Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Would you read music from the Apple iPad?

I think you are absolutely correct with all your reasoning! I agree.
I think the Ipad does not, a substitute book, make.

If, as you say, such a program existed .... So, I have to learn - and then remember - that I have to check every piece I'm going to play and make sure that I program the scroll speed to match the tempo changes.

Wouldn't it just be much easier to turn the page when I'm ready to do so?

Regards,

Hot off the presses! AirTurn is working on a Bluetooth page turner for the iPad, to be available Q4 2010. This video shows a working prototype:



I have to say, it's really cool having a device with a battery that lasts longer than I do in a given day Readbility is surprisingly good for such a svelte, lightweight device, and that's thanks to the excellent screen resolution. MusicReader does a great job of automatically cropping borders around sheet music to maximize screen real estate.

For more details on the Bluetooth AirTurn and all our other hands free automatic page turning systems, please visit www.AirTurn.com

I think it could work quite well if iBooks was expanded for music. I suppose you could use its PDF functionality. There's probably better, dedicated systems out there though.

You can do much of this right now on your laptop. Mine is a Mac.

Method 1:
Save your music as pdf files.
In the Acrobat toolbar, under the "View" dropdown menu, click on Zoom to set the magnification you want. For me the ideal magnification displays 2-3 piano staves.
In the "View" menu click on "Automatically Scroll"
Your music will now begin to scroll vertically at a comfortable slow speed.

Method 2
Save your music as pdf files.
Copy and paste 2-3 piano staves per slide into a Powerpoint presentation.
Set the timings per slide in your Powerpoint presentation: In the "Slide Show" dropdown menu select "Slide Transition". Check the box "Advance slide automatically after....seconds"
View Show
Pages will turn automatically after a predetermined number of seconds per page.

Neither method is perfect but it's hand/foot-free and doesn't require that you buy anything if you already have a laptop with Acrobat and Powerpoint installed.

(Of course you will get greater control and flexibility if you buy an AirTurn!)

Jazzyprof
Those methods must be great for sight reading! As good as a teacher with a big stick beating time on the floor and shouting "Look ahead, look ahead, don't stop. No hesitating!!"


Thanks Hugh for your experimentation with the technology, and for the update.

Canonie, you're a genius! I must confess I hadn't actually thought of this in terms of sight reading drill but I can see how it would help. I have used the Powerpoint presentation method to make flash cards for jazz chord drills.

Other tips for automatic scrolling (from Acrobat help):
To change the scrolling speed to a specific speed, press a number key (9 for fastest, 0 for slowest).
To increase or decrease the scrolling speed, press the Up Arrow or Down Arrow key, depending on the direction of scrolling.
To reverse the direction of scrolling, press the minus sign (-) key.
To jump to the next or previous page, press the Left Arrow or Right Arrow key.
To stop automatic scrolling, press Esc or choose View > Automatically Scroll again.

Engadget, one of the web's top tech sites, has just picked up the story about the AirTurn and it's upcoming Bluetooth hands free page turner for the iPad:

AirTurn Story on Engadget

Cool beans! Time for a happy dance!

Yes, I do use my iPad to read music! It's very nice, I just set it to the bookmarks bar, and I can just access it very easily! I recommend it!

All very interesting - and I LOVE the idea of electronicly displaying music - but for MY needs I want the following so it can work not just personally but in orchestral settings:

1) Network a series of devices together for an orchestral setting so that a section leader can mark bowings and EVERYONE can see them immediately - no more leaning over to see whats marked on someone elses part!

2)Allow individual desks to add their own 'layer' of markings on top of the 'section layer' - in case players want to add their own unique hints (or amusing 'grafitti')

3) Less important - but a really nice tool for first off playthroughs - a scrolling cursor indicating where you are on EVERYONES screen! A full orchestra of clueless fools blindly being shown exactly where they are - no excuse to get lost again! (and handy when you've got 128 bars of the same stuff repeated!)

4)Use of "Picture-in-Picture" technology to show the conductor on screen next to the music. Some people (typically those less experienced) struggle to 'look up' when concentrating hard on the music. Putting everything 'in view' could only help - and would eliminate tricky line-of sight issues you get sometimes with concerto soloists (who would also need a PIP display), or with odd 'off-stage' instructions in some works.

