From Sheet Music to Screens: Playing and Practicing with Music Tech
Today we explore how modern musicians integrate technology into their daily practice and performance. From using iPads for digital sheet music to leveraging apps for notation, recording, and real-time feedback, this shift enhances convenience, efficiency, and creativity. Whether you're a professional or an amateur, this guide highlights how music tech can streamline workflow, improve organization, and elevate the musical experience!
Follow this event link to tune in!
https://app.tonebase.co/piano/live/player/music-tech-advice-2025
We are going to be using this thread to gather suggestions and questions!
- What questions do you have on this topic?
- Any particular area you would like me to focus on?
Gear and links mentioned in the stream!
Duo Airturn Butterfly Page Turner
- message Dominic at [email protected] for contact info for purchase!
Continuity Camera (using iPhone as webcam/microphone)
TechMatte iPad stand (for pianists)
Airturn iPad stand (for other instrumentalists)
How to use AirTurn with âSwitch Controlâ on iPad (needed if not using above music specific score apps).
C-stand (for overhead cameras
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Here's a question: I like the way the ToneBase instructors are able to display the score intermittently within their performances and presentations. Dominic seems to be able to do it in real time, i.e. the Screen displays his circling of an item or writing in fingering, while he is actually doing it. I'd like my recorded videos to be able to display the score from time to time. So, my Q is: How do you do that? thank you!
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Peter Golemme I had the same question, Peter! Thanks.
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Gail Starr hi Gail, I didn't see you on yesterday's event, so I'd like to let you know that Dominic answered this Q: he apparently does this using the OBS app. It's a free, open source app for livestreamers which seems to allow you to have multiple screens from various devices displaying on your video [or something like that!]. It runs on your computer, not your phone or iPad. I downloaded OBS last night and put it in my Queue of technology to learn. [see also my note to those who wish to install it on a PC, posted elsewhere on this thread].
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Peter Golemme Thanks a million, Peter! Unfortunately, I got stuck in a meeting and was unable to attend so I really appreciate the heads up on our question. I'll watch the saved class this weekend. Best regards!
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This is right on target for me at this time. I'm sure I need to try it in real time to see how to transition. But I don't know where to start. I don't want to purchase an ipad for this if it doesn't work for me.
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NANCY M Nancy, give me a call to chat about iPads. I've been using mine for forScore and IMSLP for ages and I couldn't live without it.
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Gail Starr Will do ! Thank you. It will be great to connect.
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NANCY M I am sure you will benefit from having an iPad. You can buy them second-hand and you don't need the latest version. Mine is an A1 condition iPad Pro (12.9-inch) (4th Generation). I want to be able to use it for Forscore when I am recording so I bought a Mac Mini for the studio set up, again second hand A1 condition. Please ensure that any Macs have USB connectivity, which is not available on much older models.
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Roy James-Pike Thank you Roy for taking the time to encourage me to move forward. I started watching one of Dominic's tutorials on tech which taught me a ton - and made me want to move forward more. i needed to know that I can mark up my music - and I am attached to the real page and pencil markup. But I've made the transition in other areas of life like reading on a reader with all kinds of highlighting. SO I am realizing that it is a both-and approach with advantages both ways. I also started to price ipad pros. And the connectivity is crucial as you say.
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NANCY M
I do highly encourage you to consider an iPad Pro! I was personally also on the fence for years about it, but when I went with the âboth-andâ approach a few years ago, it really helped me so much!
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I wonder if Dominic is using OBS to display the score. Iâd
like to learn how to do that too.
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Iâd like to be able to make up a series of practice slides, with individual phrases of the music, so that I can hone in on particular problem spots. It would help me to focus intently on the bits I need to practice without getting distracted. It would be even more fabulous if I could annotate the slide as wellâŠ. Can I do this using forescore do you think?
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Jenny Hi Jenny, I've had ForScore for a year or so (since learning about it on ToneBase), but I'm still just beginning to use it. But it seems like you could do something like this with ForScore, using Bookmarks. I would just bookmark the passage in your score and give the Bookmark a meaningful name so you could find it. Then you could jump to your passage easily. Then you could use the overlaying sheets to add all kinds of extensive markup, fingering and commentary. You could hide the sheet so that it did not display during your regular playing, but it would always be there to call up whenever you wanted.
