To Touch, or Not to Touch: Evaluating Manual Page Turning Modalities for Digital Sheet Music During Piano Play

The widespread adoption of digital sheet music by performers in recent years appears promising, yet not without limitations. While enhancing interactivity and convenience, a persistent challenge remains: the act of turning pages while musicians’ hands are engaged on the piano keys. To investigate perceived user experience of page turning in digital sheet music, we conducted a controlled laboratory experiment with fifteen participants (N = 15), comparing five state-of-the-art page turning modalities. The results revealed that hands-free modalities were generally preferred over touch-based modalities, with head gestures showing promise as hands-free alternatives to foot pedals, particularly in terms of perceived efficiency, attractiveness, stimulation, and novelty.