Sam But with the tabs, it is super simple - just open them both, and with the tabs I can jump back and forth and compare fingerings.

Whoa, I need to start using that! I created a "setlist" to manage the pieces that I'm working on, but tabs would be much better.

I was actually thinking the other day that we need a thread dedicated to forScore tips and tricks. It has so many features and I'm sure most of us only know a very tiny fraction of that. @Sgisela shared how to do split screen which has been really helpful for learning transitions across page turns, and recently @ShiroKuro told me about the "whiteout" pen. If you don't start one, I'll create one later.

      Sam thanks for sharing. I use Mobilesheets and have a similar problem with a method book. Everytime I open it, I have to find where I was. I was using bookmarks but they're clunky. After seeing your post I've searched if it has tabs as well. And it doesn't... but it has a button to go last seen page and also a setting to open last seen page when opening the piece. That will be much easier. Thanks.

        twocats Whoa, I need to start using that! I created a "setlist" to manage the pieces that I'm working on, but tabs would be much better.

        I tried this out, it was a little unintuitive until I figured out what was happening. Each tab is like a web browser tab, and when you're on a tab and open up a new piece, it opens it up in that tab, overwriting whatever was previously there.

        So the trick is to click on "new tab", which will open up a new tab with the same piece as the previous tab (a duplicate), but you can open up the next piece while that tab is selected and then you'll have two tabs with two different pieces.

            twocats I use Newzik, which I think has slightly different functionality than ForScore. But I thought I’d mention that it has something that may be helpful to you for your chamber music work (if the rest of the ensemble is into tablets). That is that you can have your score continuously synced with other users, and you can designate layers as ‘shared’ or ‘private,’ so that shared layers can be visible/shared by all, with immediate updates for any score markings. I am not sure if Forscore has this option.

            This is also a useful tool for teaching/learning (your teacher can mark up your score in specific layers). My teacher doesn’t do this (I write things in myself during class), but I think it’s potentially quite valuable.

            Newzik can also transpose scores (and my guess is that Forscore can do this, too). The transpositions are not always the most polished things (could use an editor), but the ones I’ve done have been usable.

            Random feature that I haven’t found particularly useful but that others may… or if not useful, you may find it to be a novelty. A couple years ago (I think), Newzik introduced this feature where it uses AI to convert your score into and audio version (with a piano sound). I’ve done this with a few pieces I’ve worked on, and there are some aspects that are quite impressive — it takes in the dynamic markings, tempo markings, and key signature, for instance, and if you adjust the metronome settings in the app, it will play it faster or slower. But it seems to just ignore some notes, it struggles quite a bit with rhythms, and has absolutely no capacity to deal with polyrhythms. And the outputs are pretty wooden. Anyways, I put a lot of effort into learning pieces, and they’re never perfectly learned. But they’re still better than the AI! (For now…)

                @twocats I use the setlists feature a lot! I have setlists for "in progress pieces," "sightreading," "Christmas" etc.

                I'll have to check out tabs...

                Sgisela This is also a useful tool for teaching/learning (your teacher can mark up your score in specific layers). My teacher doesn’t do this (I write things in myself during class), but I think it’s potentially quite valuable.

                Oh, I didn't realize that you don't use forScore! I don't think the sharing option would be very useful for me (for one thing, all the parts look different, I am the only person who sees everything and everyone else only sees their string line).

                I do know that forScore has the option of multiple layers and while it is not currently useful to me, I could see it being useful in the future. Someone (was it Molly Gebrian?) said that she does a layer of technical notes, then a layer for interpretive text (sometimes all over the page), and maybe even a third layer for something else. If I participate in a masterclass I think I would want to do a separate layer to take notes.

                I recently discovered the "highlighter" so that's already making my scores more interesting!

                    twocats I do use different layers — I could be better about it but try to have layers for things that are more ‘working notes’ that have things like how to move, pay attention to this note that I frequently mis-play, etc; vs things that I want to be always visible (fingerings, some additional dynamic/phrasing considerations). But I think you could organize things lots of different ways with layers, depending on your needs. I tend to mark things up a ton, so the layers can be helpful to organize things and not have the score feel perpetually super cluttered!

                    I believe that Newzik in its promotional material indicates that orchestras use the ‘synced/shared markings’ functionality, but I’m not sure exactly how this works, since as you say, everyone is working from a different score and only the conductor sees what everyone is playing…

                        Tabs in forScore is amazing! Thanks @Sam for the tip. It wasn't immediately obvious where to find the New Tab menu, but this will make practicing the same few pieces every day easier.

                        Sgisela But I think you could organize things lots of different ways with layers, depending on your needs.

                        I should at the very least look into how to create a new layer so that I know how it works 🙂

                          I organized my digital files (mostly PDFs) into folers. Some that has many files like Bach in 1 folder, Jazz & Pop in another folder, Xmas in a separate folder.

                          You can go by genre of music and then break it down into composers /songwriter. When I'm looking for Simon & Garfunkel "Sound of Silence" I'd go to the Jazz & Pop folder.