Switching to a digital score has made me a better pianist!

twocats · 2025-11-10T22:37:11+00:00

I switched to an iPad over two years ago and will never go back to paper scores. My initial impetus for going digital was to be able to easily turn pages but it has become so much more than just that. The discovery of the white out marker and highlighter in forScore has been a game changer for me and has completely changed the way I look at the score. Here's a few things switching to digital has improved: page turn transitions (hard to practice them with a score, sometimes I use the half page function to help) much clearer writing than pencil cleaner fingerings, can erase the printed ones with the white out and write in my own! Also I often end up changing my own fingerings and it's perfectly clean and clear all the time I used to lightly circle things to pay attention to (wrong notes, rests, composer markings), now I just use the yellow highlighter! And later I can erase the highlighter if I no longer need it. I use purple highlighter (I was initially using yellow for everything and then I realized I can create a new color!) to indicate what voicing to bring out. In the past I would have written arrows pointing to those notes but it gets messy, especially since I'm slowly working on Ballade 4 which is just full of inner voicings. Speaking of that, if there's a repeat and I want to voice the second time differently, I can just duplicate the page and write in different voicings! I use a thick orange pen to indicate specific pedaling, and sometimes I write it in using the ruler function to make it easier to read, if there is specific pedaling that I want to make sure I follow and not just wing it by ear. Layers! I started using this but not anymore, but you can have layers of notes that you can just turn off when you don't want to see them. Anyway, I truly believe the digital score has made me a better pianist. It makes it so much easier to read the score and to make it more functional, and now I'm no longer reliant on having someone turn pages for me (one time my page turner flipped two pages at once!). If I mess up it's my own fault haha. Also I think it was @Gombessa who suggested to duplicate any repeats in the score and to set both pedals to go forward and never go back. I have had so much confidence ever since I did this and I just step in the general direction of the pedal. Actually I probably don't have to do this anymore since my foot has become much more precise, but I like being confident that I won't accidentally turn the page back instead of forward. Has anyone else found switching to digital to be a game changer? Or maybe you think you could benefit from the things I mentioned? My equipment: iPad Pro 12.9" 3rd Gen iPad Pencil 2 (so much better than 1st gen) AirTurn DUO 500 (I like the USB-C charging, and much prefer the tactile feel to the PageFlip I used to have)

navindra

Gombessa Best I can say is that I've not had any problems with the TCL. I really wanted e-paper and the NXTPAPER is the next best thing. I feel like I have serious problems with glossy screens, but that's a personal quirk.

TCL released Android 15 for the NXTPAPER 14 recently, so I think that puts it one version behind the Tab S8 Ultra.

It seems like you can't go wrong with the Samsung honestly, given that you already own this family of devices!

Gombessa

While I figure out if it makes sense for me to get a second sheet-music-only tablet, I decided to make my existing tablet "less permanent."

I had a tablet holder with spring-mounted clamps that secure the tablet in place. But it's almost impossible to remove the tablet from the clamp without worrying about dropping it, or dropping it on the piano. So I removed the clamps, and instead printed a dock that can sit at the top of the lid, provide 24/7 drop-in charging with a hidden USB cable, and allow the tablet to be removed and dropped back in nearly effortlessly.

I started with some basic geometric shapes to see if I could easily "capture" my USB charging cable in the right orientation:

The final print files:

My 3D printer is a bit too small to print a dock the full width of the tablet, so I printed it in two halves and epoxied them together:

Added a bit of felt to protect the parts of the piano it would sit against:

Installed in its little nook:

View from above - the cable routs towards the front of the piano and drops out of sight in the gap between the plate and the front board:

Tablet inserted into the dock:

And importantly, it's nearly invisible from the seat:

So far so good! The tablet is stable, I can rest my palm against it while annotating with the stylus, no buzzes or vibration while playing, and I can now just pull the tablet up gently and it lifts out of the USB plug, and when I'm back I just drop it straight down and it clicks into place.

twocats

Gombessa I love clever solutions!!

thepianoplayer416

navindra

Gombessa Wow! Just seeing this now — very nice!

I see some commercialization potential here.

Gombessa

navindra If only! I've definitely gone through a lot of options and landed where I can recommend specific components to others (the arm clamp for example, is so idea in that it has a low profile clamp and like 8+ degrees of adjustment).

But I will note the 3d printed stuff is really customized to the cables/connectors/tablets/piano measurements of my own setup, and it's probably beyond me to generalize it in a way that works for anything else.

