paperless

[peterbas]

Music notation software was already used in the 1960's.
A tablet with music on it was already around like 1400 BCE.

[bloke]

Music notation software was already used in the 1960's.
A tablet with music on it was already around like 1400 BCE.

Guitar players are particularly clever, because they know how to use tablature without having to use tablets.

[peterbas]

No such thing as a guitar at that time.

[bloke]

No such thing as a guitar at that time.

But wasn't there something called a liar?

[tofu]

I've been wondering about the white vs. off-white paper color lately. We print parts on off-white, which our paper supplier helpfully describes as "natural", but many publishers (not all) print on solid white. My first thought was that the high contrast between white and black would make it generally easier to discern the ink, but I could see the opposite being true. The white paper would reflect more light than the off-white paper, but we don't need to see the white; we need to see the black. So maybe it puts more strain on our eyes because we are getting too much light from the part of the paper we NOT trying to read?

I wonder how dark/cursed mode would do for readability. Obviously this would pertain more to screen reading, since it would be rather...wasteful to color entire pages black except for the music. Putting aside how strange it would be to have everything inverted, I wonder if it would be easier in the long run.

I’ve noticed for the last couple years my group seems to be getting new music digitally and then we print it on the band copier. I think they’re are using regular and cheap copy paper. The stuff is hard to read and the pages are paper thin. They don’t lie flat which is especially a problem in the summer at our outdoor concerts. The old large manuscript printed professionally was so much better to read, keep on the stand as well as being able to flip the page.

As a librarian Is there a special grade/maufacturer brand of paper for music you could recommend that would allow a better printed page out of a copier? I’d love to be able to give them an actual recommendation rather than just a complaint. We’re an amateur but very generously funded excellent muni band. We’ve got 3 librarians (with a library of around 6000 pieces no less) that they are trying to bring into the modern age after our old librarian of 50 years stepped down. Wonderful old Marine Band guy with his own unique filing system...that only he seemed to understand.

[Mary Ann]

I don't know about a copier but I use 24# paper for my laser printer for music and it makes a difference. Not as floppy. Regular paper is 20#.

[Colby Fahrenbacher]

@tofu, if they haven't already, I would recommend that they read the MOLA Guidelines for Music Preparation. It's a great document put together by MOLA (the professional organization for librarians of varied ensemble types) and is a great reference. The short version is:

- 60 or 70 lb paper (not cardstock)
- non-glossy
- 9"x12" minimum
- white or off-white

It can be hard to find 9"x12". I source my paper through a local paper supplier. I usually buy a box of 12"x18" and ask them to split half of the box into 9"x12". This allows me to print single page parts easily on 9"x12" but also have the corresponding 12"x18" for printing booklets or two pages on a sheet. Depending on how much single-sheet printing they have to do, you can get away with using a paper cutter yourself to split as needed, but that gets old real fast. The industrial paper cutters chomp right through it. They will also need to make sure that their printer/copier can handle up to 12"x18". If not, 60lb 8.5"x11" and 11"x17" will still be a substantial upgrade, just not larger in print.

The heavier weight paper will make the parts more durable and "stick" to the stand better. If they print booklets, you'll still get the fold in the middle wanting to push the pages up, but they are less likely to do the classic "bottom part of the page starts to walk towards the front of the stand and straight into the pile of spit".

Off-white can also be difficult to find in these specs, which is part of why I use a local supplier. I was able to find all of these paper sizes in 60lb bright white on Staples, but not in off-white.

Non-glossy shouldn't overlooked also, but is fairly common. Nothing worse than stage lights bouncing off sheet music and making it unreadable.

Something else worth mentioning: if they typically are doing standard copier paper as individual double sided pages, they should consider looking into the wonderful world of taping. With the right tape (definitely NOT scotch or masking tape), you can create multi-page booklets without needing a printer that can handle large paper sizes.

Good paper is expensive, but it makes a big difference on the stand. I hope this helped!

[tadawson]

@Colby Fahrenbacher
You DO realize how much more food humans must eat in order to power bicycles (all of that natural gas fracking, in order to create fertilizer, etc.) and - once at the gig - how much more coal, natural gas, or fuel oil must be burned in order to charge and power all of those tablets, yes?...and the child labor involved in harvesting the materials required to manufacture the batteries for all those tablets...

Further, converting trees into paper prevents those trees from dying and rotting and - were they to die and rot - those trees would be expelling untold amounts of carbon into the atmosphere...so paper - unquestionably - is THE environmentally responsible choice.

Besides all of the pitfalls I've listed in tablet use, I just can't imagine myself being that environmentally irresponsible.

OK...You called me out, and I'll admit it: I am a baby. I've never served in the armed forces nor fearlessly defended Europe...but I was a street captain on the safety patrol.

Burn the trees to power the tablets . win/win?

[bloke]

Well, someone has a sense of humor.

[russiantuba]

@Colby Fahrenbacher how do you feel going digital would change orchestral set up? Would the inner string parts operate the page turns? Watching this right now with paper music

As I am sitting tacet in Prokofiev, the larger size of the music seems to make it easier to see. I am not sure adding more stands on an orchestral stage is a good idea.

