Piano Glasses

One of my new adult piano students is learning the piano for the first time in her life. This means she's starting of  slow process learning a new musical language. She's a great student, getting a lot of joy from her efforts, and working hard to learn her new language. However, learning to read music means that you need to identify the location of little dots on a bunch of lines quickly and accurately. The speed of note identification can be significantly impacted if those notes are just a little bit blurry, especially for a novice. Also, those blurry notes means your brain takes just a little bit longer for note identification (not to mention eyestrain and possible headaches). The note identification delay will impact how quickly you can read your music even if you know your notes well. We talked a little bit about this fact in our lesson and she then consulted her optometrist who said, "So, do you want some piano glasses?". 

What a concept! I had never heard of piano glasses. I knew about reading glasses (been using them a bit longer than I care to admit) and computer reading glasses, but piano glasses....interesting. The idea of having glasses especially made for the piano has stayed with me and I started to do some research into the idea. I found that the traditional distance for reading glasses is about 14-16 inches and the distance for computer glasses is about 18-20 inches. So, I sat down at my piano (using proper posture) with a tape measure and found my piano music reading distance to be 22-24 inches. That is significant focal length difference and will definitely impact an eye prescription. (Here's a pretty interesting article for optometrists on eyeglasses for musicians.) I imagine this difference can vary depending on the individual, so it is probably important to measure yourself at your own piano.

So, I have been noticing lately that my own eyes have been changing a bit with respect to my reading (and piano) focal length. It has been harder to practice my own music because the musical notes have become a bit more blurry. So, I'm going to have to schedule an appointment with my optometrist for a new glasses prescription and this poses a bit of a dilemma. Glasses are expensive, should I get a pair of reading glasses and a pair of piano glasses? Upon reflection, I think I'm probably going to get a new pair of blended bifocals and a separate pair of piano glasses, which means I'm buying an extra pair of glasses. However, I love my piano, I think it will be worth it. 

How to host a Virtual Recital using YouTube on Zoom

Hosting a virtual recital is quite a bit different than organizing a physical recital. Everyone's internet connections are at different speeds which affects both the sound and image quality, its hard to hear an audience clap, there are all kinds of audio feedback pitfalls, and if people are unfamiliar with playing the piano for the computer - there could be delays and tech issues. These are all good reasons to have students record a YouTube performance instead of playing live during a Zoom recital. If all the participants upload their performances to YouTube, then you have a lot more control over the tempo and quality of the recital.

A YouTube recital may seem like the student isn't getting an authentic recital experience, but there are a lot of positives with a pre-recorded recital. First off, it can be easier for the music teacher because you don't have to organize (and pay for) a venue, print up programs, decide if there are refreshments, etc. It can also be really good for some of the performers who suffer from performance anxiety. With a YouTube recital, the students can make several takes and choose the best one. Then on the day of the recital, all the pressure is off and they can relax and enjoy the experience more. Another positive... I have a student who lives far away and normally has Zoom lessons even during non-pandemic times. They were able  participate for the first time in the Zoom recital and it was very fulfilling for them. Finally, family members like grandparents who can't normally attend physical recitals are suddenly able to attend the Zoom recital. Considering all these positive aspects of a Zoom recital, maybe its worth having a few even during normal times!

I recently co-hosted a Zoom and YouTube recital with my fellow EMTA teacher, Amber Saldivar, and we both thought it went really well. Here's some of our recommendations for hosting your own Zoom and YouTube recital:

1. Have your students record their recital pieces, upload them to Youtube, and email you the link. Check the link to make sure it works. The link should be unlisted if the recital piece is still in copyright. Also, make sure the YouTube video isn't labelled for kids or it can't be put into a playlist.

2. Make a Youtube playlist and make sure all the videos are listed in the order that you want them to play, just like a program for a live recital. Instructions for creating a Youtube playlist are at:  https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/57792?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en
Its also a good idea to make a printout of the recital playlist and have it beside your computer so you know the playlist order without looking at the YouTube browser window.

