Extend your keyboard shortcuts on a Mac by using BetterTouchTool, an app which allows the user to define a trigger, and then associate one or more actions that will be launched when that trigger is detected.
Written By David MacDonald
How to keep your iPad from lighting up your face while performing
Using an iPad as a score reader in performance is great, but its backlight looks weird from the audience. Fortunately, there are tools and settings on your iPad that can help, in apps like forScore and Newzik.
How to transfer your forScore library to a new iPad
In lots of ways, the data you create in forScore after importing scores is more valuable than the scores themselves. So when you upgrade to a new iPad, you’ll want to take every piece of your forScore library with you. It’s not hard to do.
Paperless composition lessons with iPad Pro and Apple Pencil
Composer and educator David MacDonald describes in detail how he teaches composition using the iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, and a suite of apps, and why he can’t imaging returning to the dead-tree way of doing things.
Graphic notation workflow with Sibelius and Adobe Illustrator
In this video tutorial, David MacDonald demonstrates his current workflow for creating graphic elements using the basic drawing tools in Adobe Illustrator and placing them in his scores in Sibelius.
Preparing music scores for screens — the challenges and opportunities
What are the best practices when preparing a score with the expectation that it will be read from a screen, not paper? This is an excellent question — one whose answer today may likely change in the coming years.
Better music experiences come to Zoom with high fidelity audio
A recent release of Zoom brings high fidelity audio to the popular videoconferencing platform. The new mode improves audio quality in ways that make the platform work much better for musicians by disabling Zoom’s aggressive dynamic compression.
Add your own scores to the nkoda library with Escobar Digital
Escobar Digital is an aggregator for the digital sheet music subscription service nkoda, allowing scores from small publishers and self-published composers to appear in the nkoda catalog alongside larger publishers.
StaffPad wows with long-awaited iPad release and new free StaffPad Reader
StaffPad, the music composition app that uses handwriting recognition as the means of music entry, has been released for iPad and completely rebuilt for Windows, with a bevy of new features, improvements, and add-ons compared to the previous version. In addition, there is a new free digital music stand app for performers, called StaffPad Reader, providing a synced performance experience across multiple tablets.
Newzik and Universal Edition launch new distribution partnership UE Now
We take a look at UE Now, a new partnership that allows musicians to purchase high quality scores from Universal Edition, delivered instantly to the Newzik app for performance and study.