So many people say memorize it, and one the things I always want to say is, “What about in choir practice when I walk in and the conductor hands me a new, last minute piece of music and expects me to sight-read it? Am I supposed to have telepathically memorized it before I have even had a chance to see it?” Even if you have a policy to always memorize your pieces, turning pages is a skill every pianist needs to have in their toolbox.
Dude!!! You actually answer questions that most beginner pianists have! Thank you for getting down to the nitty-gritty of how to play the piano and all the really complex aspects of it!!
Page turning is a skill within itself, for sure. Very good engravers will place page turns at an appropriate spot if possible (Henle even "advertises" this). But definitely practice your page turns like you practice your music. There are so many tricks you can do, too. One of the dangers of copying pages is that the pages might fit on the rack of one piano but not another when you show up to play! I've been on the other side of things, too. I used to be a hired page turner, believe it or not. I do not do it anymore, but that was one of the most stressful jobs I have ever had. Sometimes you get to sit down with the performer and go over the music ahead of time, but not that often. You usually don't get the privilege of seeing the score ahead of time, so you need to notice all repeats as you go, and often you have to ask the performer if there are repeats and if they are followed literally seconds before walking out on stage with them. I used to turn pages for very modern music, too, so you don't even know the music. A lot of performers actually "fake it" when the music is tough, so you can't follow them as much either. You often have to read the score as though you are playing it yourself. Sometimes it's easy, though, the music is well-known, and the performer is playing it as written, so you just pick their left hand and turn when necessary. But, some performers like you to turn at the measure, some prefer several measures ahead, and most will only bob their head for one or two pages and stop later on in the piece, so even that isn't reliable. I could go on and on... Personally, I never used a page turner. I just set up the score to turn pages myself, memorized bits and pieces, etc. I could teach a two-credit course on these things!
Folding corners work best. Also memorising a few bars ahead or before. Sustain in - grab. Only works on piano though. With my compositions I try to edit the layout to make page turning easier. I wish other composers and arrangers would do the same
I found memory to be tricky thing. After many years of playing piano I found that the cause of stage freight in my case is thought of not remembering some part of the piece.
Thank you for this video, I was just wondering about this question in the last days, and now I know that there is substantially no solution, other than the ones I could imagine.
You didn't mention the biggest enemy of the page-turning pianist: The dreaded D.S. AL CODA!! :-) I do wonder -- Do you folks with the electronic page-turning gizmos have those programmed so that it automatically jumps to the Coda, etc? Eventually I may need to investigate...
So many people say memorize it, and one the things I always want to say is, “What about in choir practice when I walk in and the conductor hands me a new, last minute piece of music and expects me to sight-read it? Am I supposed to have telepathically memorized it before I have even had a chance to see it?”
Even if you have a policy to always memorize your pieces, turning pages is a skill every pianist needs to have in their toolbox.
Dude!!! You actually answer questions that most beginner pianists have! Thank you for getting down to the nitty-gritty of how to play the piano and all the really complex aspects of it!!
Page turning is a skill within itself, for sure. Very good engravers will place page turns at an appropriate spot if possible (Henle even "advertises" this). But definitely practice your page turns like you practice your music. There are so many tricks you can do, too. One of the dangers of copying pages is that the pages might fit on the rack of one piano but not another when you show up to play!
I've been on the other side of things, too. I used to be a hired page turner, believe it or not. I do not do it anymore, but that was one of the most stressful jobs I have ever had. Sometimes you get to sit down with the performer and go over the music ahead of time, but not that often. You usually don't get the privilege of seeing the score ahead of time, so you need to notice all repeats as you go, and often you have to ask the performer if there are repeats and if they are followed literally seconds before walking out on stage with them. I used to turn pages for very modern music, too, so you don't even know the music. A lot of performers actually "fake it" when the music is tough, so you can't follow them as much either. You often have to read the score as though you are playing it yourself. Sometimes it's easy, though, the music is well-known, and the performer is playing it as written, so you just pick their left hand and turn when necessary. But, some performers like you to turn at the measure, some prefer several measures ahead, and most will only bob their head for one or two pages and stop later on in the piece, so even that isn't reliable. I could go on and on...
Personally, I never used a page turner. I just set up the score to turn pages myself, memorized bits and pieces, etc. I could teach a two-credit course on these things!
Folding corners work best. Also memorising a few bars ahead or before. Sustain in - grab. Only works on piano though. With my compositions I try to edit the layout to make page turning easier. I wish other composers and arrangers would do the same
I found memory to be tricky thing. After many years of playing piano I found that the cause of stage freight in my case is thought of not remembering some part of the piece.
how to turn pages while playing
recite it. there's nothing you can do
Thank you for this video, I was just wondering about this question in the last days, and now I know that there is substantially no solution, other than the ones I could imagine.
You didn't mention the biggest enemy of the page-turning pianist: The dreaded D.S. AL CODA!! :-)
I do wonder -- Do you folks with the electronic page-turning gizmos have those programmed so that it automatically jumps to the Coda, etc?
Eventually I may need to investigate...
I always tell my students, “turning pages is an art.”
Is the piano song in the intro recorded individually for each new video? Cause it sounds different every time
it is
as far as tablets, you want one with e-ink display, not LCD; for example onyx boox max 2.
Would have been nice to have pages for this lesson.
Yes, sometimes you don't have the time or luxury to memorize all your music. One has to get creative at times!
Thank you Robert...thank you.
I can’t copy it because it says no copyright 😢
Finally found the video that not a turning page song tutorial
Air-turn works great.
I cut up post it notes and make tabs to grab to assist turning in ensemble work especially.
Asked my piano teacher, got schooled. “Memorize your music. Unless you are not competent enough, you need to memorize it.”
And what about piano competitions? Is that something that contributes to the pianist evaluation, or they are justified at turning pages?
im have that struggle almost 2 year. still can't correct the my hand position
Ok, so play the page until you memorize it so you can get rid of it
I cant read notes so Im lucky lol