3. Create a plan for the recital. In a recent online recital, we had the following structure:

• Opening remarks were made by the organizer of the recital welcoming everyone, introducing the recital, and telling everyone what to expect.
• Prior to the playing of each piece, the performer was asked some questions about their piece, like "How did you pick this piece?", What do you like about this piece?", What did you think about making the YouTube recording? Was it easy or hard and why?
• The YouTube clip was played and we asked everyone to use sign language applause, which is basically holding your hands in the air on either side of your head and twisting them with a big smile. (You could practice this during the opening remarks.) This is helpful when everyone is muted.
• Continue through the playlist.
• After all the performances are over, call on everyone individually and ask them to make a positive comment about their performance or someone else's performance.
• Finally, open the floor for anyone who wants to say something and make sure to thank everyone for participating.

4. Once the plan for the recital has been created, tell the participants what questions they will be asked during the recital so its not a surprise to anyone at the event. Also, make sure everyone already knows how to use Zoom so you aren't providing tech support during the recital.

5.  Most importantly - practice holding the recital with a friend to check all your Zoom settings prior to the event. If possible, try to test at the same time of day that you will be holding the recital because your internet speeds may vary due to the time of day. A paid Zoom account will be necessary if you don't want to have a 40 minute time limit on the recital. During your test, go to speedtest.net to check that your internet speed is fast enough to play YouTube clips well. (Zoom recommends a minimum 1.5Mbps up and down)

The following YouTube and Zoom settings to worked best for Amber and myself:

• Prior to the recital, make sure to open your browser to the YouTube recital playlist. Select the first performance on the playlist and set volume on the YouTube clip to maximum. Then make sure the performance is paused and set to the beginning of the clip. Now set your Zoom audio settings to original sound (although during my tests, this didn't seem to make a big difference in sound quality. There is a Zoom support article on this subject: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115003279466-Enabling-option-to-preserve-original-sound ) After that, make sure your computer audio source is set to computer and test your computer audio volume to make sure it is set at a good level. There is also a Zoom support article on this subject: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362283-Testing-computer-or-device-audio

It is imperative that you test your settings because as the host sharing the video clip, you will not be able to tell how well the video is playing for other people during the recital. It will always sound good to you because you are at the beginning of the transmission point.

• During the Zoom recital, Mute all participants including yourself prior to playing every YouTube clip. If people can talk during the video, it can create audio feedback loops which will make the audio noisy. It may be helpful to announce what you are doing during the recital so people can understand the steps you will be taking to play the YouTube clips.
• Activate the screen share button, then select the YouTube tab on your browser as the share source and MOST IMPORTANTLY! check the small box at the bottom of the share window that optimizes the video for sharing. Finally enlarge the YouTube clip in the browser window take the entire screen otherwise everyone attending the recital will see your entire browser window and not just the YouTube clip. Zoom has a support article on optimzing screen sharing for a video clip: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/202954249-Optimizing-a-shared-video-clip-in-full-screen .
• YouTube will start auto-play of the next video in the playlist and there is no good way to disable this, so the best thing is to pause the video that plays next and then stop the screen share. Then when you go back to the playlist, restart the next video at the beginning. Just FYI - if you stop your screen share, and the next video is playing, no one will hear the YouTube audio even though you will still hear it on your computer (assuming you are still muted).
• One more thing, the video that the recital attendees see tends to be a little bit jerky in our experience. I believe this is because the YouTube video is being streamed over the network through the host so there can be a lag in transmission, however it didn't seem to impact everyone's viewing experience unduly.

Now that you've run all your Zoom tests and are prepared - Good Luck and enjoy your online recital!

Tips for students making piano performance videos using a phone

Make sure your piano performance space is quiet and without noise distractions including pets, appliances, and other people.

The camera on the back of the phone (non-selfie) has better image quality, use that camera side for your videos.

Make sure you are videoing in landscape mode. Iphones need to make sure that the portrait mode lock is not "on" in settings.

Make sure the phone is at right angles to the piano keyboard. This is the standard view for pianists and was invented by Liszt, piano's first rock star.

Make sure the phone is slightly higher than the piano keyboard so we can see both hands and the top of your head. (You can use an ironing board as an adjustable stand.) If possible, showing your feet and the pedals is also desirable.

Make sure the phone is stable and the phone microphone at the end of the phone is unobstructed. Don't cushion your iphone with extra padding that blocks the microphone end of the phone. Try to make that end of your phone as free as possible for good sound capture.

