music score software

Gail Starr thanks for the input Gail.  Dominic had a workaround for the repeats with ForScore, which I think was mentioned in his technology course. I forget the details but it was something like duplicating the repeated measures and pasting/inserting them into the score as part of a new PDF.  or something like that.

I've just started to work with it.  Velcro is an ingenious solution to the sliding! I've got a 1.5" thick cutting board on the floor under my pedals, to elevate my feet because the piano is relatively high off the floor*. The board is not big enough to accommodate the page turning pedal, so I'll have to find a bigger board or develop a different adaptation . It's always something!

*(my feet were inexplicably hurting after we got the piano; I thought it was my shoes or my exercise routine, but my very astute wife noticed that I was holding my feet at a very high angle to reach the pedals. she suggested the cutting board and voila, pain gone! I never would have made that connection on my own!)

Peter Golemme Amazing idea!

Gail Starr I love your idea of a piece of carpet and velcro! Does the carpet need a non slip backing (like a bath mat) or is your right foot enough to keep it in place? 

I had the worst happen during a performance of the Brahms Cello and Piano Sonata in e minor… during the Allegro the pedal either slipped too far away (after I had taped it to the wood floor) or it got stuck. In my panic, I hit it again and it turned 2 pages!! I still cringe even thinking about it! 
Despite that, I love the pedal. But I agree, I do not like to go back for repeats.. it feels awkward. For repeats in forScore, you tap the top right of any page to get the menu, then go to ‘rearrange’ which will bring up all the pages of the piece. Tap the + sign to duplicate the page to be repeated and then drag it wherever you want. After repeating the process for all the pages, tap ‘save/save as’ (to save as new file or overwrite the original), rename, and you’re done! You can also tap the ‘x’ if you want to delete unnecessary pages. This is a great feature!!

Peter Golemme You have a very observant and caring wife!  Maybe you could get a second cutting board of the same dimensions to use for the Bluetooth pedal?

I need to watch Dominic's technology live stream...I've just been too busy with family stuff lately.  Things should calm down in the next month, though.

Kakie Roberts Thanks a million for the forScore tips, Kakie!  And what a gorgeous sonata to have the "glitch" happen.  I've played that piece with cello friends, but never in a concert.  I'd love to learn it seriously.

Do you do a lot of chamber music?  I usually do NOT read chamber music on my iPad because I already have 2 giant boxes of paper scores that cost me a small fortune, LOL!

Gail Starr yes, that Brahms Sonata is one of my all-time favorite pieces! I have played a fair amount of chamber music over the years. For a while, I was playing with a flutist, and then with a cellist, but more recently, I have been working on my solo repertoire since I am volunteering to play at the Mayo Clinic once a week. I do love and miss playing chamber music though. 
If you haven’t discovered it already,, check out the scan feature in forscore. I have a lot of paper music too, so could not justify buying all new digital copies. Plus, my paper copies have all my notes and fingerings! I think Dominic covers that feature in his technology video also. I just add a few at a time (because who has time for all this?!) But once they are in there , it’s so handy to have everything in one place!

Kakie Roberts You are SO smart to start scanning everything into forScore.  That is on my "to do" list...but I never seem to actually get it done.

I used to volunteer to play chamber music at the main hospital in Atlanta as part of a group called "Healing Sounds".  We played in the enormous atrium at the entrance of the main building, and staff and patients could hear the music floating up to the top floors.  I loved doing that!

Gail Starr I love the name! I’m sure they loved hearing you play. Wish I could’ve heard you! The setting sounds similar to Mayo… grand piano, huge, beautiful atrium, open to 4 stories, across from a nice restaurant. By the way, Atlanta is my hometown!

Kakie Roberts It is a lovely name that one of the founding members came up with (not me).  Mayo is in Rochester, MN?  I've never been there but I did work in Minneapolis for a few years.  Do you ever get back to ATL?

Gail Starr yes, that is the original Mayo Clinic. We have one in Jacksonville now, which is only about 20 minutes from our home!

I get back to Atlanta occasionally to visit a bird breeder friend of mine and to go to bird fairs. The Atlanta bird fairs are so much better than Jax. (I raise finches :)

How about you, do you ever get back to Atlanta?

Gail Starr I now have over 3,000 scores in ForScore and some of those scores are 300 page books.  The scan option in ForScore has made it easy to do high quality scans, and just like practicing, do a little at a time for big results.  
For the big books (like all the Chopin Etudes), I take the music to my local printer and ask them to cut off the binding.  Then it is easy to lay the music flat on a music stand and scan it in.  When I have scanned in the entire book I take it back to the printer and ask them to spiral bind it so it lays nice and flat on the music rest of my piano.  A win win.  I know you can get scans off of IMSLP but I have paid the big bucks to get the arrangement I want and I really like my scans better than a lot of the ISMLP scans. 

Linda Gould Wow!  You totally inspire me.  I also have paid big bucks (mostly for chamber music), and it hurts my heart to have the pages taken out of the binding...but I probably SHOULD follow your lead.  It's such a bother to travel with the big, fat chamber music collections!

Which edition of Chopin Etudes do you like best?  I'm working on a few Op. 25 right now.