I switched from paper scores almost exactly a year ago while preparing a major chamber music piece for a workshop and it has changed my life. I don't think I can ever go back. Page turn stresses are a thing of the past!

Hardware Progression

--> I started off with a Boox Max Lumi 13.3" e-reader (with PageFlip Firefly Bluetooth pedal) using the Mobilesheets app, but the whole setup was frustratingly slow.
--> I then switched to my old 2015 1st gen iPad Pro 12.9" using the forScore app, and someone generously gave me a 1st gen Apple Pencil to use with it.
--> However, the 1st gen Apple Pencil didn't work very smoothly and I decided to upgrade to a 3rd gen iPad Pro 12.9" that came with a 2nd gen Apple Pencil. This made all the difference in the world, and the Pencil charges easily because it magnetically snaps to the side of the iPad for charging! The new iPad has far worse battery life than the old one but I just keep it on the charger except for when I'm using it to play music. I recently realized I could set the iPad to "night mode" permanently (use the schedule and just have it on for 23+ hours a day) so that the screen has a slightly yellow warm cast instead of being bright white.

Funny thing but I place the iPad off center and slightly to the right, as if it were the right page of a paper score. It throws me off if I have it centered!

Optimal Settings

@Sgisela and @Gombessa gave me some really great tips over on my PW thread, namely to set both pedals to go forward and digitally duplicate the pages for any repeats. This made all the difference in the world, because I didn't have to look down or be scared that I would turn the page back instead of forward!

It only took me two weeks to be really comfortable with this setup and now going back to a paper score is very difficult. One time I tried tapping on a paper page to try to turn it😂 I love being able to turn my own pages smoothly (there's one spot where I'm supposed to play una corda but I just lift it very quickly to turn the page and then go back, I figure I'm not a professional so it's ok if it's not ideal), and it makes it possible to practice difficult transitions that happen in the middle of a page turn.

Scores

I almost always buy Henle scores and now I buy digital ones through the Henle app. I export them as PDF in "print format" which is the same layout as the paper score, and then it takes some work to manually crop each page in forScore (not all pages crop the same, so better to do it manually than to apply the same crop to all and then have to undo a lot) but after that it's so enjoyable! I save my edits periodically into Dropbox so that if anything happens to my iPad, I won't lose my crops and many markings forever.

The digital Henle scores are so much cheaper and I buy a large number of credits when they are discounted (I know Black Friday is one time, there was also another recent time when I needed more and they were on sale).

Who else has switched to a digital score or is thinking about it? Hopefully these tips help!

I was an Early Adopter after I started playing again. When I got my digital piano, I had a iPad mini, and I briefly tried to use it for reading. But that was just way too small! However, I could see the potential, and I got an iPad Pro for a Christmas present. It was a real game changer. I remember lugging books to lessons, and having books everywhere in the music room, and having to dig through sheet music. I love marking things up, and my scores would end up so that you could barely see the original notes. And the sheets would end up ragged. Even without the Bluetooth pedal, the convenience of having your music library immediately at hand is just fantastic! And I love that marking them up is doable without compromising the sheets in any way. My music room is also a lot more organized, and with little effort!

I do find that page turns can still be tricky, but in different and ultimately more manageable ways. I know there’s now the ability to do the turns with a nod or a blink or something, but I like the Bluetooth pedal.

Pallas when I can finally play original classical works, I'll buy the Henle PDFs. I'm glad to hear that they're cheaper than the paper

I find the digital scores to be around 30% of the original price, if I buy credits at a discount. And you don't have to buy the whole book, you can buy individual pieces! Since my latest chamber piece is 70+ pages (this sounds much longer than it is, because the piano part also shows all the string parts), there was no way I was going to scan it (and I wanted the cleanest score possible) and I paid for it twice, but going forward I'll save money!

    Another nice thing about forScore is that if I'm studying something with microscopic filigree notes (you know who you are, Mr. Chopin!) I can turn the tablet on its side so it stretches so that half a page fills the whole screen. And can then zoom portions of that if needed.

    Make a joyful noise...
    Jane - expert on nothing with opinions on everything.

