Reading Music: Print vs. Screens I'm sure everyone has seen the comic book theme that younger generations forget how physical books work. Technology users laugh about it and think it's the older people who are turning the tables because they don't know how technology works and think it works both ways. With the advent of e-books, that future may not be so distant. People communicate digitally, read digitally, write digitally. Even an entire musical genre is based solely on the use of technology. How long will it be before all our art is based on technology? Will musicians convert to reading and writing strictly technological music? Let's go deeper. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Everyone has a preference when reading. Some like to read in bed; others like crowded and noisy environments, while some even require silence and comfort to read. Some people like large print. Some people like mystery. Some people refuse to touch an e-book. It's all a matter of preference. People who prefer physical books say there are fewer distractions. No notifications appear on your book letting you know that you liked so-and-so's photo. You don't get the notification that your boss sent you a message. All a book does is be a book. When reading for understanding and learning, a physical book is easy to take notes and annotate. Or, when you take notes digitally, you don't have to go back and forth between tabs or windows on your device. There's also nostalgia for physical books. Have you ever smelled a book? Did you hear the sound of pages turning? Some people love these experiences (Jabir). On the other hand, some people prefer screen reading. With the advent of reading-only devices (e.g. Kindle), people like to have an entire library in an object smaller than a few books. You can read anything, anytime, anywhere. Depending on your e-reader, you can multitask, which is a big plus. Some e-readers also have a dictionary button, so you can highlight a word you don't understand and it will define it. At the time of writing, some people have completely converted to technology. Others still believe in the proven method of handwriting. Each has its pros and cons. Writing on a screen facilitates the mobility of people with disabilities. And it's noticeably easier to go back: instead of messily erasing the pen or erasing the pencil, just tap a button. Speaking of cleanliness, there is no illegibility. No one can write from scratch. Typing also allows for spelling and grammar checking, which helps with personalized support in educational writing. Handwriting also has its advantages. The handwriting is personalized. A handwritten letter always creates feelings of gratitude, more than an email or typed letter. Our handwritten signature can serve as a binding agreement because everyone's handwriting is different. Handwriting has also been linked to better memory for what was written. I have converted my writing to technology, but I feel I have a unique method for writing. When writing for research, I like to become an expert in my topic. Then, I activate the conversation with type and explain the topic of that paragraph. I use my words. Sometimes I even swear by it. I feel like it puts my thoughts on paper, typed and organized in the style ofparagraph of the final document. I review and replace informal words with more appropriate ones and add quotes from where I learned my information. I find that this method keeps my paper in my own words and has no latency between thought and key (or pen). It moves at the same pace as my brain, instead of having to wait for my hands to finish this word. This is also especially helpful because I have joint problems in my hands and wrists, and writing and speaking is easier on my hands. Evidence supporting the parts of the brain linked to music and language has been discovered by the Georgetown University Medical Center. The temporal lobes store words, but also music. Hearing a false note registers in the brain as an illogical word. The example given by ScienceDaily was "[I'll] have my coffee with milk and cement" (ScienceDaily). So now we know, our brain treats it like a language. When we read music and play it, the parts of our brain that read and speak light up like a Christmas tree when viewed through an MRI. Improvising in a band, which is a common form of jazz music, literally translates in our brains as a conversation. Our brain processes what the other person has played and responds with something that complements it (Mannes). Why shouldn't we talk about reading and writing music in this conversation? When I broached this topic in class, my colleagues said they had never even thought about using an e-reader for music. Since I have no personal experience with this, I interviewed the IUP Music Technology and Tuba/Euphonium professor, who often reads from an iPad. As for distractions, he said his reading software, ForScore, keeps him from multitasking with other apps. But even he gets distracted sometimes because I'm right there. And he said screen reading isn't for everyone: “[w]e have been conditioned to scan the screen rather than read consistently from left to right. We look for images, links, ads, etc… We're also used to bouncing between different activities on our devices, so I think reading music on a screen isn't for everyone. (Wehnau, Collins). He also said that taking notes is easier, because “You can write directly on the PDF and you can control its size, color and opacity. ForScore also features predefined "stickers" such as clefs, accidentals, and other common markings. These can also be resized and pasted with any color. (Wehnau, Collins). Dr. Collins, however, doesn't always read on the screen. He added that he only uses an e-reader when traveling with a lot of music or when playing outdoors. Reading music on paper is something I have a lot of experience with. On paper you don't have Facebook, Twitter, etc. at hand. During rehearsals, however, taking notes can appear sloppy and difficult to read – a problem that is avoided when using an e-reader. One issue Dr. Collins raises is that, when playing outdoors, paper can fly off. A single sheet of paper can fall out of a folder and it is much easier to lose it than to lose an entire e-reader. Another disadvantage of paper is that in historical or popular scores the originals can be destroyed. If no one converts it to PDF, it will be lost forever. Even music that has been converted to PDF and sold can wear out after being loved and played often. When it comes to composing music, I have been dating a composition major who studies closely with Dr. David Martynuik at IUP. He stated that writing on notation software allowed for experimentation. With a playback function, you can write chords that don't follow the rules of music theory and see.