Put your phone in airplane mode before videoing and make sure it is well-charged.

Make sure your lighting makes you look visible to the camera. You may need an extra lamp or to close curtains on windows behind you. After you adjust your lighting, put your phone into a constant exposure mode before each video take.  For constant exposure and autofocus with an iphone: First point the camera at your subject and choose the area you want to focus on. Put your camera in video mode, then instead of tapping, press and hold until the camera locks on to it. You will know this has happened because a yellow box with the words “AE/AF LOCK” in yellow will appear at the top.

Don't put your phone on the piano because the audio may pick up vibrations from the piano.

Don't use the digital zoom on your phone, it lessens the quality of the video. Just move the phone closer if necessary.

Place your phone near the treble end of the piano for best sound and if you have time, take a couple of test recordings from different locations and check the quality of sound before starting your actual performance recordings. If you are using a digital piano, try recording with different volumes to see what sounds best.

Remember no performance is perfect. Do whatever number of takes you can stand to do and settle on the best. “If everything was perfect, you would never learn and you would never grow.” – Beyoncé

For people who want more tech to improve their recordings:

Use a standard camera tripod for your phone with a phone mount.

Use a start and stop bluetooth camera button for your phone.

Use a plug in microphone for your phone for best audio quality.

Use video editing software for your phone either as a iphone app or computer software.

My online lesson technology

Like many piano teachers, I've moved all my piano lessons to the internet during the current health crisis. I have been teaching a small number of piano students online for a number of years now, so its not a big transition for me. In this blog post, I'm going to discuss my standard lesson technology.

Video Conferencing Software: In general, I'm not very found of internet lessons because the audio quality always seems terrible to me despite my best efforts. The main problem with the audio in any video conferencing software is that the sound is optimized for voice transmission which typically includes limiting the audio frequency range transmitted. Basically, you can hear a lot more sound than is being transmitted in any video conferencing software. You wouldn't think this lack of frequency range on both the upper and lower end would make a big difference, but unfortunately it does. However, we don't have a lot of choice in this area at the moment and there are websites that have tested the main two competitors, Skype vs. Zoom, for audio quality and the consensus is that if you configure all the audio settings in Zoom appropriately, then Zoom is superior. The three key audio settings in the Zoom audio advanced tab are: 1. Set "Suppress Persistent Background Noise" to "Disable", 2. Set "Suppress Intermittent Background Noise" to "Disable", and 3. Make sure there's a blue checkmark in the "Show in-meeting option to 'Enable Original Sound' from microphone" box.

USB Microphone: I use a Yeti Blue USB microphone as the audio input to my computer and love it. The microphones built into laptops are pretty poor generally and as a musician you need good audio quality. As a side benefit, this microphone is great for making recordings of yourself or students playing the piano. When I want to make an audio recording of myself, I hook my Yeti Blue microphone into my laptop and use it as an input to Audacity (a free music recording software for windows and mac computers) and Voila, I have a recording of myself with great audio quality. The other wonderful feature of this microphone is that it has a headphone jack. Because the headphone jack is on the microphone, you don't get a lag in time from the sound going into the computer and then going out to your headphones. Basically, you hear what is going into your computer. The only downside to this microphone is the price, but because I use this microphone a lot and audio quality is important to me, this item is an example where I went high end in my online lesson technology. If you can't afford a high end microphone, acquiring an external microphone is still an excellent idea, look for one that has a usb connection in your price range.

Good Quality Headphones: Headphones can also make quite a bit of difference in what you hear. If you have a great quality input going through your USB Microphone into poor quality headphones, the sound will also suffer. I splurged a number of years ago on Sony MDR-7506 professional headphones. In my home studio, I have a big grand piano and a digital piano. Sadly, I often practice on my digital piano because my family also lives in my house and the grand piano is very loud. Studio quality headphones have great audio response and  are headphones that don't generally hurt your head or ears even if you wear them for hours. I also like having a cord because I can plug the headphones into my Yeti microphone, laptop, or my digital piano. These headphones are also expensive, but I've been using them for over 10 years now (and replaced the ear pads once), so its an investment for the long term. Once again, if you can't afford a high end headset, get the nicest headset that has a wired connection and will plug into an audio jack.

