Music Reading: Printing Versus Screens I'm sure everyone has seen the comic book theme about the younger generation forgetting how physical books work. The technology users laugh at it and think it's the older people who are turning things around because they don't know how the technology works and think it works both ways. With the rise of e-books, that future may not be so far away. People communicate digitally, read digitally, write digitally. Even an entire musical genre relies solely on the use of technology. How soon will all our art be based on technology? Will musicians convert to strictly technological reading and writing of music? Let's go further. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Everyone has a preference when reading. Some people like to read in bed; others like busy, noisy environments, while some need silence and comfort when reading. Some people like large print. Some people like mystery. Some people refuse to touch an e-book. It's all a question of preference. Those who prefer physical books say there are fewer distractions. No notification appears on your book telling you that someone liked your photo. You are not notified that your boss sent you a text message. All a book does is be a book. When reading for comprehension and learning, a physical book is easy to grade and annotate. Or when you take notes digitally, you don't need to navigate through tabs or windows on your device. There is also nostalgia around physical books. Have you ever smelled a book? Have you heard the sound of pages turning? Some people like these experiences (Jabir). On the other hand, some people prefer to read on screen. With the rise of devices strictly for reading (e.g. Kindle), people like to have an entire library in a smaller object than some books. You can read anything, anytime and anywhere. Depending on your e-reader, you can multitask, which is a great advantage. Some e-readers also have a dictionary button, which allows you to highlight a word that you do not understand and which will define it. As of this writing, some people have completely converted to technology. Others still believe in the tried-and-true handwriting method. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Writing on a screen facilitates mobility for people with disabilities. And it's remarkably easier to go back: rather than scratching a pen or erasing a pencil, you just press a button. Speaking of cleanliness, there is no such thing as illegibility. No one can have a chicken strike. Typing also helps check spelling and grammar, facilitating individualized support in educational writing. Handwriting also has benefits. The handwriting is personalized. A handwritten letter always creates a feeling of gratitude, more so than an email or a typed letter. Our handwritten signature can act as a binding agreement because everyone's handwriting is different. Handwriting has also been linked to better memory for what was written. I've converted my writing to technology, but I feel like I have a unique method for writing. When writing for research, I like to know mysubject. Then I activate talk-to-type and explain what this paragraph is about. I use my own words. Sometimes I even swear. I feel like my thoughts are put on paper, typed, and organized into the paragraph style of the final document. I revise and replace informal words with more appropriate words and add quotes from where I learned my information. I find that this method allows me to keep my paper in my own words and not have any latency between thought and key (or pen). It moves at the same pace as my brain, rather than having to wait for my hands to finish that word. This is also particularly helpful because I have joint issues in my hands and wrists, and it's easier to type and speak on my hands. Evidence confirming that the musical and linguistic parts of the brain are the same has been discovered by Georgetown University Medical Center. The temporal lobes memorize words, but also music. Hearing a wrong note registers in the brain in the same way as an illogical word. The example given by ScienceDaily was “[I] will have my coffee with milk and concrete” (ScienceDaily). So now we know, our brain processes it like a language. When we read and play music, the parts of our brain that read and speak light up like a Christmas tree when viewed through an fMRI. Improvising in a group, a common form of jazz music, literally translates into a conversation in our brain. Our brain processes what the other person played and responds with something that complements it (Mannes). Why shouldn't reading and writing music be brought up in this conversation? When I brought this topic up in class, my colleagues mentioned that they had never even thought about using an e-reader to listen to music. Because I have no personal experience in this area, I interviewed IUP's professor of music technology and tuba/euphonium, who often reads from an iPad. Regarding distractions, he said his reading software, ForScore, prevented him from multitasking in other apps. But even he gets distracted sometimes because they're right there. And he added that screen reading isn't for everyone: "[w]e have been conditioned to scan the screen rather than read coherently from left to right." We search for images, links, ads, etc… We are also used to bouncing between different tasks on our devices, so I think playing music on a screen is not for everyone. (Wehnau, Collins). He also claimed that note-taking is easier because "you can write directly on the PDF and control the size, color and opacity." ForScore also offers predefined “stickers” such as keys, accidentals, and other common markings. These can also be resized and pasted with any color. (Wehnau, Collins). However, Dr. Collins doesn't read from a screen all the time. He added that he only uses an e-reader when traveling with a lot of music or playing outside. Reading music on paper is something I'm very experienced at. On paper, you don't have Facebook, Twitter, etc. within reach. During rehearsals, however, note-taking can appear sloppy and difficult to read: a problem avoided when using an e-reader. One issue Dr. Collins raises is that when you play outside, your paper can fly away. A single paper can fall out of a folder and be much easier to miss than an entire e-reader missing. Another disadvantage of paper is that in.