for sheet music set up?
I use Mobilesheets (along with Pianoteq) on a Windows 11 14" 2in1 tablet. It works really well. Mobilesheets has an
android version as well.
Lenovo Flex 14 2in1, Windows11, Pianoteq 8 (Steinway D & B, Petrof, C. Bechstein, Steingraeber), MobileSheets for windows, Casio PX-780, generic page turn pedal.
- jcitron
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Re: Page turner for sheet music set up?
I use Power Music Professional to display sheet music on my PC tablet devices. PMP is also available for O/Sx, and IOS.
https://powermusicsoftware.com/
The software works with either touch or other devices and can also turn pages automatically.
I find the display quality of the imported PDFs and other documents to be superb. Other programs I tried were too pixelated or couldn't convert the sheet music well enough for reading.
PMP also is really quick and reliably turns pages when the interface is touched unlike other programs where there can be a noticeable delay as the program acknowledges a touch then reacts due to regenerating or redrawing the pages. As you can imagine, this is frustrating as we watch the time tick by while we wait for the pages to update or turn.
With my movement disorder, this kind of software is a godsend as it allows me to turn pages in time and not fumble for the pages. Since it handles what appears to be a limitless number, or near limitless number of "libraries" as they are called, I imported most of the music I have in books as well as what I have online.
- s.g.botsford
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Re: Page turner for sheet music set up?
wws wrote:
Hi there,
If you are using electronic sheet music on something like an Ipad, could you share your setup and thoughts? I am interested in both the hardware and software.
Thanks!
ForScore. Runs on iPad and on Mac
Cool things about it:
* You can start either with a PDF, or pictures of pages.
* You can add tons of metadata -- where the music came from, composer, arranger, style, genre, and create your own custom tags
* You can make sets of stuff. So you can make virtual music books.
* You can add bookmarks.
* You can mark the start and finish of a repeat/coda
* You can "reflow" the pdf. Forscore recognizes bar lines, and so if you can't read a full sheet of music on your ipad, you can 'virtualize' it into 2 3 measure bars per page.
* You can annotate the music with fingerings, alternate notes if you don't have hands like Rachmaninoff
I can see people buying an ipad JUST for this.
***
For page turning I have a Donner somethiing or other. Was 80 bucks. Has 2 pedals on it for foward and back. Connects by bluetooth.
I'm less happy with this. It sometimes wanders off into cloud coucoo land and needs to be repaired, and the device is too light. Stays still on a carpet, but it's too easy to move on a hard floor. I will eventually glue it to a board, or sell it.