Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Turning pages as you play. How do you cope?

Yes, I think I got the impression that's what he meant, but I said all the performance-related things because they're useful anyway. Also, if you are going to perform something with the music, you might as well be practising your page turns the way you'll be doing them!

Sometimes it just helps to pencil in the next bar or two of the piece after the last bar of a page as an aid to covering the turn.. I have seen older organ music with the next bar from over the page conveinently printed at the end of the RH page in smaller notes. Or if the page turn is inconveniently not too far before the last bar, pencil in the last bars at the start of the next LH page. But if all else fails, memorize or use MarkH's photocopying suggestions!

How do I cope? I end up ripping a lot of them out, especially for collaborative. It's bad because most times it's not even my own copy of the score! I'm one of those "grab" page turners (when I turn for myself), so a lot of the pages are crumbled up and/or ripped. Even so, I mostly prefer to NOT use a page turner.. After a while, you just kind of develop a habit and turn very, VERY quickly (hence why I think grabbing works better, instead of reaching for the bottom corner of the page - no time for such things!)

I remember reading that!

Moore also relates a story wherein he was accompanying F-D in a Schubert cycle. During rehearsals he was able to manage the page turns just fine, but at the performance a page that had always behaved itself suddenly started to turn itself. (Wind currents in the hall?) Moore resorted to blowing on it to keep it in place... well things went from bad to worse.

This has happened to me also. I guess I didn't quite have enough hot air -some members here would dispute that- to keep that page in place. Most distressing.

In a performance I preferred to have a page turner who could actually read music, follow the score as I played, anticipate when the page should be turned, and stay out of my space until it was time to turn the page. Your basic non-musician baby brother just wouldn't fit that bill.

Practice. I practice page turns just as carefully as I practice an unavoidable oddball fingering. I figure out the very best place to turn, what hand to use, and sometimes even what fingers to use and where to grab the page. I then practice, practice, practice as many times as necessary.

I sometimes photocopy the best place to turn, and tape it in place at the turn. This has the additional advantage of making a handy little thing to grab onto.

I have tried memorization of page turn passages, but I tend to panic in a memory clutch, and this upsets everything. I don't depend on it.

Page turners are unpredictable. They cause me to panic too.

Practice is the key for me.

Tomasino

i practice and plan page turns carefully, but never rely on myself to turn during 'services'. I always make copies.. I've had music blow away and eeek.. sometimes I'll write in the next few notes or chords on the page before I turn if I can't make it in time.

If the score is over 5 pages, I'll reduce some of the music and comfortably creat a readable score.. cutting and pasting literally. I play at a place where they give me the music 10 minutes before a service. There I put plastic clothespins after the page turn. It is easy for me to turn and I don't have to worry about crumpling up the pages of their music.

Victor Borge would just grab a page, crumple it up, and toss it behind.

I was asked to turn pages for concert probably over 20 years ago and I would have earned $50. I had other plans that evening, probably a job, but it would have been interesting.

For the past couple years, I've asked one of my students to turn pages for me. It has usually worked out quite well. If he wasn't available then I'd ask a volunteer that I knew would be in attendance and that could read music. For my next symphony appearance one of the 'cellists volunteered, since the piece is scored for piano and winds only.

I am occasionally using my iPad as a reader with PDF public domain sheet music. Rather than using page turning software, I've been using the iBook reader and turning the page with the quick of my finger on the touch screen. It is only a partially satisfactory solution, however. The majority of my music is in large books, or large pieces of sheet music.

I am curious as to how well the foot pedal works for you in page turning.

By using a foot pedal, I am 100% uninterrupted in playing the music. I don't have to lift my hand off the piano for a nanosecond. Of course, my other foot can still use the sustain pedal. As for music scores that are not in PDF format, it only takes a few minutes to scan one into PDF format. But I can see the problem if you have books upon books of scores that are not in PDF format.

How do I cope? One day at a time.

Actually, I've been considering purchasing an USB foot switch such as the one pictured below. Otherwise, I look for a spot that has a hand free for a moment and memorize those measures first.

Hey that's exactly the one that I have. Except mine is much dirtier, thanks to my foot.

I know some people who are extremely adept at turning pages while playing. However, I am not super quick about it, so sometimes I find it necessary to leave out a note or two. I make sure I use the hand that has the largest space between notes or the least important ones so that if I leave out notes it won't be very many or very obvious. It is also helpful to memorize the measure before and after the page turn so that you can keep playing while the page is turning.

There are many ingenious solutions. Once I had a rubber stamp made with two staves on it. I'd stamp the staves onto a Post-It, then write a few "over-the-page" notes on it and affix the sticky part to the bottom edge of a RH score page. It wasn't permanent and provided a convenient "handle" for turning as well.

Another solution: Use single-sided copies and slide pages right to left. There's almost always space somewhere in a page to slide the page, or even two if necessary. I mark "Turn" at that spot (even though it's really sliding).

For accompanying, there are clever ways of arranging pages. Often recopying to make right pages left and vice versa eliminates problems. Binders help. Creating flyleaves helps....here tape is your friend, especially removable tape in event of taping mistakes.

Maybe I was just unlucky, but my experience of getting someone to page turn is pretty terrifying. I used to get a page turner who always page turn from the bottom right hand corner (which COMPLETELY blocked the music I need to read). She even laid her arms on the fallboard when she was preparing for a page turn - the fallboard was on the edge of falling onto my hand. I even stopped momentarily in the middle of my performance because of the heart attack she gave me...

I am scared of page turners since then.

How do you like it? (would you buy it again if you had to choose all over?)

It is the best solution I have for turning pages. It is only about $50, and the software (MusicReader) is also about the same price. I only wish I could use it outside my home too.

Was the 'musicreader' software needed? I was under the impression the device could be mapped to the arrow keys. I was going to use it with a PDF reader that I already have.