Turning the pages of your sheet music while you're in the middle of performing a song is a bigger issue than you might think. The rustling of paper is not only possibly distracting for any fellow musicians, you also need time to seize the page-turning moment while you're actually playing notes. Fortunately, there's a hands-free solution: the page turner.
The Problem of Paper
So the rustling noise is one thing, but imagine someone clumsily knocking their sheet music or music book off their music stand mid-song, or someone accidentally turning an extra page. These things can be massively stressful during live performances. Also, while turning a page usually doesn't take long, it can easily take long enough for you to miss one or two notes.
The Solution: A Page Turner
A page turner is basically a foot pedal that can be pressed to flip through digital pages of sheet music hands-free. The advantages are a-plenty: there's no noise (except in the case of a model equipped with metal controls); you don't have to remove your hands from your instrument; and your parts can never fall off your music rest. To set up a page turner, you'll need a tablet, a tablet stand and digital sheet music in the form of PDF files.
Tablets for Sheet Music
If you've yet to buy a tablet and a page-turner, then it's important to make sure they're compatible since some page-turners will only work with Android tablets while other models are compatible with iOS tablets only. It's also never a bad idea to pick up a slightly bigger tablet so that the notes are easier to read. Most sheet music comes in A4 form, while the display of the average tablet is closer to A5.
Wireless Page Turners
Wireless Bluetooth page turners have pretty much become the norm, and using one is as simply as pairing it with your tablet. Most page turners are equipped with two pedals so you can flip back and forward through parts, but you'll also find more extensive page turners out there loaded with options that most end-users never use.
Battery Life
Almost all page turners are battery-powered. Since they're relatively straightforward devices, they don't consume a lot of power and will be able to run for a long time on a fresh set of batteries.