I don't know whether ForScore allows you to copy and crop a specific section of a page and save it as a separate document, but if the above technique worked for you, you wouldn't need to do that.
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Peter Golemme Thank you so much Peter, for taking the time to share this idea. Iâll definitely give this a go later, and let you know how I get on. Dominicâs livestream was incredibly informativeâŠ..he makes tech seem almost fun!
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Jenny please keep us posted Jenny!
And I totally agree about Dominic. I don't know how he manages to provide such a large quantity of high-quality presentations, thorough and well prepared & full of valuable information & insights, while somehow managing to maintain his incredibly high level of pianism and take part in his iron man [or whatever it's called] training regimen. And he's so attentive in our community concerts, and seems to take genuine delight and pleasure in our humble performances and contributions.
I know this sounds like an advertisement for Dominic, but really, I admire him greatly and can't say enough good things about him. Tonebase is lucky to have him and we are all lucky to have such generous access to his time and attention.
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Peter Golemme . WellâŠ.incrediblyâŠ..Iâve managed to do it!!! I used Photos to crop the image nicely ( as Dominic suggested), but the tricky bit was then to convert the image back into a PDF to get it back into Forscore. It seems that if I make the iPad think itâs going to print the image, but instead of printing I cunningly save it back into Files, it magically converts it into a PDF. I can then plop it back into Forscore and make up a nice album in Bookmarks. It sounds a bit long-winded admittedly, but it doesnât actually take that long, and I think itâll be helpful overall. Thank you again for your suggestion, Peter. Hope youâre having a successful day too!
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Jenny Jenny Great job Jenny & thanks for sharing your solution with us, and for notching one small victory for humans outwitting technology!
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Note to others with PCs who want to install OBS: it only works on Windows 10 and 11. I have Windows 10, but when I went to install it, I got rebuked: "you have to have Windows 10". It seemed on the OBS Forum that several others got this same error message even though they too already had Windows 10, with all kinds of elaborate high advanced tech solutions proposed. The solution for me was very simple: I literally had to close every other open program on my computer before installing. I had had a small File Utility program (ZTree Windows) open, and after I closed that (as well as everything else) it installed without a hitch. The installer "recommends" that you close all other programs before installing, but I had cheerfully ignored that recommendation at first, until I was thus duly chastised for my impertinence.
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Excellent! Thank you, Dominic, for being so enthusiastically helpful and pragmatic! I wholeheartedly agree that simplicity is quite attractive when tackling technology so one's bandwith can be better spent on one's instrument. There's such a learning curve to learn new pieces, improve one's playing, etc. that to have another learning curve with technology can be daunting. It is inspiring that you have scaled that hill! And can so clearly and passionately tell others about the technology journey so we can travel it more easily. Many thanks!
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Dominic gave a great summary of using the ForScore app. On the question of handling books with collections of works (such as an RCM book) or movements, once the book is scanned it isn't quite ready to be incorporated into either practice or excerpted for performance. Here's what I do after scanning the book and using "various" for the composer. I organize everything I'm focused on into Setlists.
1. Tag the new book with something from your classification system, for example RCM L-4.
2. Create bookmarks for the pieces or movements of interested. I'll add new bookmarks over time when I need to incorporate the material into what I'm working on. Bookmarks can span multiple pages if needed.
3. Create a topical setlist (the hamburger menu in upper left). For example: "Winter 2025 Practice" for everything I'm doing including technical/scales for this time frame.
4. Add to the setlist using the "+" within the setlist.
5. The right side of the screen will split into a sort of library view. I find things by tags and use that view of my PDFs. Looks basically like a computer directory folder structure.
6. Select any works to add to the setlist. Once added, the name on the right side will have a little dot.
7. Once finished, I usually notice by then that I have a lot of works with "various" as the composer, so I'll fix those. They can be updated either in the Bookmarks menu like Dominic mentioned or in the Setlist menu.
The same approach would work with the large Beethoven book in the stream or the D.C. pieces to always "move forward" as Dominic uses (instead of duplicating pages, etc.).
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Paul K excellent how-to tips Paul. Thanks a lot for sharing the step by step process that you use.
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