In a previous blog, I had mentioned that having scanned PDFs of music is useful, because the music can easily be printed out for use within boundaries of the copyright law. Recently, I had been noticing that more and more of my colleagues in school are relying on iPads to display their music in full on PDF. It's weird to me; I'm so used to seeing music on everyone's stands, but now confusion sets in for a moment when I see an iPad on someone's stand instead. My observation is that iPad is used as a backup if paper music cannot be obtained, but it is also becoming popular to have this convenience on an iPad to be a person's default way for viewing, practicing, and performing music.
I observed a friend of mine practicing a few weeks ago, and I noticed he had an iPad on his stand. When I thought he was just reading the music as a convenience to him saving trees, he showed me all of the other functions he was using his PDF music for. It is already standard to be able to swipe from page to page with the swipe of a finger and to zoom in and out of music with just the pinching of two fingers, but I didn't know that he was also using his PDF music as the music he essentially relies on for his practice. He is able to highlight important parts of his music to look at with a highlighter tool, as well as make any markings he wants to that are the same as marking music up with a pencil. What was also really cool was that he was also able to mark any dynamics, missed accidentals, and other important markings as clear as day with tools that can be found in music notation software, such as Sibelius and Finale.
To me, I see this as a great placeholder for pencil and paper, but I feel that I cannot remember or utilize any making made unless I can feel the pencil in my hand with its led being drawn on a piece of paper. Using a finger to add or "erase" any corrections still seems foreign to me, but what is not foreign is how useful and convenient devices of any size are in terms of reading and performing music.
I've been noticing this more and more too, and as a recent iPad owner I thought I would try it out. What I've found for me is exactly what you said about the iPad being a backup when paper music isn't available. I tried to use it regularly, but there is just no substitute for pencil and paper! The act of writing something down for some reason makes things so much more concrete for me than typing it or using a feature on a screen. Then there is always the danger of losing data, because we all know electronic devices can have minds of their own! That being said, I have found the iPad to be a great resource for when I forget to print something out, or want to look up music quickly. You've inspired me to write a post about how I use music on my iPad!
ReplyDeleteI think accompanists can really benefit from using the iPads. I still like the traditional form of having hard copies and marking my score in pencil too, but if I had to carry around tons of books and copies I would love using the iPad. I think there is an app that can scan documents and save them as PDF's also. So having all the music for my students or peers would be really convenient on that thing!
ReplyDelete