Let’s Talk Page Turns
Page turns. Everybody’s favorite thing. The first law of typesetting seems to be,
Thou shalt ALWAYS put page turns in the WORST POSSIBLE PLACES.
Yep. Been there.
The struggle with page turns is real. If you’re like me, you’ve tried long, taped-together copies that you throw to the floor when you need the next layer. Or made someone stand beside you looking awkward until you nodded frantically at them. Or balanced copies on the music rack until the cooling system came on and blew them all over the chapel.
So here’s a solution a friend showed me years ago. It’s admittedly a love-it-or-hate-it method that some people find too confusing and others can’t live without. I love it.
1) Use two three-ring binders. Add several plastic sheet protectors to both. (You’ll want the ones that allow you to slide the pages in and out, and be sure you use the non-glare kind.)
2) You’ll need a single-sided copy of your music, or two or three copies that you can take apart.
3) Lay the open binders side by side. Fill the sheet protectors with pages in this order:
Left binder:
- Page 1 on the left
- Page 2 on the right
Right binder:
- Page 3 on the left
- Page 4 on the right
If your song is only four pages long, you’re set, and your life is beautiful. No page turns, no tape, no head bobbing, and nothing to fear from the HVAC system.
Since there *are* a few songs out there with more than four pages, here’s the next step:
Turn pages 2 and 4, so you are seeing the blank backside of page 2, an empty sheet protector, the blank backside of page 4, and another empty sheet protector.
Then load pages 5-8.
Repeat the process for pages 9 and beyond, beginning with the next empty slots.
When you play, start with pages 1-4 showing like this:
After playing through pages 1 & 2, find a convenient place during pages 3 &4 to turn page 2 so that pages 5 & 6 are available. Your music rack will then look like this:
After playing through pages 3 & 4, pages 5 & 6 are ready to go. While playing through 5 & 6, find a convenient place to turn page 4, making pages 7 & 8 available.
Und so weiter.
Now that I have the hang of this system, I couldn’t live without it. It gives you two entire pages to find time for each page turn. I find it best to mark page turns on the music — usually with a big, red, “TURN PAGE” … because yeah, I get caught up in the moment and float away in the music and… it’s an excuse to use colored ink and I’m a sucker for office products.
So there you have it. Love it or hate it. It’s one of those HOoOooRaY! or NO WAY things… kinda like PC and Mac arguments. 🙂
Happy Tuesday!
Handy info…
Since you asked: How to Find Translations on This SiteFinding translations here is super easy. This is what you do: […]
Resizing Scores Using the Personal Composer DemoStep by step instructions on resizing scores or text using the Personal Composer demo. […]- Transposing Using Personal ComposerHow to transpose .pc scores using the Personal Composer Demo. Step by step instructions. […]
Thanks a million! Love this!
WHERE HAS THIS IDEA BEEN MY WHOLE LIFE?!!! This is absolute genius! Why do all church pianos only allow for 4 pages at a time? It’s so inconvenient. So many times I’ve thrown strands of pages taped together to the floor (this tricked I learned from watching you as we played “My Heavenly Father Loves Me” all those years ago). And don’t get me going on the whole HVAC blowing pages all over the place. My older boys have now been dubbed my official page-turners, much to the dismay of son #2 who is so painfully shy that he all but dies when it’s his turn. LOL!
Oh I do love to see comments from old friends. <3 I also like your reaction to it. It's exactly what mine was decades ago when someone showed it to me. Too bad it was after our duet days!
I tried a solution to where I have the score single-sided on one side of the stand and I would move a page over whenever I was on it. This makes it so I have two pages time to flip the other over! And they use sheet protectors to make flipping easier! Thanks so much for the tip!!
LIKE!! 😀
iPad Pro with the airturn foot pedal for page turns. Life changing!
Ah yes, the high-tech solution! Costs a bit more, but hey… 😉
HaHa — just as you’ve said — I’m guilty of taping 4 pages together, and when I get to the end I throw this layer on the floor. The next 4 pages are taped together, then these are taped to the piano music stand so that I don’t accidentally throw 2 layers onto the floor. (I’ve never needed more than 8 pages.) I love this 2 binder idea and am converted.
A similar approach is to use an 11×17″ binder. They can be ordered from office supply store web sites along with sheet protectors that fit them.
Thank you for a great solution! And for all the beautiful music!
I’ve used binders before but your double bind system is much more consistent than all the now unnecessary scotch taping I was doing to avoid page turns.
Thank you for a timely Christmas gift!
Great idea! I love binders but hadn’t thought about this.
Horror story: When I was in college I was everyone’s go-to accompanist because I could sight read just about anything. During one major international competition a soprano came running up to me, grabbed me, and shouted in my face, “ARE YOU SUSAN???!!!???” I told her I was and she explained that her accompanist hadn’t showed up and could I please accompany her Mozart aria which was happening next. Actually, she told me I had to play for her 😀 I had never played this particular piece and wasn’t particularly familiar with it, but it was an emergency and the only other available accompanist flatly refused to get involved.
As I was playing along the page turner turned a page too enthusiastically and the whole book fell onto the keys and then the floor. Because I’m a pianist I vamped away in a rather un-Mozart-like manner until the turner picked up the book and located the page. I thought I might have a heart attack.
Um yeah… improv a la Mozart while accompanying would be a little intimidating even without music falling around your feet. Hmmm… maybe we need a new post where we can share “horror stories.” 🙂
This is the best thing ever! One of the things that is hard about the piano is that the pianist looks best when he/she is all by themselves on the piano without a page turner. I have always struggled turning pages and tried to use my own methods, but this beats all of mine just like that! Thanks so much!!!
Thank you, Sally! I’ve been a binder user for years, but have never thought of using two. That would’ve been really helpful with the Hallelujah Chorus! 🙂 And the non- glare reminder is a good one- the shiny ones seem to show up everywhere! Thanks for your ideas, and for all your beautiful music!!
I don’t play, but I’ve watched pianists and organists enough to see this as a problem. Genius!
Excellent info! TY and Blessings to you
This is genius! I’ve used a binder for years to prevent the music on the floor scenario which has happened to me, but you still have to deal with the page turns. This gets the page turns to a minimum and the music is firmly in place on the piano. Thanks so much!
Amen– going to start using this too!
What a cleaver idea. I am going to try this right away. Thank you for sharing. I have fought this problem for 65 years now. Yahoo!!!!!