Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Built in forScore app page turner

I just wanted to let those who may be not be aware that the forScore app has a built in page turner which uses facial recognition technology. There are two modes: head turn or mouth movement. I prefer the latter.

This feature requires a Pro subscription which costs $10/year. It only works on newer iPads which use facial recognition to unlock the screen (those that don’t have a home button).

You can calibrate the feature and adjust the sensitivity. To access the menu open the Settings tab and then the forScore Pro tab.

I can recommend this enough. It is very simple to use and with a little practice it works flawlessly.

I saw your post in the BT page turnersl thread but didn't have a chance to respond because I was backlogged, but this ISS a really cool idea, and I assume it's using a combination of the front camera and the face ID camera (since it only works on newer iPads).

One question I had was whether there is an appreciate hit to the battery life when using this feature?

That is good question and I don’t know the answer. I haven’t noticed a large battery drain but I haven’t made a comparison between having this feature turned on vs off.

Another feature of the forScore app that users may not be aware of is that you can import audio files and link them to your scores. Being able to listen to the music and see the score at the same time is a useful learning tool, particularly for beginners like me.

Interesting! Does this also require the Pro subscription? I've never looked at what features that includes. My iPad is a few years old so I won't be able to try the page turning feature. I have been considering getting one of the bluetooth page turners, but haven't done any research yet.

I think the ability to import audio files is included with the standard version. It looks like the Pro subscription includes facial gestures, more stamps, and improved menus and support.

https://forscore.co/pro/

The subscription is needed because forScore stores your face or mouth gestures in the Cloud, which has ongoing costs. 🙄

You can go further and program the automatic page turning according to the playing audio file.

https://forscore.co/kb/autoturn-replay/

I’m not sure I see the value in that. At the very least it requires setup to work, which requires a little time and effort. And what happens if the player changes the tempo slightly?

That’s the beauty of facial recognition - it’s so simple.

My answer was to continue this:

So as to be better understood I can continue your quote:
"Being able to listen to the music and see the score at the same time, and pages will be turned automatically".
That's what I meant. Automatically turn pages when listening to music which attached to this sheet music.

And again I can continue your quote:
"[…] is a useful learning tool, particularly for beginners, who is not always able to keep track of notes. Automatic page turning can help with this".

As for the facial recognition, I am not impressed with this feature for any serious work. Playing in public, performer will look like a clown or a sick person, constantly opening mouth, or waving his head. And even if I were alone with myself, I would definitely choose a pedal.

There are many iOS apps on the Apple App Store that use the microphone which will automatically turn pages without human intervention.

Ah, gotcha. I guess having the app turn the page automatically with the music might be nice, particularly for a beginner like me who may not always be able to follow along with the score. That could help to get reoriented. I misunderstood and thought it was for turning the page while playing.

The facial recognition doesn’t require the user to open their mouth. Just to turn it slightly to one side or the other. Nobody would ever know you were doing it if playing in public. You can make it super sensitive by adjusting the slider if you want to.

I just wanted people to be aware that this option exists if they would like to test it for themselves.

Yes, I just remembered that when I first read about Pro version, it was said there: "moving your lips to the left or right".

Personally, I would only need an extended set of Stamps from the Pro version. But I made all the necessary additional Stamps myself and imported them into a common base set. I'm not sure that these stamps are included in the extended set of the Pro version.

And what I really don't like is that forScore developers stopped responding to letters from users who don't have a Pro subscription, even if users don't ask for help in the letter, but report bugs in the application.

So what happens when you sneeze?
Ian

Your loose score sheets get blown off the music rest, why?

If true, that’s very disappointing. forScore’s customer support was a very strong feature when I first purchased the app in late 2015.

They mentioned this indirectly in this article.

Previously, developers almost always responded to my Emails. We had a good and fruitful correspondence to improve the app. Not anymore.

Yes, I still sometimes report bugs found, suggestions for improving the app. But all this without feedback. As a minimum of respect, they could at least confirm the receipt of the letter.

If this were a product selling in the millions I'd not expect a personal reply. But this is not likely a "best-seller" software so the maker ought to show some consideration for its customers.

I have a pro subscription. If anyone wants a bug fixed on a prioritized service, you and PM it to me and I can submit it for "prioritized service", whatever that means.

Thank you Tyrone Slothrop, I'll take note.

forScore is ranked as the #1 music app on the App Store so it must sell well, but I agree they should always be considerate to their customers and respond to inquiries.