12-13-2020, 04:21 AM
Hi all,
First of all: Sorry for my bad English - but my native language is Swiss-German and I'm only using English due to Software Engineering, which is my other passion (besides playing the organ).
I'm using MobielSheetsPro since a few weeks using an Android Tablet (Samsung Tab S7+).
I'm playing the classical organ (with pedal keyboard) and recently also bought a bluetooth pedal to turn pages.
Until now I scanned my score to pdf-files by using the Adobe Scan app, which actually works very well for me.
What I soon learned after going digital with my score was that the small area of a tablet compared to real paper score needs some tricks with page turning:
Since one needs to turn pages much more often than with paper score, it must go very smoothly and should not impede playing. This is actually possible with a foot pedal (even when playnig organ) - but one only can turn pages at positions in the score ,where the feet have not to play difficult parts...
Additionally, I realized with digial score it is possible to turn pages in an overlapping way, i.e the score line, on which the page has been turned, is moving from the bottom or so of the screen to the top. This is actually a big advantage compared to physical paper score, since the jump of visual focus is much smaller, than if you immediately need to see and play a new page, which has been invisible before.
I also soon realized that for my needs, it is better not stick to the pysical pages of a score. For me, the score of any piece of music is just a sequence of score lines and I can advance through the sequence of lines by pressing the pedal at specific positions in the score, so I'm totally independent of the actual physcial pages.
There are two features in MobileSheets, which I can use for this way of playing along the score:
The 'links' and the 'bookmarks'.
First I have been using the link feature, because you can place links anywhere and assign the following "pedal-actions" to your foot pedals: 'Move to previous link' for the left pedal and 'Move to next link' for the right pedal.
But what I sooon learned: Links are really sub-optimal for my needs.
1. You can not exactly predict which part of the score will be at the top of the page when pressnig the pedal, because the link point is not exactly positionned in the upper left corner.
2. There is a limit of 10 link pairs (which is not enough for me).
3. The pair-wise usage of points is very tedious.
4. You can not change the position of an existing link point (which is sometimes necessary especially because of 1.)
I then searched, which other options I would have and found the "bookmark" feature the only other way to do this.
The only disadvantage is that bookmarks can only be set per page and it is not possible to place multiple bookmarks per page.
So I used Adobe Scan to create one page per score line, which unfortunately needs much more time than a normal scan.
This means that I can use the bookmark feature for my needs, but the preparation of the digital score needs much more time, since in "Adobe Scan", you have to define the clipping of each score line.
That said, I would like to have an new feature in MobileSheets, which is currently not existing to my knowledge:
It should be possible to set a new type of Bookmarks (lets just call them Marks), along the sequence of score lines.
Normally the Marks would be set at the upper left corner of any score line, slightly higher than the top most note in the upper staff.
It should be possible to add an unlimited number of those Marks to a score file.
When pressing the right pedal button (or when tapping the right border of the screen) the next mark would be placed at the top left corner of the screen.
When pressing the left pedal button (or when tapping the left border of the screen) the previous mark would be placed at the top left corner of the screen.
I think that such a feature would greatly improve the value of the MobileSheets software, because page turing is the most critical element of digital score usage compared to physical score. And I think that the pain of the frequent need of page turning due to small screen size is one of the main reasons why most people still stick to physical score.
So the planning and organization of page-turning-places in the score (which I mark with blue dots) together with the corresponding set of "Mark" points is crucial to digital score playing for me.
In the attachment you see the first three screens of a piece, which I'm currently practicing (BWV 537) by using the bookmark feature. The black bars are due to gaps between pdf pages (it would be nice to make the gap size configurable). The blue points are marks to know, where I need to press the foot-switch.
I'm sorry for the lenghty text and hope to get some answer at some time in the future
Best Regards,
Ameiossi
First of all: Sorry for my bad English - but my native language is Swiss-German and I'm only using English due to Software Engineering, which is my other passion (besides playing the organ).
I'm using MobielSheetsPro since a few weeks using an Android Tablet (Samsung Tab S7+).
I'm playing the classical organ (with pedal keyboard) and recently also bought a bluetooth pedal to turn pages.
Until now I scanned my score to pdf-files by using the Adobe Scan app, which actually works very well for me.
What I soon learned after going digital with my score was that the small area of a tablet compared to real paper score needs some tricks with page turning:
Since one needs to turn pages much more often than with paper score, it must go very smoothly and should not impede playing. This is actually possible with a foot pedal (even when playnig organ) - but one only can turn pages at positions in the score ,where the feet have not to play difficult parts...
Additionally, I realized with digial score it is possible to turn pages in an overlapping way, i.e the score line, on which the page has been turned, is moving from the bottom or so of the screen to the top. This is actually a big advantage compared to physical paper score, since the jump of visual focus is much smaller, than if you immediately need to see and play a new page, which has been invisible before.
I also soon realized that for my needs, it is better not stick to the pysical pages of a score. For me, the score of any piece of music is just a sequence of score lines and I can advance through the sequence of lines by pressing the pedal at specific positions in the score, so I'm totally independent of the actual physcial pages.
There are two features in MobileSheets, which I can use for this way of playing along the score:
The 'links' and the 'bookmarks'.
First I have been using the link feature, because you can place links anywhere and assign the following "pedal-actions" to your foot pedals: 'Move to previous link' for the left pedal and 'Move to next link' for the right pedal.
But what I sooon learned: Links are really sub-optimal for my needs.
1. You can not exactly predict which part of the score will be at the top of the page when pressnig the pedal, because the link point is not exactly positionned in the upper left corner.
2. There is a limit of 10 link pairs (which is not enough for me).
3. The pair-wise usage of points is very tedious.
4. You can not change the position of an existing link point (which is sometimes necessary especially because of 1.)
I then searched, which other options I would have and found the "bookmark" feature the only other way to do this.
The only disadvantage is that bookmarks can only be set per page and it is not possible to place multiple bookmarks per page.
So I used Adobe Scan to create one page per score line, which unfortunately needs much more time than a normal scan.
This means that I can use the bookmark feature for my needs, but the preparation of the digital score needs much more time, since in "Adobe Scan", you have to define the clipping of each score line.
That said, I would like to have an new feature in MobileSheets, which is currently not existing to my knowledge:
It should be possible to set a new type of Bookmarks (lets just call them Marks), along the sequence of score lines.
Normally the Marks would be set at the upper left corner of any score line, slightly higher than the top most note in the upper staff.
It should be possible to add an unlimited number of those Marks to a score file.
When pressing the right pedal button (or when tapping the right border of the screen) the next mark would be placed at the top left corner of the screen.
When pressing the left pedal button (or when tapping the left border of the screen) the previous mark would be placed at the top left corner of the screen.
I think that such a feature would greatly improve the value of the MobileSheets software, because page turing is the most critical element of digital score usage compared to physical score. And I think that the pain of the frequent need of page turning due to small screen size is one of the main reasons why most people still stick to physical score.
So the planning and organization of page-turning-places in the score (which I mark with blue dots) together with the corresponding set of "Mark" points is crucial to digital score playing for me.
In the attachment you see the first three screens of a piece, which I'm currently practicing (BWV 537) by using the bookmark feature. The black bars are due to gaps between pdf pages (it would be nice to make the gap size configurable). The blue points are marks to know, where I need to press the foot-switch.
I'm sorry for the lenghty text and hope to get some answer at some time in the future
Best Regards,
Ameiossi