Category: Guide

A Review of Page Turners – Not the Human Variety – Updated Feb 2019

By Gordon Cameron 20 Feb, 2019 2 Comments

page-turnerThe art of being an efficient (human) page turner is a highly sought after skill for performing musicians, particularly those whose hands are occupied on a keyboard or keyboards. But not all musicians have a page turner.

I remember well the time a few years ago I attended a Christmas concert in the Kelvingrove Art Galleries in Glasgow, where Kevin Bowyer was manfully struggling with a large book of music on the piano, as he accompanied the choir singing carols. Watching the pages of the book slowly flipping over, as if in slow motion and then Kevin’s antics at getting back to the page he was wanting to play was most amusing. I have to say that today Kevin is now a total convert to electronic music display and no longer has this nightmare.

So if you are thinking of moving to electronic music display or are already a user, I thought a short review of the current crop of (non-human) page turners might be helpful.  I am only reviewing ones I have personal experience of and the opinions expressed in this blog are mine. These pedals all work really well with Power Music. If you have other experiences with page turners please feel free to post a comment on this post.

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3 Ways to “Going Digital”

By Gordon Cameron 6 Jul, 2018 Leave a comment

Many musicians are put off  “Going Digital” because they don’t know how they will get their music into a digital display system – ie a tablet or laptop. This article describes three ways to get your music into Power Music and start taking advantage of using electronic music display.

In the blog post, we will take a look at:

  • PDF files
  • Scanning paper music
  • Power Music virtual songbooks

As always we welcome your comments and feedback on articles.

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Microsoft Windows – Major Update 1803 (Spring Creators Update)

By Gordon Cameron 8 May, 2018 Leave a comment

It’s happening again! Another major update to Window 10.

Version 1803 (AKA Redstone 4) due for release soon*.

Over the  life of Windows 10 we have seen these versions:

  • The original 1507 (July 2015)
  • 1511 (November 2015) – “November Update”
  • 1607 (August 2016)  – “Anniversary Update”
  • 1703 (April 2017) – “Creators Update”
  • 1709 (Seprember 2017) – “Fall Creators Update”
  • 1803 (March 2018) –  “Spring Creators Update”

* So, you may ask, “Why have I not seen the latest update (1803) if it was due March 2018”. Well it has been delayed! At the last moment a bug was found that caused a number of BSOD (blue screen of death) on certain hardware configurations so Microsoft (wisely) halted the release of the update to fix it. As of end of April there is still no firm word on its release date, but it will be rolled out to users over a 2 month period.

UPDATE 8th May : First installation of 1803  – my experience (see below)

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Music Scanning – How to get the best results.

By Gordon Cameron 22 Feb, 2018 1 Comment

Article Updated February 2018

Recently Cambron launched a new USB portable document scanner called the MusicOne scanner. This short article (based on a previous blog post) gives users of this and similar scanners some hints and tips on getting the best results in Power Music.

Camera technology has come on leaps and bounds over the last few years and the results you can achieve from this scanner are quite amazing. The MusicOne scanner can be used with the built-in software in Power Music Professional or simply as a stand-alone scanner using either the free software that comes with the scanner or the supplied TWAIN driver along with your favourite image editing software. I will cover all this in the blog.

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Importing Your Music – ChordPro and MusicPad Files

By Gordon Cameron 25 Jan, 2018 Leave a comment

Pianist? Organist? Guitarist? Band Leader? Worship Musician?

Where do you get your digital music?

With Power Music your options are:
– Import PDF files – music scores or chord sheets
– Scan your paper music
– Type or copy and paste chord sheets
– Download songbooks from Power Music Store
– Import from ChordPro or MusicPad files

In this post I want to have a look at two particular sources of digital music:
– ChordPro files including OnSong files
– MusicPad .fh (FreeHand) files

UPDATE: Power Music App for iPad now imports ChordPro (OnSong) files.

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Windows 10 “Creators Update”

By Gordon Cameron 5 Jan, 2018 2 Comments

Microsoft are at it again! Another major update to Window 10.