[tadawson]

The product I am using allows you to tie tablets together, so if the parts are all paginated the same, all can turn together as well. Myself, not having that, I use a pedal - others use a button attached to the horn.

The size of the music on a tab is only loosely related to how much you see . . . . the concept of "pages" is much less rigid . . .

[LibraryMark]

... others use a button attached to the horn.

Do you have a link to said button? I use a pedal but quite often can't find it with my foot.

[tadawson]

I don't directly, but my AirTurn Duo500 pedal can be separated and connected to a switch (anything with a contact closure), and I recall (I think here) someone mentioning using a switch by Flic. (https://flic.io/shop)

[Sousaswag]

This is what I’ve seen used, or something very similar: https://store.powermusicsoftware.com/pr ... etal-base/

Nifty, but I’ve never used one or felt the need for it. I use ForScore on my iPad Pro. It’s nice. Just tap the screen and it turns the page

[Colby Fahrenbacher]

@Colby Fahrenbacher how do you feel going digital would change orchestral set up? Would the inner string parts operate the page turns? Watching this right now with paper music

As I am sitting tacet in Prokofiev, the larger size of the music seems to make it easier to see. I am not sure adding more stands on an orchestral stage is a good idea.

Broadly speaking, I think one thing worth keeping in mind is that going digital allows us to question our basic assumptions about many things involving music, including your question. There are a lot of aspects of music making that we assume have to be that way, but are really only tradition because they made sense at the time.

I think if a string section goes digital, it could be possible to stop sharing stands. Since string parts are so active, having the inside player turn the page allows the outside player to continue playing without stopping, but it also means the stand has to be further from the individual player for both to see. On a tablet, a foot pedal to the turn the page would allow the entire section to keep playing, if the page turns aren't networked as mentioned above.

As for adding more stands, if we are talking about tossing tablets on standard Manhasset stands, I agree with you. However, I think sometime more akin to a mic stand with a tablet mount on it is completely different. Even though there is a higher quantity of stands on stage, the visual obstruction would probably be similar* (if not reduced). It would definitely be reduced in the winds, brass, and percussion.

* I am assuming a tablet displaying only a single page at a time for this comment. Obviously, any dual tablet set-ups will increase the visual obstruction, as will increasing sizes of individual tablets.

Referring to your larger size of music comment, I think tablets also allow us to reconsider how we display music. Traditional sheet music is restricted by the paper size, paper quantity, page turns, and readability. With tablets, paper quantity and page turns are non-issues, so we could instead to opt for displaying less music "per page" and allow it to be zoomed for better readability on a small screen. And since there is no need to accommodate page turns because of foot pedals and buttons, we don't have to organize the music so situate rests at the end of the page. We have a lot of flexibility, and even better, we can have a lot of individual flexibility. Rather than having to ask a librarian to blow up your music to make it easier to read, you can increase the "font" size on your sheet music like some people do with browsers.

[bloke]

Why not just have a midi synthesizer/computer read all the music and play it over some really good speakers?

[russiantuba]

Why not just have a midi synthesizer/computer read all the music and play it over some really good speakers?

Why do you think I do so much tuba and recording repertoire?

True story from a couple years ago—we were doing a brass day at one of my schools, and we were going to play something from the OMEA list. As a pedagogue and to try to recruit, I wanted to do the Broughton, at the marked tempo, to more demonstrate to not just pick one of the hardest solos on the list. Plus, I wanted to do it at tempo this time.

I have the old sharpie looking version, and when I was at Stanton’s during my DMA when I was doing this piece, I saw there was a newer edition typeset and I bought it. I had the scan to the sharpie version. I figured to save the pianist some difficulty and use the newer edition.

Pianist was all digital. I thought the copy I scanned, as it looked on my computer and she said it was blurry. I rescanned the first movement and it looked the same to me. I did it on a lesser scanner too.

I sent the new scan the day after I would have been up to teach so it would be another week before I could drop off the original. I sent that and the sharpie version, said I could drop off the physical in a week, and magically it was good enough (she had suggested a phone app to convert it to scan to PDF and I guess she didn’t want to read the sharpie). Fantastic pianist too.

With that being said, there are so many different programs to read music and each device has different display and backlighting.

Sidebar—I’ve noticed pianists have taken to this very early in terms of accompanying. I get for them it’s less to carry and you don’t have to rely on a subpar page turner (something I never did because I would have been below subpar doing that). It would be nice to know what DPI resolution is considered the minimum (and my scan was done on a large printer, the ones with multiple trays and a heavy duty scanner at the music building, the one that worked was done on my $25 printer at home)

[peterbas]

Why not just have a midi synthesizer/computer read all the music and play it over some really good speakers?

You are centuries behind on the digital plane.
Every music notation software can do that. I've I remember correctly Sibelius has a conductor mode that slightly changes tempo to make it sound more natural.
Throw in the Vienna sound samples and you have a pretty good sounding orchestra.

[MiBrassFS]

The real problem I see with tablet and tablet stand usage will be that people won’t have a much larger regular music stand to hide behind and use their other devices to look at Fik Fok videos during rests. So, that’ll be bad.

[peterbas]

Why would you need other devices, you can all do that on the tablet