From time to time, I’ve mentioned that I’m a “paper” person, meaning that I read sheet music from paper rather than from a tablet. When I took the St. Mark’s organist job, I was asked which format I preferred, and I answered, “Definitely paper.” I know I’m in the minority, here, as it seems to me more and more musicians purchase iPads to perform from and store their music. I have observed a majority of both choristers and instrumentalists using iPads to read music.

Here’s how I’m reading Marcel Dupré’s “Cortège et Litanie” which I’m playing for the prelude for All Saints. I reduced the original edition to 80% and pasted it into an artist’s sketchbook. By doing it this way, I only have one page turn instead of four, and I’ve positioned it in a place where I have a free hand to turn the page. (In case you’re wondering, the photocopies are dark grey because I’ve had this music since my teacher assigned it to me on January 23, 1965 and the pages have darkened with age!)

In fact, I have put my entire concert of December 16 in one sketchbook, a method which organist Caroline Robinson calls “Arts and Crafts!” because there is so much cutting and pasting!

My last post described my horrendous week, with seven services plus a rehearsal, but we were granted a slight reprieve when last night, the weekday All Saints Day and All Souls Day masses were cancelled due to clergy illness. Still, look at all the music I had been practicing just for this week!

You can see that there are two three-ring binders there. The top one contains only the choral music at St. Mark’s through December, half of which were scheduled to be rehearsed this week; the bottom one, on top of of one of the sketchbooks, contains photocopies of all the hymns, propers, organ voluntaries, and choral pieces for just THIS WEEK! It’s what I call my “fake book,” which contains all the music in order.

Help, I’m drowning in paper!

It’s made me seriously reconsider one of my favorite commercials:

Yesterday, I watched this video by Titus Grenyer called, “iPad + Organists: The ULTIMATE Guide + an AMAZING New Way to Turn Pages!”

Guess what I’m shopping for now?!