UPDATE 5/1/2018: I have added a new section on the “Fall Creators Update” 1709 – scroll to the end to read.

Over the (short) life of Windows 10 we have seen these versions:

  • The original 1507 (July 2015)
  • 1511 (November 2015) AKA “November Update”
  • 1607 (August 2016) AKA “Anniversary Update”
  • 1703 (April 2017) AKA “Creators Update”

And of course there has been a myriad of other minor updates and hotfixes in between.

I would be the first to advise anyone to keep their Windows PC up-to date, so here are my observations on the latest “Creators Update”.

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What is Power Music Store?

By Brenda Cameron 29 Mar, 2017 2 Comments

Power Music Store is an online shop where users of Power Music can purchase “virtual” songbooks in Power Music format. You can access all the songs that you purchase using Power Music Box – our unique cloud storage system. See this previous blog  “What is Power Music Box?” for more info about the Box.

What is the advantage of this type of store?

When you buy music from other stores you either buy a physical book or a PDF or similar for printing. This is fine if you want to use paper. Alternatively you can import these to Power Music by scanning or PDF import and then add the relevant information on authors, categories, copyright etc.
Power Music Store means we have done the work for you in preparing the content and all you have to do is press a button to get all the content and indexing you need in the software on your iPad, PC or Mac.


Each songbook is a collection of “Songs”. Songs in a songbook will contain some or all from the following, where applicable:

  • Sheet music
  • Chord sheet
  • Lyrics
  • Authors
  • Categories
  • Performance notes
  • Copyright information
  • Tempo
  • Melody line
  • Bible references
  • CCLI number

This means they are ready for you to use in the software for practice and performance, and easy to find using the above information.
So how does this work?
First you need an a Read more...

New feature requests that are already in Power Music!

By Brenda Cameron 21 Feb, 2017 3 Comments

In our recent survey we asked how best to describe your usage of Power Music and what features you would like to see in future updates to Power Music. We were overwhelmed by the positive comments and by the number of situations in which Power Music is used. From church worship bands to Morris dancing bands – it is good to see it so widely used. A big thank you to all who took part.

We were also really impressed by the detailed responses from you about what features should be added to the new versions of Power Music coming out this year.

It turns out that quite a number of the requested new features are already in Power Music! So the purpose of this article is to explain where these features are and how to use them.

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Chord Sheets for Worship Songs from WeAreWorship.com

By Gordon Cameron 21 Dec, 2016 Leave a comment

One of the most common questions we get asked on our support desk and at exhibitions is “What is a good source of worship song chord sheets?”

There are many websites out there that let you download chord sheets, but people tell us that quite often there are errors in the lyrics and the chords used are not the original ones. Also it is important that the websites pay royalties to the copyright holders of the songs you download – not all websites do!!

Recently we worked with Integrity Music Ltd, AKA WeAreWorship to create a free songbook of chord sheets that we were giving away at Mission Worship 2016. Integrity Music let you download chord sheets from their website WeAreWorship.com. All you need to do is open a free account with them. I have created a short tutorial video on importing chord sheets from WeAreWorship.

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Scanning Music – Using a Doc Scanner and Hints & Tips.

By Gordon Cameron 25 Aug, 2016 Leave a comment

This blog post deals with digitizing your library of paper music.

So you have made the decision to digitize all your music!

  • It could be because you are tired of lugging around folders/binders of paper;
  • It could be that you need to find a piece of music quickly and searching through the folders/binders is too slow;
  • It could be that at the end of each concert or gig you are faced with the task of putting all the music back in the correct place in the folders/binders;
  • It could be that you are fed up trying to keep a music books open at the right page;
  • It could be you are having to use rubber bands, bulldog clips and magnets to hold your music on the stand;
    Or
  • It could be that your eyesight is not what it used to be and reading paper music is becoming a bit of a strain.

Whatever your reason you are faced with quite a task. You need to digitize your music. Let’s say you have chosen Power Music Professional as your music management system. So how should you go about this task? Assuming you don’t have electronic copies of the music already in the form of PDF files, then you are faced with scanning the paper music.

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