Page-Turning Question

[Rizzo]

I keep my sheet music in a 3-ring binder. Trying to turn pages smoothly is a challenge for me. I am working on adjusting my fingering just prior to turning the page. My question is this: Is there a type of binder that makes page turning easier (e.g. a different design on the rings themselves)? Thank you so much.

 

[Bouncingogre]

I often take sheets out of my binders and place them side by side to avoid this very situation. Sometimes I'll even copy the next page to do this, to enable a smoother transition between pages
But I have now transferred a good proportion of my sheet music to my Lenovo tablet, (pdf files) and my Daughter bought me a Lekato sheet turner pedal and it has transformed the way I use music
I bought the full version of 'Mobile Sheets' and turning pages is now as easy as just tapping the pedal once with my foot.
Might be worth considering.

 

[Hotkeys]

I keep my sheet music in a 3-ring binder. Trying to turn pages smoothly is a challenge for me. I am working on adjusting my fingering just prior to turning the page. My question is this: Is there a type of binder that makes page turning easier (e.g. a different design on the rings themselves)? Thank you so much.

Nobody I know uses binders anymore except for me. I love my binders, I guess Im a sentimental. All my colleagues now use tablets. I'm about to make the jump soon. Too many advantages to ignore, jajaja. The tablets are lightweight, smaller, brighter and easier to see, plus the unlimited capacity. You can have immediate back ups of all the music sheets, chords or lyrics. They even have programs to scan my hand written music, chords and notes. Technology in that department has improved a lot. Good luck.

 

[TedS]

I'm using an iPad Pro (12.9" diagonal) together with Bluetooth BT-200 pedals to turn pages. Personally, I think an animated MIDI score would be ideal (think "follow the bouncing ball.") But I already had a lot of paper music with annotations, and I'm not such a skilled player that I could reliably convert it to MIDI in one take. So in the Apple store I found the program Newzik which allows you to scan or photograph scores and import them into the program.

The iPad Pro works great with the Apple Pencil, and the Newzik program also allows you to place virtual annotations on the digital score in "layers," such that they could be turned off for other users, etc.

I've always struggled with jumps like "D.C. al Coda" etc. Those conventions were a necessary economizer for lengthy songs scored on paper. Newzik does allow "jumps" or shortcuts. However I usually just re-scan the relevant part of the score and place it in the sequence on the next page, etc. Having a song that runs 11 or 12 pages is no problem on a tablet, and it's a LOT less to carry when I go on vacation, etc.

IMO a tablet and foot pedals are a no-brainer, but you should probably experiment with different apps and work-flow to find something that meets your needs. My $.02.

 

[Rayblewit]

I use binders.
I put my music into plastic protective sleeves.
Just fold up the bottom right corner of the sleeve about 1" or so before you start playing.
When you play and get to the last bar or two, flip over the page at the corner fold. When doing a second run, flip it back.
4 ring binders give more stability than 3 or 2 ring. Flipping is easier with 4 rings.
R

 

[Biggles]

I use binders.
I put my music into plastic protective sleeves.
Just fold up the bottom right corner of the sleeve about 1" or so before you start playing.
When you play and get to the last bar or two, flip over the page at the corner fold. When doing a second run, flip it back.
4 ring binders give more stability than 3 or 2 ring. Flipping is easier with 4 rings.
R

I also do sort of the same as Ray and store sheet music in four ring binders but do not use sleeves.

What I do if I have a song that covers four pages is to have pages 2 & 3 with the holes punched in them in the binder so they are both visible, then trim the first and forth down in width, attach P1 to P2 with tape and the same with P3 & P4. The trim allows P1 & P4 to be folded over and the binder closed. Open the pages to display all four sides of the song at the same time.

 

[Greg Barker]

I'm in the process of switching to a tablet discussed in the recent tread: https://www.keyboardforums.com/threads/managing-sheet-music-app-for-ensemble.35419/

I've picked up an Apple iPad Pro 12.9" tablet and plan to purchase ForScore and a Butterfly Bluetooth page turning pedal. My only concern is that I sing with a sea shanty ensemble that busks outdoors much of the time, it could also be a concern for someone playing a keyboard outdoors as well. We're going to have our first off-book performance later this month, so if that goes well we'll probably only use the tablet indoors for rehearsals. We'll see.

 

[Folsom Frank]

I keep my sheet music in a 3-ring binder. Trying to turn pages smoothly is a challenge for me. I am working on adjusting my fingering just prior to turning the page. My question is this: Is there a type of binder that makes page turning easier (e.g. a different design on the rings themselves)? Thank you so much.

I know. I'm old. I also use paper, but I must remove the sheets from the 4-inch 3-ring binder before playing. Scotch tape is also a necessity when the songs are multi-paged. 6-page songs are maintained as 2 3-pagers. One hits the floor when I must go to page 4. I have learned to put a small piece of tape on either side of pages 4-6, so they don't go to the floor also.
That being said, most of my fellow choir directors have moved to tablets. I have too many little handwritten notes on the 250+ hymns I've played over the last 30 years at the same church to move in that direction.
If nothing else, hope this was entertaining.

 

[westgarth]

Isn't this the reason we have partners, or wives or husbands. It's not asking for much if they'll spend a couple of hours turning pages for you.