Tips & Insights from the Music Room Video Lesson: Bluetooth Pedals for Digital Sheet Music

Hello and welcome back.

Today we're going to talk about Bluetooth pedals for digital sheet music.

Well, this is a very important topic mostly for musicians that actually perform, and so I'm going to give you some tips on what kind of pedal is best nowadays for you musicians that actually perform.

Even for practice it's cool, but for performance I think the new tablets and the new digital sheet music software at our disposal is much better than the old sheet music, paper sheet music I mean. So let's just dive right in.

Alright, so Bluetooth pedals can be easily connected to your mobile device and help you with pitch turning during performance, or during practice.

Most digital sheet music applications are compatible with such devices to turn pages hands -free.

AirTurn was the first company back in 2008 to create a hands -free page turner.

After that many others followed, but AirTurn still leads the industry with these products, and I'll tell you why in a moment.

There are basically two different kinds of pedal devices.

The ones that just emulate keyboard keystrokes, such as key arrows to turn pages, and the ones that besides that also offer a Bluetooth direct connection to the application you want to use, so to allow a more focused controller and an easier setup.

Most of the devices out there belong to the first category. They simply connect to the device via Bluetooth like a Bluetooth keyboard and then provide some kind of basic configuration to emulate keyboard keystrokes.

The upside is that those devices are usually cheaper, while the downside is that you risk having conflicts between opened applications, or being unable to type into a text field while the pedal is connected.

AirTurn instead is the only company offering pedal devices with AirDirect as a plus, which is the Bluetooth direct connection system I was talking about.

The upside of such devices is that they connect directly to the app you want to use to avoid conflicts with other applications or any other action you want to perform via keystrokes. The downside is that AirTurn devices are usually more expensive because they offer both connection systems.

To be fair, the first way of connecting by emulating a keyboard offers the additional advantage of being configured to emulate different keystrokes, so that you can program it to open an application for example, or to perform different actions according to the keystroke you want to emulate.

This device for example, an AirTurn Pad Pro, can be connected via keyboard emulation at the operating system level or via AirDirect from within the application you want to use.

Note that not all sheet music applications are currently AirDirect compatible.

If you don't have a sheet music application to put your hands on, try with our virtual sheet music application by visiting the links below. It is fully AirDirect compatible.

Also, check out the video I made a few years ago about how to use and troubleshoot AirTurn. By clicking the link at the top right of the screen or the link in the description below to learn more about how to connect these devices to your favorite sheet music app.

A last thing to consider is how the pedal works mechanically.

It can be a simple plastic pedal swinging up and down, or it can be like in the case of an AirTurn Pad Pro a switch under a softer plastic case. Personally, I prefer the simple swinging pedal.

I have tried both types and in my experience the swinging pedal has been more reliable than the switch under the plastic case, which was sometimes hard to push and make it work when needed.

But of course that can be more waterproof and less subject to mechanical stress.

So what's the best Bluetooth pedal for digital sheet music? Well, as you have may already guessed, my favorites are certainly AirTurns because of their flexibility and AirDirect feature.

And my favorite model is the AirTurn Duo 500 with its mechanical pedals.

But of course if you are on a budget a simple pedal device emulating keystrokes available on Amazon can also work for less than $25.

And don't forget if you are a virtual sheet music member and you are interested in buying AirTurn pedal devices, you can get them with a special discount on the virtual sheet music website at the link below.

Well, all right, so let me know if I missed anything because you know I think I've covered most of the pedals out there for us musicians but if you know anything else let me know or if you have any different question that you would like me to answer in a future video please let me know. Comment in the comments below or send me an email to tipsandinsights at virtualsheemuse .com as usual I love to get in touch with you. All right, so we are done for today and I'll see you on the next one.

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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