Adjustable Laptop Stand: I have a Samson LTS50 adjustable laptop stand for my piano studio mostly because I like to teach standing up instead of sitting down. That way I can stand back from the piano to hear the total sound a bit better and I can also move around the room more easily. I use Onenote (try evernote if you are a mac user) software for all my student lesson records and with a tall laptop stand, I can put my Microsoft Surface Computer on the stand and take notes with my electronic pen (and send them to the student using an email link). With online lessons, I adjust the stand down and it sits by the piano ready for my computer. The other great feature for me with this laptop stand is that it folds up so I can put it into the closet when I'm done with my teaching for the day. Fortunately, this laptop stand costs a lot less than my headphones or microphone. A lot of my musical friends don't have an adjustable laptop stand, so they are using ironing boards for this purpose which is cool.

Microphone boom stand: I wanted a cheap way to hang an additional webcam over my piano for my online lessons. However, sometimes I think you could do a lot of teaching just fine without the additional camera. I have recently noticed some nice internet lesson setups where the teacher has a camera on an adjustable arm that connects to the piano reading desk, but I do love my boom. Its very inexpensive and I like the fact that it doesn't actually attach to my piano. I'm very protective of my instrument and prefer not to have objects make a lot of contact with the finish on the piano surface. So, how do I rig the webcam on the end of the arm? Well, I went into my toolbox in the garage and found some velcro strips and jump rings. So, I attached the webcam to the end of the boom using those. Its generally very stable and I can adjust the angle of the camera a good bit which is very helpful when trying to make sure that the student sees the keyboard instead of the top of my head. I do have to use a USB extension cord from the webcam to the computer because the webcam cable wasn't long enough. In addition, I had to test a number of USB extension cords to find one that would transmit the video properly.

Additional webcam: I went low end with my additional logitech webcam because I really don't need great video quality for my online lessons, average quality is plenty good. I do like the arm coming out of the camera because it gives me a way to attach it to the boom stand arm with velcro. The webcam has a usb connecting cable.

Powered USB Hub: My computer only has one USB input, so I use a powered USB Hub (it looks similar to this) into my computer. Using a hub allows me to connect my USB microphone and the second USB webcam into my computer at the same time.

Brydge Bluetooth Keyboard: I love my Surface, but I bought it originally to be a big tablet so I could use it to read music and turn pages using a foot pedal. My Surface came with a rather flimsy keyboard  as shown in the first photo, but I found out that there are other sturdier keyboards like the Brydge that you can attach to your surface (or ipad) and the great thing about being attached to a sturdy keyboard is that I can angle the camera. So, I put my Surface on my laptop stand and angle it up for my head at the start of the lesson and I can easily angle the laptop camera down (without adjusting the stand) so that it can look at the piano keys from a side view. One camera, two views and now my Surface doesn't fall on the floor when I try to reorient the camera. Yeah! Brydge also makes similar keyboards for ipads.

In a conference call with my fellow EMTA music teachers discussing online lessons, some people mentioned using their cell phone as a camera that could be handheld and moved around to highlight specific items or even specific measures in a student's music. This is a great way to get an additional camera for your studio, but make sure to "mute" the audio so you don't have feedback. Zoom is currently free to use for an unlimited amount of time if you only have two people talking to each other, but if you add a third person (like your iphone as an attendee), then you need to pay for a subscription or keep your lesson under 40 minutes. To add my camera as an attendee, I would click on the lesson link in the email or call into the lesson on my phone and use the phone camera video. Also, when you are using your iphone as the second camera on a zoom call, make sure that your control panel setting allows the screen to rotate between portrait and landscape mode.

And one more idea, maybe you happen to have an old webcam roaming around your home gathering dust. Any spare webcam could be plugged into your computer (nice to have the extra USB ports for this) as a spare pointing camera instead of having your iphone attend your zoom lesson. Then, you would just go to the video ^ arrow inside Zoom and toggle between the video sources to access the camera.

Digital or Acoustic Piano

Acoustic or Digital Piano?

A digital piano is a modern electronic musical instrument, different from the electronic keyboard, and is designed to serve primarily as an alternative to a traditional piano, both in the way it feels to play and in the sound produced. The goal of the manufacturers is to provide an accurate simulation of a real piano.

