I realize I haven’t written here about my iPad, and several people asked me about it after Monday’s Ecstatic Music Marathon so I thought I would explain. First of all, I did not wake up one morning and think “You know what would be super CUTTING EDGE? Reading music off an iPad”. Rather it evolved during the process of writing It takes a long time to become a good composer.

I write directly into the computer, and while I have a nice 88-key controller and good sampler courtesy of Logic, things feel and sound completely differ­ent on my real piano, which is about 15 feet away. So instead of wasting reams of paper printing out drafts just to walk them over to the piano, I began moving PDF files over to my iPad. I got to like this way of working so much that I never actually printed the piece at all, even once it was finished (which, granted, was about two days before the première). Page-turns that would have been an issue with a paper score are easy when all you have to do is flick a screen; there’s no pinch-seperate-lift-turn and perhaps best of all, the oper­a­tion is totally silent. I have nothing against page turners (the unfor­tu­nate souls who are compelled, usually at the last minute, to perch beside the pianist and arise stealth­ily at just the right moment), but it feels better and looks more stream­lined to rely on oneself. Plus you don’t owe anyone any favors afterward.