For a long time, instrumentalists and singers had to carry around binders full of sheet music and flip pages back and forth, or in the case of pianists, get someone else to turn pages for them (sometimes with mixed results). Now sheet music can be downloaded onto an iPad or Android tablet in pdf format and put into a sheet music app and read that way. You can also take pictures of the sheet music and save the file as a pdf in the sheet music app. To prevent page turning disasters, page can be duplicated in the sheet music app and moved to the correct place so that the musician doesn’t have to flip back several pages to repeat a whole section of music. Pages can be turned by swiping the tablet or iPad with your finger, or turned hands free by using a Bluetooth page turning foot pedal. Notes or comments can be written on the music in the app, or problem spots in the music can be circled.

More and more musicians and singers are going paper free and using iPads and tablets because it is way more convenient than carrying around a textbook-sized binder every time you go to rehearsal or perform in front of an audience. The tablet or iPad is very light to carry around, doesn’t take up a lot of space in a backpack or bag, and only needs to be checked to ensure that the battery is charged. In a rehearsal space or concert space, the lighting may not be very good. The iPad or tablet can be adjusted to make the sheet music brighter or dimmer on the screen. With paper, if the music is hard to see, you can’t do anything to make it more visible (except stand or sit under brighter lights). The foot pedal simply has to have its batteries checked and replaced once in a while.