Advantages to a digital piano include:
1. Price: a good quality digital piano is not cheap, but compared to a good quality acoustic piano, it is significantly less expensive and there is also a significant used digital piano market.
2. Ability to use headphones and practice quietly
3. Never needs tuning
4. Easier to move and place in the home
5. Built-in metronome
6. Ability to record
7. Various digital inputs and outputs, including being able to connect your phone or computer to the piano directly
8. Different available styles of keyboard sounds like organ, harpsichord, strings.

9. Electronic transposition so that you can play your song in one key and have it sound like a different key with the touch of a button

10. Easy to record one hand and then play along with the other hand
etc. etc.

I recommend playing the best available digital piano from all of the three leading brands: Kawai, Yamaha, and Roland to see which digital piano model would be best when you are looking to buy an instrument as the market is constantly being updated with new and better models. I have personally found that as you become a better pianist and musician, you will start to notice the limitations of the digital piano compared with the acoustic piano.  With time and design ingenuity, these differences will become smaller, but for now there are still significant differences between the best digital and acoustic pianos.

I practiced for many years on the best digital piano I could find while I was studying for my music examinations. Although I was able to "get by", I was also significantly impacted by not being able really hear how differences in my technique sounded on my practice instrument compared with a "real" acoustic piano. It was only after I purchased my own fine acoustic piano that I truly realized how handicapped I had previously been by my digital piano during my piano examinations.

An acoustic piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard.  Pressing a key on the piano's keyboard causes a padded hammer to strike steel strings. The hammers rebound, and the strings continue to vibrate at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a sounding board that more efficiently couples the acoustic energy to the air. When the key is released, a damper stops the string's vibration and the sound.

The advantages of a good acoustic piano start with the fact that it's the "real thing," inherently capable of nuances that are difficult for the digital piano to emulate. The experience of playing an acoustic piano — the harmonics, the vibrations, the touch, the pedals, the visual appeal, the interaction with the room, the connection with tradition — is so complex that digital pianos cannot really compare. When I finally purchased a good quality acoustic piano, I was amazed by how it impacted my technique. All of a sudden, I could hear lots of nuances in sound that weren't possible on my digital piano. Also, I was finally able to use a pedal properly to enhance the quality of sound.

Buyers of acoustic pianos do need to be careful. Not all acoustic pianos are created equal and there are plenty of new acoustic pianos on the market that I feel are actually inferior to a fine digital piano. So, it really helps to try out lots of different instruments so that you have some idea of what sort of sound, feel, and capability you require to like your piano. I purchased my used Steinway from Ben Klinger at Classic Pianos in Bellevue and I probably tried about 30 pianos in his showroom as well as 100s of grand pianos in various showrooms over many years. Interestingly, Ben wrote a short book about buying acoustic pianos called, Why We Play, which describes the value of personally connecting to a specific piano during the buying process. It certainly worked that way for me. Although I was just casually looking (and playing) various pianos in the showroom, I happened to sit down at one piano and instantly loved it like I had loved no other piano. It can happen that way sometimes if you are lucky.

I still use my digital piano, but mostly because it has headphones and I like to practice early in the day when people are still asleep. However, I love my acoustic piano. It is such a treat to open it up, sit down, hear the sound, feel the keys, use the pedal the way it was meant to be used. My digital piano still helps me learn, but my acoustic piano brings me joy.

