Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Review of the AirTurn Page Turner in Clavier Companion

Hope you don't mind me sharing this, but Dr. Mario Ajero has just posted a terrific video review of the AirTurn AT-104 Hands-Free Wireless Page Turner as a compliment to his written version in the Sept./Oct. issue of Clavier Companion:

AirTurn Review on The Piano Podcast

You can read the written article in the online version of Clavier Companion:

http://www.claviercompanion.com/sept-oct-09/technology

For more information on the AirTurn and other music reading technologies for musicians, please visit www.AirTurn.com

That's really nice, Hugh! Hope it helps to spread the word about your neat gadget.

Oh, I thought with a name like "Airturn" it would blow the music to the next page LOL! Sorry.

Looks pretty nifty if you don't have a need to make written notes on the score, though I guess you could do this if you had the full Adobe Acrobat you were viewing with, and type something into the score. Even color code things! Is that what you do?

Morodiene,

If you look at the AirTurn site, they have software to handle making notes as well.

Rich

Hi Morodiene - the name of the program that can allow you to draw digital ink notes right on the music like pen to paper is called MusicReader. You can see me working with MusicReader all throughout the "Clair de lune from Scratch" YouTube lesson series, which you can view here:

"Clair de lune from Scratch" Piano Lessons on YouTube

It's great to be able to draw ink and highlights in multiple colors with MusicReader - you can even add notation "stamps" and type colored text for easier reading!

MusicReader also features some terrific page view and turning options, including a great half-page view that can automatically recognize the spaces between staves - i'm going to demonstrate that in an upcoming lesson video.

You can download a free demo version of MusicReader for Mac or PC at http://airturn.com/musicreader/musicreader - please let me know if you have any other questions about this program.

Hope this helps!

Hugh,

Thanks for the information! I did see the Clair de Lune clip before, but wasn't aware of the note-making ability. I think I'd prefer my little barely-legible scribbles as opposed to typed. For some reason I remember it better when I actually *write* it as opposed to typing. Don't know why. Anyways, I know those tablet/pen thingies for the computer aren't that expensive.

So I assume you scan in music and does that automatically get saved in the MusicReader file format, or do you first save as a .pdf then transfer to MusicReader format?

Another question I have is after prolonged use, how is it on your eyes compared to paper (assuming good lighting)? Thanks for answering my questions...hope this isn't taking over your topic

Great questions, Morodiene! 99% of the time i use my own digital handwriting - i too prefer to work with my own handwriting as opposed to stamping or typing. It's just so much nicer to be able to use bright colors that really pop out, without fear of damaging the music since all annotations are completely erasable within MusicReader!

We also sell Wacom Bamboo graphic tablets, which enable you to add digital pen capabilities to any Mac or PC computer (i use the Wacom Bamboo extensively in my lesson videos to draw ink markings). You can find our Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet listing here:

Accessories for AirTurn, including Wacom Bamboo graphics tablets

MusicReader can import any image or PDF file - basically, if you can print it, you can convert it into MusicReader.

I have perfect vision and don't use glasses or contacts, even after years and years of being a total geek and gluing myself in front of computer screens for 8-12 hours a day. The great thing about using computers as music readers is that you never have a lighting problem on stage - while my colleagues might struggle under dim lights, i can always see my music perfectly backlit

Let me know if you have any other questions. You can also check out our growing library of video tutorials on MusicReader, which you might find helpful:

MusicReader tutorials

Hope this helps! Feel free to post more questions!