Gombessa

thepianoplayer416

I think the biggest downside of a tablet is complexity/uncertainty. The video gets into a few of these, particularly software updates and tooltips popping up when least expected. One thing he missed is shutdown or stalling due to temperature. Maybe not many people play outdoors, but it's not uncommon for some performers, and in hot weather, it really doesn't take much direct sun exposure for the tablet to heat soak and completely shut down with a warning screen. This is especially the case if you have to crank up the brightness because of bright sunlit conditions as well.

I find a tablet is really ideal in predictable conditions like for home practice. But even with "trivial" movement like bringing it to a teacher's for lessons, I'm finding all kind of hiccups that are kind of embarrassing/awkward to work through:

I'm a creature of habit and small changes in position or foot pedal placement trip me up.
My notes app freezes for like 10 seconds trying to sync at my teacher's, because I don't have wifi
Flipping around pages takes like 5-7 awkward taps via bookmarks, versus thumbing through a book
The tablet loves to take over the screen to show me how I can now use AI to add people to pictures, draft letters, etc.

pseudonym58

I ended up eventually getting rid of the TCL tablet, stopped using a tablet altogether. Twice as many page turns as paper. But I can see its advantages, so this is only a reflection of my experience.

Gombessa

pseudonym58 I can't fault anyone for making that decision. There are absolutely significant drawbacks.

For me, one of the biggest benefits of a tablet isn't the convenience of page turns or annotations or cloud sync. It's that it keeps ALL my music at my fingertips, and a piece that is slipping from my memory is easily pulled back up and practiced, whereas I would find myself way too lazy to dig through my old binders and books to pull up. That's why I committed to moving everything to tablet, and I definitely live with whatever drawbacks it has!

thepianoplayer416

I download some music so these would be in .PDF already. Anything on 1 page I'd read it off a screen. The ones that needs page turn I'd make a paper copy.

Other pieces I'd scan a digital copy. Paper degrade over time so a copy on computer backup allows me to print a fresh copy anytime but not from reading off a screen.

ShiroKuro

Gombessa I think the biggest downside of a tablet is complexity/uncertainty.

Yep. I use an iPad and forScore, and when I'm at the piano, I keep it in airplane mode, so I never have notifications etc. And I rarely have other complaints or issues.

But every now and then, there will be something wrong with a specific pdf. For example, when you move to the last page of a score, there will be a small message at the top of the screen telling what piece is next. My iPad doesn't like my Wiosna pdf, so the score before that one is slow changing the page to the last page of that score, presumably because it needs to tell me that Wiosna is up next.

This kind of weird glitch isn't an issue with paper scores.

rogerch

I have mostly switched to digital scores because of this (sorry, recycling old video):

TC3

navindra Best I can say is that I've not had any problems with the TCL. I really wanted e-paper and the NXTPAPER is the next best thing.

Glad to hear that, since I seem to have just ordered one ... 😃

Gombessa

rogerch

Watching that routine really sent me 🙂

WIth the tablet, I find much of the heavy lifting is at the beginning - the initial acquisition part. Scanning/photographing the sheet if a native electronic format isn't available, importing it, filling out the metadata in library file, cropping the margins to fit, bookmarking pieces/sections, and marking repeats/codas to the page turn range.

Once all that's done (whew!), it's smooth sailing 🙂

TC3

Hello, Mr. Delivery Man ... 😃

ShiroKuro

TC3 Oh cool!! let us know how you like it!

I have that pedal, I like it a lot!

TC3

ShiroKuro Will do! Been charging it up, going to get it set up and tested out this evening.

TC3

Reporting back. So far so good! The display is really nice, easy to read. The visible area of the screen is about 8x11.5 inches -- slightly different proportions than an 8.5x11" piece of paper, but the 8" wide is more than enough when you consider that most paper doesn't print into the margins (and takes at least a half inch off if not more). The pedal works really well too, easy to set up, default settings are exactly what I need (page forward and backward).

I'm going to start using this with at least some of my practice every day, mostly when I'm sitting at my Korg SV2 and doing some simpler tunes that I'm planning on maybe playing in public before too long ... That'll give me the headspace to incorporate the extra pedal, as well as to work on keep my eyes on the score while I play, per my other thread.

Fun!

thepianoplayer416

I've seen someone at a public piano playing along with a phone using synthesia. A phone is too small to display sheet music and the person needs to scroll down the page periodically. Guess reading falling blocks is doable since the screen is moving along as you play so no need to scroll manually. Synthesia isn't a preferred way of playing but a compromise when someone had to read off a phone.

TulipAcid

TC3

Question: how would the color e-ink paper fare in intense sunlight?

Background: I perform in a mandolin orchestra (community band) and bright sunlight just kills iPad visibility…

I can’t believe this device is just $369 on Amazon!

« Previous Page Next Page »