Using a Time Tracker App for recording your practice hours

I like to record my piano practice hours. Its a big motivator for me because I can see my actual time spent at the piano over weeks and months. Looking at my table of practice hours helps me feel guilty about not practicing enough and then I figure out ways to fit more practice time into a busy schedule. In the past, I  have typically practiced in one larger session instead of smaller sessions. Then, it was easy to enter my time into my computer because I also used my computer for reading my music during my practice.  Lately, I've been trying something a bit new where I am not giving up on my "bigger" sitdown practice session, but I'm also trying to add in some "walk-by" practice sessions. A "walk-by" practice session is a shorter practice session, maybe 15 minutes or so where you literally walk by the piano and work on some little idea, like practicing the start of a piece by memory, or working on just one little difficult part in a piece, etc. During my "walk-by" practice session, I haven't been using my computer (because of the setup time) and so this practice time hasn't been incorporated into my practice time table. That's a problem because I want to give myself credit for absolutely all my time spent practicing.
Consequently, I've been trying out various time tracking apps to see if any of them would work for this purpose. I wanted something free (I like free) and easy to use, but I also wanted to access the data, so I could incorporate it into my practice log on my computer. I have eventually settled on the Toggl time tracking app. Its easy enough to use and you can subdivide your project like "piano practice" into different tasks such as technical work, improvisation, piece practice, etc. (In fact, I'm currently considering whether or not to record my practice time on individual pieces to see how many practice hours it takes me to bring the piece to a performance standard.) I have found that all of these apps are somewhat kludgy because they are designed for tracking billable time for clients, but Toggl has worked well enough for my purposes. In fact, its great that I don't need the paid upgrade to get the client reporting feature.
The app sends me a weekly email report which I then copy and paste into my practice log. I now log only the weekly instead of daily practice, but it seems like a reasonable trade-off for more accurate time tracking. I also like being able to log into the website to see my weekly hours in their different charts. Its nice being able to view the data on my computer instead of just my phone, sometimes the phone is just a bit small. One other important feature with Toggl is that once I start a task, I can easily edit the start and stop times. I find that feature extremely useful because sometimes I start a task and then remember that I'm supposed to be tracking my time, so I then just edit the start time (and sometimes the end time) and voilà.
Once I started on this "time tracking" idea, I've added more projects like "piano teaching" and sub-category tasks like lesson prep, piano teaching, and even piano blogging. Its been quite an eyeopener to have some actual data on how much time I spend on various tasks during the day. I find some tasks take quite a bit longer than I realized and others a lot less time. However, the most important thing is that I'm looking at the data and making decisions about how I spend my time and that makes me more productive. Of course, it also means that I am more addicted to my phone than ever.

Classical Music Streaming Services

Music streaming services have been inevitably creeping up on me. In the past, I used Itunes for many many years and it served me very well. I like the idea of owning music that no one can take away from me. I chose my music carefully, because I was choosing each piece for a price. Consequently, I have a lot of music that I have collected over many years in my Itunes library including many classical music performances that are my favorites. A small number of years ago, I started listening to Pandora with ads during workouts, while working in the kitchen making dinner, or driving in the car. I didn't mind the ads too much, it reminded me of old-time radio when you listened to free music with lots of ads. Pandora didn't have as many ads as old-time radio, so it seemed better to me. Obviously, I like free, so that's how I initially used music streaming services. I enjoyed choosing a music genre to listen to the new stuff. I thought of it as free music genre radio.

My family chose Spotify for me. My daughters used Spotify and my husband hated listening to the ads on Pandora. So, we got a family Spotify plan and now we all listen to Spotify as our music streaming service. My daughters have quite a few playlists on Spotify that they don't want to give up, so its hard for them to change music streaming apps. Spotify seems fine, it is nice to listen to music without ads, but there is a price and even with a family plan discount, it ratchets up our family budget. In the meantime, I still listen to some of my own music through Itunes (glad that still works on my phone, at least for now).

As a piano teacher, I love classical music (as well as many other styles of music), so I was very interested to read about the new classical music streaming services like Primephonic and Idagio in the New York Times. It seems like such a "cool" idea. As a listener, I personally notice a big difference between individual artist and orchestral performances. Some performances just seem better to me.  Also, when I start a new piano piece, I love to search out a number of different artist recordings of the same piece. I often find substantial differences in interpretation that help me understand how I want my version of the piece to sound. It would be very nice to be able to find all those versions in one classical music app and be able to call them up whenever I need them instead of buying ad-hoc versions on Amazon and Itunes or sifting through versions on YouTube.
Unfortunately, I really don't want to pay for yet another streaming service with monthly fees. I love the idea, but its just not quite practicable for me. I wish Idagio or Primephonic would offer a free version with ads, but they don't. So, even though I love the idea of a streaming classical music app, its not for me right now. I'm actually kind of hoping that Spotify will just improve its service so that this type of classical music choice is available within its platform, but that doesn't look imminent. So, I'm just going to go on my merry way for the moment with Spotify and ad-hoc classical music recordings. C'est La Vie.

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.