IPAD

How I Use an iPad for Sheet Music

The reason for this post

I’ve been doing some browsing around at what other musicians are using for their digital music setups. Most of the articles I’m finding are from early 2022 at the most recent, so I thought I’d drop what I’ve got going on here.

2023 iPad Digital Sheet Music Setup

The device: iPad Air (2020)

I think the iPad Air is about as close to a perfect device as you can get. It’s an overall great size for browsing and note-taking. And honestly, it’s been a great size for living in my backpack and reading scores from. It is on the small size at 10.9” for a diagonal, which really hasn’t been a problem for me except for certain chamber scores. But even still, if you have a high quality scan it’s legible. The Air is also a great price (I got mine used for $400 which is great for what it is compared to the iPad Pro models).

The music: IMSLP

Most of my music comes from IMSLP. What isn’t there, I find at my school’s library and…er…scan. Free-Scores, MusicNotes, J.W. Pepper, and others offer online editions as well, though I haven’t used any. Between IMSLP and my school, I haven’t had to look hard for music.

The apps

forScore

I was skeptical… This app gets so much hype in the music world. It’s ubiquitous with digital, iPad sheet music. Plus it’s a paid app. I tried the free version of Piascore for a few months, and it was ok. I got by with it, but for my birthday a friend gave me an Apple gift card. Along with some other apps, I purchased forScore. And now I’m a believer. I recently followed the London Musical Theatre Orchestra’s guide for using an iPad for sheet music, and I’m now an even bigger fan. You can enable iCloud sync, so you always have a backup. IMSLP also has an app, but I haven’t used it in a long time and honestly am content with forScore. I crop my music pretty close—I keep almost no margin on my music.

Andante

This is a practice-tracking app that is really well designed and makes logging practice hours (and minutes) SUPER convenient. It’s gaining popularity in the music world—and for good reason. If you tap the three dots at the very top of the iPad display and tap Slide Over (see in action here or see a screenshot here), you can swipe from the side of the screen to show Andante above forScore. This way you can easily log your practice session without actually leaving forScore. I bought the pro version because it’s just awesome and am ok with paying $5 for a non-subscription app.

GoodNotes

GoodNotes is one of the first iPad apps I purchased. It works like notebooks and pieces of paper—you can throw anything in it. Some people bullet journal with it. I took notes with it for a long time (though now I keep it mainly for class notes). It has an option for staff paper, so it’s awesome for composition and sketching ideas down.

SongBook

This is another app that I got with that gift card. It’s great for working with ChordPro files and Chord Charts! Essential for me as a church musician.

The accessories

Apple Pencil

If you want to take notes or mark your digital scores, you’ve got to get an Apple Pencil. Apple stuff is not cheap. There are some third-party alternatives I’ve seen on Amazon that are as cheap as $20, but I can’t verify quality or if they even work. I bought a second generation Pencil secondhand on eBay to save some cash. I also just this week got some third-party tips for it that are more like a fine-point pen. I’m a fan as it makes the Pencil more like the pens that I like to write with, and it makes annotations more precise since the tip is finer than the OEM tip. Check out LMTO’s article for some good forScore settings changes when you’re using the Pencil!

Bluetooth page turner

Part of the fun of digital music is it eliminates a job that I just don’t like: the page turner. I’m sorry, page turners of the world, but having turned pages (and botched it) I have little faith that there will not be some kind of crisis in a performance. My parents got me a Donner page turning bluetooth pedal, but there are many that I’ve heard good things about. One that’s popular is the FireFly. It takes a few weeks to get used to but now…if I practice without it…I find myself mashing my left foot trying to turn pages… That’s muscle memory for you.

Screen protector

I don’t like scratched screens, so I recommend a screen protector. I discovered the Paperlike screen protectors and got one on sale (one I’ll try at some point is ESR’s since it’s half the price of Paperlike). It gives the screen a matte finish (I love) that looks and feels more like paper, both by touch and when writing with the Apple Pencil.

Case

I tried two different cases, both from ESR. The first is a portfolio-style case that can double as a stand. I liked it. However, I switched to the ESR clear case for a few reasons. One is that I like how it looks better than my navy (though I do love navy) portfolio case. Because I have a screen protector, I’m not worried about covering the screen. It’s silly, but I got tired of having to open and close it on every use. I like being able to pull it out of my bag and immediately start playing.

iPad Settings I Changed

If the iPad becomes my main “computer” (not just a music reader/browsing and reading device), these settings may not work for me any more. But for the sake of battery life, I changed a lot of the settings to match Low Power Mode.

  • Turn off Auto-Brightness. I don’t want my brightness levels changing mid-practice or -performance. Just be aware!
  • Change Auto-Lock to 10 min or so.
  • Turn off iCloud Photos. Unless you just have to be able to access your photos on your iPad, it syncs in the background and sucks up battery. You can still access your iCloud Photos at icloud.com in Safari. The iCloud website is becoming my preferred way of accessing iCloud nowadays since Apple revamped it.
  • Turn off automatic app downloads.
  • Turn off email fetch. Again, I like accessing email from Safari and not the Mail app. But I’m a little weird.
  • Turn off Background App Refresh. I don’t know why this is even a thing. I’ve had it turned off on my devices for years and have never found a reason to have it on.

Focus Mode

This is a built-in function in iOS/iPadOS. Open Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb > and under “Set a Schedule” tap Add Schedule (see in action here). Tap App and then select forScore. This puts your iPad in Do Not Disturb mode whenever you’re using forScore. You may not want to do this, but for me it cuts distractions (texts/emails/random notifications) and eliminates embarrassing noises during performances if my Reminders app decides to alert me to check the oil in my car or something.

Final Thoughts

Charge your iPad every night if you like to be safe. I’ve found that I can usually go 5-7 days on a single charge when I’m not connected to WiFi and use it for practice two hours per day.

And finally, to quote LMTO, there are three things you need to remember:

  1. Always bring a charger!
  2. Always bring a charger!
  3. Always bring a charger!

I have an Anker 100W charger. It’s way over-juiced, but it will give me 25% battery back in 10 minutes, if I remember correctly. Keep a charger and two USB-C cables on you at all times.

If I think of anything else, I’ll update this. Overall, I’m a fan of the iPad Air as a sheet music reader. I still print out music to give me the option to practice without a screen and to have a backup of my music should the Apocalypse come. At some point I want to upgrade to a 12.9” iPad, but it’s hard to justify the price right now.

Let me know if you have any suggestions or questions! 🫡🎹