Digitizing sheet music means different things to different people. The simplest form of digitizing is to use an app that displays pages of sheet music for you to play from. But the app PlayScore 2 gives you a more sophisticated way to digitize. Instead of just displaying music, PlayScore 2 scans scores that you can hear and share as MIDI and Music XML formats quickly and accurately, using your phone or tablet. When you import Music XML into a program like Finale you can edit it freely.
To get started making digital sheet music, simply download the PlayScore 2 app onto your device. When you open PlayScore 2, you will be on the document screen. Here, you can select the option in the bottom right to ‘take a photo of a page to play’. This is the option for digitizing sheet music from paper scores, and has helpful tips to walk you through the process of capturing a good photo of your score.
If you are using the free version of PlayScore 2, you will now have your one page of music playing back in seconds, as the app has successfully scanned your score. If you have upgraded to a subscription, you will be able to repeat this process and scan scores of further pages simply by repeating the process and selecting ‘take a photo of a page to play’ for each page, quickly creating digital versions of your scores. Simply swipe left to ‘recapture’ your photo or delete the page.
Alternatively, with the ‘Professional’ subscription of PlayScore 2, you can also digitize sheet music that is in PDF format in your music collection by tapping on ‘import sheet music or a PlayScore document’.
Another option when you want to make digital sheet music from PDFs is to view them in a website URL. You can then send the PDF to be opened in PlayScore 2 by selecting the ‘share’ icon from the web page, and choosing the app from your devices’ options.
Whether you decided to scan sheet music by photo or PDF, your digital music score is nearly complete – the last thing left to do when digitizing scores in PlayScore 2 is decide on the format you want to save them by selecting the ‘share’ icon. The options are ‘Save as MIDI’, Save as MusicXML’ and ‘Save Document’. If you select ‘Save Document’ this will save as a PlayScore 2 digital file. Going back to the ‘Documents’ page will mean that your sheet music is saved in the PlayScore 2 app and will be there in your document library. This is an easy way to save your digital score in the app without making it a MIDI, XML or PlayScore 2 document you wish to use or save elsewhere. In the free version of the app, this is the method for saving digital versions of your score.
Digitizing sheet music has never been easier. With PlayScore for Android and PlayScore 2 for iOS, you can scan music and turn your physical pages into a digital music score with your phone or tablet. Taking pictures and displaying them on your device is the old way of working, whereas PlayScore 2 offers a new way, one where you can create interactive digital scores and open them in music notation software and DAW’s effortlessly by saving as MIDI or MusicXML.
