One of my most popular blog article series on my personal website over two years ago was "Getting Started", a guide to helping musicians put together digital music reading and hands-free page turning systems.  With so many advances already in hardware and software technologies, it's time to revisit and update that series.

The good news is that it's never been more affordable to put together a powerful, comprehensive music reading system that can be configured for a wide variety of musical settings and fiscal budgets.  Even more encouraging has been the fact that after 6+ years of going "paper-free", my massive library of 6000+ digital scores is still usable and easily portable to accommodate all the ensuing hardware and software upgrades.  In other words, I've been able to enjoy all the improved speed and functionality of newer technologies without having to worry about my digital library file formats becoming "obsolete".  If you own a laptop, you already have most of what you need to work as a "digital musician" and can get started with a basic wireless page turning system for as little as $60.

Before I get ahead of myself, I'd like to review some of my favorite benefits of digital music scores over the old traditional paper versions:

• Storage capacity and Portability - being able to carry every piece of music I need with me at all times means that I never lose, misplace, or forget my music scores wherever I go.
• Instant Search and Recall - rather than having to waste time hunting through stacks of paper music filed within alphabetical boxes shelved on ceiling-to-floor shelves (or just strewn about in messy piles on top of my piano), I can instantly pull up any piece within my 6000+ score digital library within seconds.
• Advanced Annotations - digital ink and text annotation capabilities provide numerous advantages over traditional pencil on paper.  Imagine being able to mark up your scores with multiple colors and highlights, all easily erasable!  Digital bookmarks can help you instantly find movements or practice spots within larger scores.  Other applications enable you to digitally "cut out" sections of music to create custom booklets to better study and analyze your scores.
• Digital Distribution - as physical sheet music stores are going out of busines (see this NY Times article about the closing of Patelson's in New York), more and more scores are becoming available as digital downloads online, doing away with the old problems of keeping physical scores in stock and delivery delays.
• Hands-free page turns - my personal favorite benefit!  No more relying on human page turners, no more oversized pieces of posterboard pasted with microscopic photocopies of music pages, no more multiple-stand monstrosities on stage!  Come to think of it, no more stress over having to have all the music memorized, since using hands-free page turning pedals makes the reading process virtually "invisible" to the audience!
• Multiple Viewing Options - doing away with the physical "obstacles" of the paper format opens up an entirely new world of music viewing possibilities.  Imagine ensembles working together from full scores rather than just from individual parts; using large monitors to zoom the music for musicians with visual impairments; being able to shift between single and multi-page views that remove page turning "blind spots" (more on that in a future article!)  Etc. etc.
• Being Green - if musicians everywhere were to switch to using computers as music readers, think about what a difference this would make on the environment in terms of paper reduction!

Ready to get started?  Then stay tuned as we take a look at the nuts and bolts of putting together a digital music score system tailored for your needs.