How an iPad Can Bring Spontaneity To Classical Performance
While I was a music student most of my music lived in the trunk of my car and would magically appear as needed for the event at hand. There was a precarious stack in the back right of the trunk for weddings, the pile of music in the middle I needed to learn for lessons, and the pieces shoved somewhere in the back seat that were essential for ensembles. While the trunk was a source of amusement to others there really wasn’t a way to avoid carrying that much music if I was going to remain mobile as a musician. Over time these scores were variously lost, stolen and simply deteriorated to the point that it was becoming necessary to repurchase expensive music.
This all changed when I saw a classical guitarist pull an iPad out of his bag at a performance and simply set it on the music stand. No stacks of books littered with paper clips and post it notes- just one glorious screen on a stand. He then set a pedal on the ground and through the magic of Bluetooth eliminated the need for awkward page turns or nervous page turners.
Equipment
There are constantly evolving different ways to go about leaving your stacks of music behind. Over the past two years I have found that using a 12.9” iPad Pro has worked well for me. I initially tried a smaller iPad and it worked fine until the music got more complex or the print was smaller. Many players who use lead sheets or chord charts and want to minimize the visual footprint of the larger iPad do have great success with the smaller iPad. Because I accompany choral music (4 lines of choral music + 2 or 3 for the accompaniment) I really do need the additional size. As an organist with three often very dense staves it is also helpful to have the larger screen. Some of the musicians I know have opted for an even larger tablet, but because the 12.9 iPad is roughly the same size as my laptop it all fits neatly together for me as I run from gig to gig. I would advise a glare resistant screen protector as sometimes direct sunlight or odd stage lighting is inevitable.
For turning pages the AirTurn Duo BT106 has been extremely reliable. The only glitches I have experienced have come in the form of accidentally double tapping the pedal- at which point two pages get turned. Fortunately there is a left pedal that permits backwards page turning to correct the error. It is also possible to simply tap the screen to go back. The pedal stays charged for long periods of use and has only died once on me at the end of a week of heavy use. (I always charge it before an important event). There are other page turners, but most of the musicians I work with use this or have come back to this pedal after trying others.
Music Management
ForScore has been an incredible app for performance and for organizing my library of music. The developers are constantly adding and tweaking the features of this app and have recently added an integration with musicnotes.com. As files are imported into the app they can be tagged (I tag by genre, instrument or location) and then added to playlists. The files can also then be rearranged so that if there are large repeats or awkward codas one can simply duplicate the pages and then lay out the entire file. (In the past I had many performances where a large portion of my mental energy was devoted to figuring out how I was going to simultaneously play, watch the conductor and also flail at the copy to get from page 3 to the coda on page 14).
The playlist feature not only allows you to move from one piece to the next seamlessly, but it also gives me the flexibility to constantly reorder the music depending on how the performance for the evening has gone. When playing for rehearsals or tours there are frequently last minute changes that I can easily adjust to by dragging the music around in the list. Gone is the napkin with the playlist- although I usually do keep a copy of the program (if there is one) tucked behind the iPad for extra peace of mind.
There are several different methods to get the music onto the iPad. imslp.org is a site that has aggregated much of the public domain music available today. It is possible to download a pdf from the site and then immediately import it into ForScore. Another app that has proven invaluable (although it did cost $5) is TurboScan. TurboScan also has an easy handoff of scanned files that it renders in PDF format. The thing that sets it apart is that it gives an option of taking 3 photos of each page and then compensates for lighting problems that may exist at the time of scanning. This is particularly helpful on a stage where lights from multiple directions can cast unanticipated shadows onto the music.
Freedom To Be Spontaneous
Before the iPad while playing for weddings I used to have a stack of books that I would strategically arrange on the right side of the organ or piano. As I played through music I would try and keep the music going with one hand and then with the other hand try and open the book and get to the page of the music I was about to play. (As the use of music that I have purchased is to facilitate page turns rather than to avoid the purchase of a copy it does seem to fall into the category of fair use.) By having the iPad not only has the physical pile of music shrunk, but the music actually available for performance has dramatically increased.
When playing for a reception, funeral, wedding or church service all the music has to be there before the first note gets played. Which is fine unless the mood of the ceremony is different than anticipated. Pieces that feel good in a full room can seem bizarre in a small one. The wedding reception can get billed as jazz classics and then be full of Billy Joel requests. The singer could be sick or the cellist could have forgotten to look at the piece you talked about. The choir concert could be affected by a cold that has gone through many of the best singers and now they need to sing the easiest thing possible.
In all those situations one wants to be able to make a quick switch and with most classical performance that requires music. I was recently playing for a church service and the violinist suggested a piece that we could add at the beginning. We both went to imslp.com downloaded the piece, dropped it into the playlist and off we went. We were able to sense that this piece would be just the right fit, and we could quickly adapt and play. In a band setting using chord charts it also helps if members of the group don’t transpose well as you can quickly write in the changes (or use an app that transposes) and then quickly send everything out to the band via Dropbox or Google Drive. Classical pieces that you have arranged can be quickly sent from a laptop to anyone needing an extra part- or a part that required a fix.
The iPad won’t play the music for you and it won’t tell you what piece will probably go over best with the mother of the bride, but it will allow your musical personality to move seamlessly to the the next piece that you need to bring an event to life.
