Benefits of Reading Digital Sheet Music
Tablets like the Samsung and the iPad have revolutionized the way we think about computers. They're easy to carry around and just as easy to use. In turn, they have revolutionized the way we think about books. Suddenly, it's easy to carry your whole library with you wherever you go and find new books to add to your library from the Internet. But what about musicians? Can they take advantage of the innovations tablets bring with regard to sheet music?
In a single word: absolutely.
Here are five ways that digital sheet music is actually better than paper, bringing enormous benefits to musicians ready to go digital:
1. Your Entire Library in the Palm of Your Hand
No more heavy books, no more bulky binders. When you convert your paper sheet music into digital files, you can leverage the storage power of tablets and computers. In fact, the smallest iPad (16 GB) can carry the equivalent of 700 pounds of paper or tens of thousands of pages of sheet music. With tablets, you can literally carry your entire sheet music library with you wherever you go.
2. Find Any Piece Instantly
Think of how much time you lose looking for that song buried under stacks of books. With digital sheet music, you can find any song in your library faster than you can Google a recipe for making whole wheat bread from scratch. And with more and more sheet music available from online sites, you can find and add songs to your library way faster than you can drive to your local music store or library.
3. Mark Up Your Music
The #2 pencil is probably the musician's best friend next to his or her instrument, used for marking up music with fingerings, bowings, rhythmic reminders and even note names. With digital sheet music, not only can you mark up your music as easily as pencil on paper but you can do so with bright colors and highlights, and erase those markings easily without damaging the page.
4. Enlarge Your Music
The size of your music is only limited by the size of your tablet or computer screen. Even with the iPad, whose screen is smaller than a standard piece of paper, you can find several apps that give you the option to turn the screen on its side, giving you a zoomed in view of your music half a page at a time. There's even an app that will let you create custom views of your music showing just a few measures at a time for mega-zoomed views.
5. Turn Pages Hands-Free
One of the best things about digital sheet music is the fact that you can work with some very cool accessories for your tablet or computer. Two of the most innovative of these accessories are the AirTurn DUO and AirTurn PED. One pedal turns pages forwards, while the other pedal turns pages backwards, leaving your hands free to do what you do best: make music