My Current Practice and Performance Technology

I hate turning pages. In particular, I hate turning pages in my music book while I'm performing in front of an audience. It seems risky to me and I have gone to great lengths in the past to avoid turning pages during a performance. I have used clips, copied pages and taped them into my book, taped pages onto cardboard and many other contrivances. However, when I was studying for the Australian Amus exam, I realized that I would have to perform a piece that required many page turns in front of several judges. It was my worst performance nightmare. So, I decided to acquire an electronic device that could display my music and also to purchase a bluetooth page turner. These items have absolutely transformed both my piano practice and performance. I can barely imagine going back to my previous practice methods with books, paper copies, pencils, erasers, etc.

My first purchase several years ago was the Microsoft Surface Pro Tablet. I was orginally choosing between a Microsoft Surface Tablet or an Apple iPad Pro product. Either one had a decent screen surface area and would work for reading music. Most of the music industry has standardized on Apple, so an iPad Pro would make sense from an app perspective. However, I'm pretty geeky and have preferred Microsoft computers for quite some time. I do not regret my choice and have been quite happy with my Surface. It has turned out to be a reliable machine and I use it not only for reading music, but also as my business laptop. I added a tiny microSD card into the exterior Surface slot which gives me two drives inside the tablet. So, I'm able to keep all of my piano and music files on a separate drive from my regular laptop, yet it is constantly accessible.

Once I had my computer, I needed software to display the music. There are quite a few music reading apps for the iPad, but they only work on iPads, plus the apps all appeared to save the music in proprietary formats. I didn't want a program that used proprietary music formats, because these formats only work within that program. If I ever stopped using the music app, I would also lose all my music and personal notations. So, I started looking for a program that would allow me to annotate music as pdfs. This way, I could scan and save my practice music into a standard pdf format. After a good bit of research and several failed program attempts, I settled on a reasonably priced program called PDF Annotator.

The Microsoft Surface came with a Surface Pen which allows the user to draw on the Surface. This pen is great when used with the PDF Annotator program. I can draw on my music and make notes in different colors. I can highlight in different colors. I can erase the marks. I can make my marks permanent by melding them to the document. I can save different pdf versions. Sometimes, I even add pages to my document with inspirational images or composer information.

So, finally we come to the page turns. There are choices for bluetooth pageturners and I decided to try the Airturn Foot pedal based on reviews I read at the time of my purchase (a few years ago).  I love it, but it certainly requires practice to use. I normally put the Airturn to the left of my piano pedals, so my left foot can tap the Airturn for the page turn. However, you do have to practice where to place the airturn in relation to the pedals. Then you have to practice hitting the pedal correctly with your foot without looking down. I also normally place a mark in my music for when to tap the pedal for the turn. The pedal has some lights that let you know when it is connected to your tablet, but they are a bit erratic. It took me quite some time to realize that pressing the on/off button for 3 seconds without caring about the blinking lights would work reliably.

My current practice now consists of me sitting down at the piano with my Surface and Pen on my piano's reading stand. I put my Airturn to the left of the Una Corda and my iphone next to the surface for use as a metronome. I open the OneNote program on my Surface (a lot like Evernote) and notate my practice time and practice hints. (I also use OneNote for my piano student records.) I then open my scanned music in PDF Annotator and start my practice. I love it. However, if I am doing performance practice, I usually open my music in Adobe Acrobat Reader in full screen view instead of PDF Annotator. I can't annotate the music in this program, but my previously annotated music displays a little larger on my device for performances.

My pre-performance routine now consists of saving a copy of my music with my preferred notations. I then make sure the Surface Display is set for a long display time (so it won't go blank in the middle of a performance) and that all my devices are fully charged. Just before going onstage, I turn on the Surface and open my music in full screen view with Adobe Acrobat Reader and then I connect and test the foot pedal. I love this system and my page turn jitters are a thing of the past.

Just one more thing...... I always have a paper copy of my music in my bag just in case. You can't be too careful.