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

You don't need MusicReader, because the footpedal turns pages for any program that has pages, including Adobe Reader. But MusicReader always shows one page ahead, so you can look ahead even when you reach the end of your current page. It also allows you to order your pages for repeats, segnos, codas, etc... But if you are perfectly good at seeing just one page at a time, and don't have to worry about repeats and codas, then you can stick with Adobe Reader. Mind you, I use my 65 inch TV as my monitor. I'm not sure how well you could see with your monitor. MusicReader also allows turning half a page at a time (not needed in my case), in case you need to zoom in on the score.

Okay, thanks, I'm glad I won't be needing it then. If I can't remember what to play for the split second the page turns, then I should just give up anyway.

No coping involved because I just accept the imminent failure. hahah.

That's really clever. I'm going to go out and have a stamp made!

Once, my then 18 year old son turned pages for me. We spent a few minutes practicing where to grab the page and when to turn it. I'd nod when it was time for him to get up and nod again for a page turn. It worked perfectly.

I was under the impression that most scanners only handle 8-1/2" x 11" paper. Most scores are larger than that. I am new to all of this. I just returned to piano playing after a 30-year hiatus. So there are new things I am learning about today that were not available in my earlier years.

Play a couple of bars with one hand and turn the page with the other? Obviously you lose something doing this, but for me it's preferable to the alternative.

Here's what I do and it works pretty well for me. It's much faster than turning pages. I make copies of all of the pages I need, if there's a repeat, I recopy the page for the next playing. I then line up all of the pages first to last with a small overlap so that each pages is about a half inch in front of the other. I put a pencil behind my stack of music so when I go to grab the page it is slightly lifted off the music rack and easy to grab. When it comes time to turn the page I simply slide it over. I can always see two pages at a time, but the real advantage to this is that once you are on the second page, you can slide it over at any time before you reach the third page. This allows me to turn at the absolute best time, wherever it is on the page. It's kind of hard to explain, but it works great for me. Maybe I should make a video and put it on Youtube.

I appreciate the fact that some are looking for solutions to the minor problem represented by page turns when playing from scores, but it seems to me that some of the solutions are more complex than the simple act of turning the page.

Is the foot switch wireless? If so, how reliable is that wireless technology - we know wireless doesn't always respond as expected. If not wireless, where does the cable go that connects the foot switch to the laptop? It has to be long enough to go to the end of the piano, down to the floor and back again to the pedal lyre, right?

Oh, darn! I forgot to charge the battery on my laptop. "Hey guys, do you have a 37-foot extension handy?"

I love technology as much as the next guy, but not when performing requires me to
- carry more equipment than I had to before
- have to try to read a screen under bright stage lights
- have to remember to program the laptop not to enter sleep mode while I'm playing ... etc.

Don't I have enough to worry about without worrying about whether or not the technology is going to work when I need it to work?

Thanks, but I'll turn my pages myself because I learned to do that.

Regards,

I agree with Bruce (what's new?)

Thing is that, most decent editions have taken care that rests are found when the page has to turn, or somewhere there... (unless impossible).

when not recording or performing (which should be by memory I reckon), there shouldn't be much problem there...

The freeware program PDF Exchange Viewer lets you flexibly insert any comments (e.g. texts, graphics such as arrows or circles, in various colors) to any PDF file. Also good for inserting measure numbers and fingering. Comments may be edited, deleted, or temporarily hidden, also selectively by category.

Here is the link:
http://www.docu-track.com/home/prod_user/pdfx_viewer/

Maybe I'm a dinosaur, (who also loves technology), but I like paper and I like holding and touching and writing on my paper scores.

The foot-switch I'm considering plugs into the computers USB port. But my reasoning is not just about turning pages, I use the computer to take advantage of the huge number of free scores in the public domain online and to keep my collection in one place where I can quickly access it. With "PDF Exchange Viewer" (also mentioned by J.A.S.), I'm able to "pin" my entire practice list under the file menu and it loads instantly when I select it. In the unlikely event that I'm on stage, I hope to have those pieces memorized. In the slightly likelier event that I'm playing an old folks home, I wouldn't have a problem carrying a spare battery.


You're welcome to your paper. I'm hoping that someday a larger "kindle" with a foot-switch page turner will become available. That would eliminate the stage light problem. (the battery problem too!)

Just curious, Nikolas - do you expect performers who play your (new) pieces to memorise them?

As simple and banal as it sounds, in second-hand books it is much easier to turn the pages...

Somebody in the DP forum has also developed a really nice program to turn the pages with the piano pedals... I downloaded the program some time ago. However with my silent piano (which I will have very soon) it would be problematic because the silent piano uses the sostenuto pedal to turn on the silent feature, and that program also uses the sostenuto pedal, so I would not be able to use it...

It's a good point, that you need to "train" your books so the pages turn easily. Some are hopeless from the start (my latest pet hate is those fat Hal Leonard vocal anthologies), but by careful opening a few pages at a time from each end most will submit.
As long as the second-hand ones aren't too loved (furry at the edges and falling out of the binding) I agree with you! A fair proportion of my music is second-hand.

Some of the earlier posts got me thinking:

There could be an "easy-to-turn" edition of music: each page would have the same music printed on its front and back sides. At any given time you would have two pages of music facing you, and once you make it to the right page, you can turn it at any point until you reach the bottom. These pages would all be bound into a single volume like usual, which would be twice as big, but convenient for page turns.

I don't know if this is a good idea or not.

-Jason

I think it has some merit. There would be more turns though, even if they are conveniently placed. I'm not sure I could break myself of the habit of looking up at the top of the next page after a turn instead of wherever I happened to have been on its companion page - and of course, we'd have fatter books.
But maybe - if music was printed with sensible page turns in the layout, and where this wasn't possible print the duplicate page as per your idea.
In one of the early Classics to Moderns volumes I use with some of my students, they have a piece (I think it's the Schubert B flat scherzo) printed with a foldout page so there's no need to turn. Brilliant.
My pet hate (well, one of them ) is a two-page piece printed with a page turn in the middle. whyyyyy???

Interesting idea! The next best thing I have seen comes from Schirmer (of all people!)[1] in some of their "NEW!"[2] editions where a page between two works is left blank so that the new work turns out to have more advantageous page turns.[3]

[1] and one or two other publishers. Some even indicate that the blank page is a blank page, so that the user knows that it is not a misprint.

[2] Schirmer's all caps and exclamation point, not mine!

[3] Aren't multiple footnotes in one post annoying?

Regards,

Not when they're yours.

currawong,

Double the number of page turns! I can't believe I didn't realize that severe drawback to my proposal! The mathematician in me is embarrassed.

You'd really hate my edition of Prokofiev's Visions Fugitives: Each of the last two pieces is two pages long, starting with the right-hand page. I wish the editor had read BruceD's post about inserting a blank.

On the other end of the spectrum is my lovely Henle edition of Beethoven's op.26: only one annoying page turn in the entire sonata. (The first movement is theme and variations, with every page turn occurring between variations; the second is two pages with no turns; the Funeral March contains the one annoying turn (although it's on repeated material so you can turn it later if you like); and the last movement, five pages, has two turns, but they both occur when one hand has multi-measure rests. Who says Beethoven didn't write for the convenience of the artist?)

-Jason