3 Ways To Enlarge Digital Sheet Music

If you're intrigued by the possibilities of paperless sheet music, but don't relish the thought of squinting at screens smaller than a normal piece of paper, then you'll want to check out these three solutions for enlarging scores on your screen.

 1. Read Sideways

If you're using a tablet like an iPad to read your sheet music, there are several apps that will enlarge the view to nearly the same size as physical paper music if you simply rotate the tablet on to its side. 

This will show your music a half page at a time, maximizing the tablet's screen real estate. Of course, the tradeoff is that you'll be turning pages twice as frequently - but that's where a nifty page turning pedal like the AirTurn comes into play.

2. Get A Larger Tablet

We're hearing rumors of a larger iPad that might be announced next week - stay tuned for that! But in the meantime, Samsung beat Apple to the punch with its release of its Galaxy Note Pro, which sports a whopping 12.2 inch screen. This makes the Note Pro virtually the same size as a standard letter-sized piece of sheet music, making it so much easier to read with its exceptional resolution. Check out this video overview of the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2.

3. There's An App For That

This solution is for iPads only, but hopefully someone will come up with something equivalent for Android tablets in the near future. Ed Dalton is a low vision musician who decided to write an app for himself. The result is MusicZoom, an app that lets you "cut" your music apart a line or a measure at a time for extreme magnification and navigation. Here's an interview with Ed going over MusicZoom's features.

Of course, one final option might be to get a stronger pair of reading glasses.  I just got my first pair of +1 glasses, so hopefully it'll be a little while before I need Ed's wonderful app - but it's nice to know that the option is there when I eventually need it!