One of the great things about this kind of system would be the end of dog-eared defaced parts with decades of scribble from a dozen different orchestras doing the rounds. Instead every orchestra could start with a clean 'blank' set of parts, none would be lost and orchestral librarians wouldnt have to relentlessly pursue orchestra members for that 3r Trombone part that Dave took home and gave to Barry... or that myteriously vanished 9th Cello part thats gonna cost $30 to replace.

The downside? Of course amateur orchestras generally struggle to have enough cash to rent a hall to practice in so getting 50 networked tablet PCs with appropriate software is, at least for the time being purely a pipe-dream.

I am assuming it is only a matter of time (and not a lot of time) before music racks themselves are LCDs, with some sort of slide-into-place protective cover for those times you use a score on paper. Ideally, most electronic scores will be in some sort of notation app, so that scanned score would be needed only for rare stuff not available otherwise.

Think of this possibility: Beethoven sonatas in which you could instantly switch between multiple editions to try out different fingerings, select the fingering from each you wanted, and compile it into your own personalized edition. That would be cool. Or, you could shift enharmonic notation for certain measures in a piece to see if they were easier to read. For example, some measures of Ravel's Le Gibet are easier to grasp that way. And just this evening I was reading through the last movement of Alkan's concerto and thinking how nice it would be to shift the notation in once section from F# major to Gb.

There is a lot of potential, but I will admit I am not particularly eager to get rid of paper scores.

There is a lot of potential! Personally, I'm waiting for an alternative to Acrobat Reader or MusicReader software. Acrobat just doesn't have the features, and Music Reader feels buggy and has a dated, difficult user-interface. (The awkward button/menu system, blocky scroll bars and

I think once there's some competition, things will get a lot better. Right now, Music Reader is pretty much the only electronic music-reading option. eBooks didn't really take off until there were a number of hardware options and formats. Project Gutenberg was started in the 70's, and online sales of eBooks didn't really take off until the 90's.

The hardware is definitely ready - Tablet PC's, laptops, the iPad, and the AirTurn and a variety of other computer footswitches are easily available and up to the task. Hopefully the software will catch up!

I'm hoping the same thing - I use Adobe Acrobat currently.
Have you tried any of the free alternatives to reading pdfs? Some of them are supposed to have a much easier interface, but I have yet to try one.

I only worry that this current eco-push to get rid of paper books will catch on. It seems as if every tech site on the planet bemoans paper books as useless, and a waste of trees. They insist that this is because people buy books and throw them away when they are finished. I don't know any of these people - I still have virtually all the books I have purchased. I try to go out of my way to get a hardcover edition, when possible - simply so they last my entire life. Some are better than others, the bindings.

Everything's going digital, nowadays, but I have yet to see any E-reader that acts like a book, and not like a tablet-pc displaying a book. There's something about the way one can turn pages in a book that is hard to replicate with a single display piece of metal with navigation buttons.

The Foxit reader is pretty good and you can mark up unprotected scores, but you have to pay for the ability to save it properly. (not an issue for me as I don't mark my scores anyway)

I just recently abandoned my paper scores and use my PC. My monitor is large enough to display 2 pages legibly. A footswitch would be handy for page-turning but since a don't perform from scores, it isn't necessary.

Short answer is no, somedays you just need to throw your music.

You can still do that, it'll just be more expensive.

All kidding asside...I think for me there is always that computer's can and do occasionally freeze up, be kind of embarrasing midway through a piece. Sorry, cant continue Chopin for the moment, need to reboot!

Definitely no. Call me old fashioned, but I think we have enough electronics already without bringing that crap to classical music. Plus I think I, personally, can use a little less screen watching daily.

The biggest benefit for me is the ability to play lots of music I would never have been able to find easily and test-run, and much I wouldn't have been able to afford - The Petrucci Library (and others) is a godsend.
It just gets expensive printing music out - those notes and staves use a lot of ink!

So it's nice to be able to try new music, and then make the decision as to whether a full edition should be purchased - if available.

I've had the opportunity to use an iPad since posting above...it's totally awesome for casual browsing and reading. However, I confirmed my hypothesis that it is too small for reading music. At least for my tastes.