For many decades, I wished that there might one day be a solution to the problem of page turning for solo pianists. It’s a pain for solo pianists, but for accompaniments of other instrumentalists, the page turns are more frequent. It’s worse still for
piano trios, and is even worse for quartets. But in Elgar’s Piano Quintet, there’s very little respite.
So when electronic alternatives became available, I was more than a little excited. But there are drawbacks that I never anticipated:-
Most tablet screens are much smaller than a normal printed page of music, so either the music has to be in a tiny font, or the screen image has to be changed annoyingly frequently. Therefore the player is obliged to invest in a larger tablet, such as an iPad Pro, which means quite a significant cost increase.
Printed music enables the player to view two pages at a time, so electronic page turns, although easier, occur twice as often.
Repeats, da capos, dal segnos, jumps to codas, etc. are equally stressful in either format.
Repeat signs are often ill thought out by publishers. I bought a book of piano trios from a well known publisher, with page turns in the most inconsiderate of places, like 2 or 3 bars after a page turn. And don’t get me going on the current fashion for DS signs that require the player to jump back several pages, but only for a couple of lines, before jumping forward again to the coda. I ended up reformatting the score to avoid such thoughtless silliness. It resulted in more pages of music, but it’s a dream to work from, with no difficult page turns anywhere.
But returning to topic, I know a number of musicians who rely heavily on iPad Pros and are very happy to continue.
My gripe is with the likes of Yamaha, who advertise their electronic keyboards with photos of players posing hunched up over a tiny tablet in a shoddy posture. It’s wrong in so many ways, and it reflects badly on their excellent products.
piano trios, and is even worse for quartets. But in Elgar’s Piano Quintet, there’s very little respite.
So when electronic alternatives became available, I was more than a little excited. But there are drawbacks that I never anticipated:-
Most tablet screens are much smaller than a normal printed page of music, so either the music has to be in a tiny font, or the screen image has to be changed annoyingly frequently. Therefore the player is obliged to invest in a larger tablet, such as an iPad Pro, which means quite a significant cost increase.
Printed music enables the player to view two pages at a time, so electronic page turns, although easier, occur twice as often.
Repeats, da capos, dal segnos, jumps to codas, etc. are equally stressful in either format.
Repeat signs are often ill thought out by publishers. I bought a book of piano trios from a well known publisher, with page turns in the most inconsiderate of places, like 2 or 3 bars after a page turn. And don’t get me going on the current fashion for DS signs that require the player to jump back several pages, but only for a couple of lines, before jumping forward again to the coda. I ended up reformatting the score to avoid such thoughtless silliness. It resulted in more pages of music, but it’s a dream to work from, with no difficult page turns anywhere.
But returning to topic, I know a number of musicians who rely heavily on iPad Pros and are very happy to continue.
My gripe is with the likes of Yamaha, who advertise their electronic keyboards with photos of players posing hunched up over a tiny tablet in a shoddy posture. It’s wrong in so many ways, and it reflects badly on their excellent products.
Comment