Forscore Page Turns: All the Ways You Can Turn Pages in the App
I love using the app Forscore to read sheet music on my iPad, and they’ve added a variety of ways you can turn pages within their app! Today we’re going over all types of Forscore page turns and how they work.
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Table of Contents
Tapping
The most basic way to turn pages in Forscore is to just tap with your finger. In the standard mode, tapping your finger on the right side of the page will take you one page forward, and tapping on the left side will take you one page back.
You can also enable half page turns using any of the page turning methods I’m discussing today. A half page turn will bring the bottom half of the page to the top, and the top half of the next page becomes the bottom. Tapping again will bring the top of that new page to the top half of the screen, then the bottom half of that page comes to the bottom of your screen. Essentially, each page of sheet music is divided in half, and you turn just half the page at a time.
Bluetooth Pedal (and other Bluetooth devices)
My favorite way of turning pages in Forscore is to use a
I have two Bluetooth pedals: One by Donner, and one by Vangoa. They’re both great options, and you can find my thoughts on them here. I personally use my
Anyway, to use a Bluetooth page turner, simply connect it to your iPad, choose the page turning mode you prefer on the pedal, and then tap the right pedal to turn the page forward, and the left pedal to turn the page back!
I find that the page turner turns exactly when I press down, with no noticeable lag. It’s easy for me to press the pedal with my foot without losing my focus or feeling unbalanced while playing.
If a pedal doesn’t seem like the best physical option for you, there are also Bluetooth remotes and buttons you could try to use for Forscore page turns. I haven’t tried these myself, but I have heard good things!
Forscore Page Turns with AirPods Pro
Another way to turn pages in Forscore is by using your AirPods! This feature only works with AirPods Pro, and will not work with standard AirPods.
To turn pages with your AirPods, go to Settings > Devices > AirPods. If this is your first time trying this, the app will prompt you to give Forscore access to your Motion & Fitness data, so that the spatial awareness component of your AirPods can trigger the Forscore page turns.
From there, you can change the sensitivity – all the way up will be very sensitive, and all the way down will be the least sensitive. You can also enable or disable backwards page turns (turning the page back), and invert the directions.
Now, how this actually works: with your AirPods in, you’ll turn your head to the right to turn the page forward, and turn your head left to turn the page back, unless you have the settings inverted, in which case you’ll go the opposite direction.
If you have the sensitivity very high, you’ll have to turn your head further, close to your shoulder; and if you have the sensitivity low, you’ll only have to barely turn your head for the page turn to register.
When I tried this out it worked okay, but not quite reliably enough for me to want to use it. Most of the time I could turn the page how I wanted, but you do need to be fast on the rebound (getting your head back to center), or it’ll sometimes register that movement as another page turn.
Trying this with my viola was also more difficult: turning my head changes a lot about how I hold my viola and bow, and where the bow’s contact point is on the string. If I jerk my head to one side quickly, that motion is going to come through in the sound as well, by accidentally jerking my bow across the string.
I also found it hard to find the right sensitivity balance: not so little that my head turning is disruptive to my playing; but not so sensitive that little movements I make while playing trigger a page turn.
I also want to talk about how it looks performing with AirPods in. I know this is something that can change, but I’ve never seen someone perform with AirPods in their ears. When I see someone walking around with AirPods in, I generally assume they’re listening to something. Sometimes when I go into schools to teach sectionals, I’ll work with students who are wearing AirPods, and they say that they’re not listening to anything, but I still feel a disconnect in communicating with them. How will it look to see a classical musician performing while wearing AirPods? Again, I know things can change and we can easily get used to it, just like we’re used to seeing many musicians perform using ear protection; but it still seems unprofessional to me right now.
One other thing to consider is the fact that my AirPods block out a lot of sound, even when I have all the noise cancelling features turned off. It’s almost like wearing ear protection! For this reason, I only teach online students using my regular AirPods, because they don’t block any noise at all. When I’ve taught using my AirPods Pro, I found it hard to hear my instrument, and talking felt weird as well: it was very similar to wearing ear plugs.
If I were to perform with others, with my AirPods in, it would feel similar to wearing ear protection, and I’d have to take that into consideration in terms of blending. Overall, the AirPods page turning just doesn’t feel right for me right now.
Face Gestures (Forscore Pro Only)
If you subscribe to Forscore Pro and use an iPad with the right capabilities, you’ll have access to a few face gestures that will trigger page turns in Forscore!
To find these Face Gestures, go to Settings > Forscore Pro > Face Gestures. Once you choose which one you’d like to try, go to the small settings wheel to the left of the name of the score you’re in, in the top bar, and press on the smiley face icon. This will actually enable the Face Gestures. (Yes, I spent a good five minutes trying to figure out why the face gestures weren’t working! I had to actually enable them!!)
Mouth Movement
The first face gesture you can use for page turns in Forscore is Mouth Movement. With this, you can move your mouth to the right to turn the page forward, or move your mouth to the left to turn back.
You’ll have to calibrate this feature by keeping your mouth still, then moving it to the right and holding, then moving it to the left and holding. This’ll give Forscore a good idea of where “neutral” is, to then register the intended page turns.
Of all the face gestures, this one worked the best for me! I felt a little silly doing it, and it was pretty noticeable, since I don’t generally move my mouth much when I play. But it did work, which was a win!
This feature also has a sensitivity slider for each direction, and you can invert the movements if you’d like.
While I liked this face gesture the most, I have a feeling this won’t work for wind and brass players, since your mouths are otherwise preoccupied!
Head Turn
This face gesture is super similar to using your AirPods for Forscore page turns, just without the AirPods.
I found this version to be a lot less reliable than using AirPods, so I won’t be using this myself. I found that if I tried to turn the page multiple times in a row, it would take the first turn, and ignore the rest of my head turns.
Wink
The last face gesture available as part of Forscore Pro is winking. I have a confession to make… I’m terrible at winking! I can’t wink without blinking both my eyes at the same time, which totally defeats the purpose.
When I tried this in my video, I couldn’t get it to work at all. After I finished recording, I had my fiancé try (he can wink), but he couldn’t get it to work either. Then I was able to wink my left eye to turn backwards.
So in my experimentation, this feature is the most unreliable of them all, and I personally will never use it again, unless I’m ever curious and want to see if I can get it to work!
If you’ve happened to try this gesture and gotten it to work, please let me know!
There’s your overview on all the different ways you can turn pages in Forscore! Which way is your favorite? What options have you tried?
After experimenting today, I’m definitely sticking to my Bluetooth pedals! The reliability cannot be understated, especially in performance and audition situations!
Want to know what other gear I use and love? Read more here!
