Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Turning sheet music while playing

How do you turn pages of your sheet music while playing and not missing a beat? On slower pieces I can usually do it, but I'm playing a fairly quick piece now and I basically cannot find a convenient time to flip the page while playing.

Hi MrHazelton

I have come across this a few times, especially when the piece is more than a few pages long. For my exam last year I played Moderato 'First Movement from Sonatina Op. 98 No 2' by Carl Reinecke. It is a fast moving piece which is 6 pages long, unfortunately I didn't get to the stage that I had it memorised. A few tips my teacher gave me was to put a fold mark down on the top right or bottom right hand corner so it makes it easier to grab and flick the page over. I also had to find points in the piece that had a short pause/rest and then I would use that to turn the page.

If the piece you are working on isn't too long you may find that you can memorise it ..

Good luck

I memorize the measures before and after the turn and practice the turn slowly then faster and faster until it is part of my playing of the piece

If you are really good at sight reading you would probably be able to look ahead far enough that this wouldn't be a problem, but for us mortals, I would take klollars advice ^

I basically do a bit of several things mentioned. First, I turn quickly on pages where the turning point is a natural break or perhaps only the RH is playing, etc. I also may memorize the surrounding bars so there is no break. If I'm going to play in public (I play at various amateur events and have to play a lot of different things, some without notice), I edit the piece to copy and paste it so it does have a page break at a good point. What I mean is I Xerox the sheet music and put it in a notebook (I like to do that anyway, rather than carrying around all my complete books). Then if one piece really needs a break at a different point, I may tape one extra line above it or something. You have to be creative. It also means you can decide which two pages are facing you rather than accepting the way it was printed. Alsoo, you can then often put three pages in front of you that way, if necessary.

It's never been a problem for me that anyone has noticed that much or that the music lags. If I were playing something very fast and virtuosic which went on for pages breathlessly, this might not work, but I don't ever do that, actually.

I would suggest memorising the first couple of bars over the page, and then this way you will be able to turn the page when you have a break in rhythm in either hand.

The other thing to do is to photocopy the music and join it together, so you could sellotape it, and then have it laid out on your piano or music stand.

I have always been good at turning pages, often finding a spot so that I'm turning a little early or late. But one piece I am working in now, I just cannot do it. There is a two page stretch where it's basically endless 16th notes in both hands, and I simply cannot turn a page there without missing a whole measure! Also, there are some similar stretches of music that are just different enough to earlier bits to be confusing! So I haven't had success memorizing that part either. My solution is to tape the pages together, and spread the music out across the piano. The music is 11 pages long, and what I've done is set it up so that I only turn twice during the whole score. I'm working on memorizing another part of it, so it will probably end up that I only turn once.

BTW here's what I mean by "tape the page together." Let's say it's a 4-page score. Copy the music onto 17x11 inche paper (double sized paper, two pages on one sheet, no need for reduding the print size). Now you should have two sheets, with pages 1&2 on one sheet and pages 3&4 on another. Get one more sheet of 17x11 paper (blank) and some double-sided tape. Fold the extra sheet in half once to give yourself a mark. Use the double-side tape and tape page 2 (right half of first double sheet) to the left side of the blank sheet, and page 3 (left half of the second sheet of music) to the right side of the blank sheet. Now you have four pages of music on essentially "one" piece of paper. Using the blank page to join the two sheets gives the whole thing a little more stability also, helping it to "stand up" on the piano's music stand better. I have been doing thus for years, and the sheet music lasts forever, much better than using cellophane tape between two pages. And, I have done it for up to 11 pages of music! For a piece that long, I make a few "pages" like a book in the middle, and turn those during the music, but it let's me only have to turn once or twice, as opposed to turning 5 times!

If the above description doesn't make sense let me know!!