    I will mention that Forscore and Newzik (which is what I use) both have a ‘half page’ turn feature, where you can advance and see the top half of the next page while seeing the bottom half of the first page. I find this is useful for practicing around page turns (that way I don’t have to press the pedal right at the page turn to see the next page). However, it’s clunky for performance, as it means you’re using the pedal twice as much. Anyways, it took me a while to realize this feature is available, and I definitely make use of it.

      I started using ForScore as well just a couple months ago and use it with my iPad Pro - I was able to train it to turn pages using facial expressions - or really it trained me but it works well. I just don’t like having to pay $10 a year to have the ability but I guess all things considered it’s worth it

        danno858 I just don’t like having to pay $10 a year to have the ability but I guess all things considered it’s worth it

        I haven't looked into this but is it a subscription app to use facial expressions?

            Sgisela I will mention that Forscore and Newzik (which is what I use) both have a ‘half page’ turn feature

            I'm going to look into this today and see if I like it! It may solve some issues like trying to turn pages while doing una corda and I can just turn it during a break.

              twocats yes it is. $9.99 a year. But you can try for one month at a time for I think $2.99. I tried it for month and was hooked. So I bought a one year subscription

                  danno858 what's it called? I may look into this at some point, but not at the moment, weeks before my workshop.

                      danno858 oh I see, I do use forScore but I had to look pretty hard to find the subscription upgrade for Pro which has gesture support. I'll look into it for the future, can certainly think of worse things to spend $10/year on!

                          twocats I kept having bad luck with a Bluetooth pedal. So I decided to try forScore because I read somewhere it worked well with face gestures.

                          What’s nice too is I can save sheet music I buy with the Henle app in pdf format and then upload into forScore.

                            Confession time...
                            I use forScore to add fingerings very neatly to my scores.
                            Then export as PDF.
                            And then PRINT them and put the pages on my music stand to play. 🙄

                            Make a joyful noise...
                            Jane - expert on nothing with opinions on everything.

                              Jane I still use paper as well. But I like the auto page turn function so much

                                Jane I use forScore to add fingerings very neatly to my scores.
                                Then export as PDF.
                                And then PRINT them and put the pages on my music stand to play. 🙄

                                Hahaha! My fingerings are scribbled not so neatly in. But if I think it doesn't look good enough, at least it's easy to cleanly delete and rewrite! 🙂

                                • Jane replied to this.

                                    twocats
                                    I use the numbers from the annotation stamps palette. It's tedious but looks nice once it's done.

                                    @Dan - most of the pieces I print out are 4 pages or less so I can kinda put them all side-by-side on the music rest. No page turns is easier than easy page turns!
                                    Although I also printed out a 10-page piece I was working on last year.

                                    Here's an example page:

                                    Make a joyful noise...
                                    Jane - expert on nothing with opinions on everything.

                                      Pallas
                                      A few things I need to scribble free-hand, like the red line in measure 71 reminding me to take the D with the right hand. Although I used the stamps to add the "m.d." next to the note.

                                      As a hint - if you're lining up numbers vertically for a chord, the ruler tool in forScore can help the alignment.

                                      Make a joyful noise...
                                      Jane - expert on nothing with opinions on everything.

                                        Thanks for this thread! I've been buying big anthologies of sheet music such as https://www.halleonard.com/product/50601558/the-giant-book-of-intermediate-classical-piano-music for sight-reading practice, and the page turns are a real bummer. Prior to buying my most recent anthology I spent some time researching digital sheet music but it got complicated so I gave up and just ordered the printed book. This thread has inspired me to take the time for research so I can transition to digital before I need to order more sight reading material.

                                        I'm locked into the Apple ecosystem so I will either use my old iPad Pro or more likely get a new one. forScore looks pretty good as it uses iCloud for storage, but twocats's note about having to crop every page when importing is giving me pause. These books I'm using for sight reading have hundreds of pages! I don't want to resize them all! Does newzik also require cropping? What about other apps? Is this issue somehow specific to Henle sheet music?

                                        Thanks!!

                                          rogerch the Henle exports have an empty space border (I guess actual paper pages also do) as well as a line of text at the bottom with the Henle source info. I could definitely still read it without cropping but I want to minimize the dead space if possible. You could always do a gentle crop on one page and then "copy to all". In my case I really want the crop as tight as possible so I have to do it manually.

                                          I think the 12.9" iPad is a decent size but if they come out with a bigger one, I'd definitely be tempted to upgrade... depending on the price tag 🙂