If you are an Apple device user, prepare to laugh at me. Popular opinion says Apple products are easy to use. Lise bought me this refurbished pad, and I’ve played with it every day since it arrived. It must be several weeks now, and I am no nearer mastering it than the day I started. If Apples are intuitive, then I have no intuition worth speaking of. Neighbor Shawn took pity on me when I was bumbling about and showed me how to close sites I had open. I might never have found that on my own.

I did learn how to scan my own music with forScore, an app I installed on the iPad. I’ve practiced four pieces that I had started playing several years ago. After my retina leaked (Age related Macular Degeneration), I could no longer see the notes of regular music. Now, with the music backlit and expanded, I can see fairly well.

One super day I stumbled into an online store and was able to download one free piece of music that I had never seen before. That was really exciting. I kept looking for that store and could not find it. David was sitting in the room with me when I began to grumble. He offered to look at it, even though he has no experience with Apple things. He bumbled around, too, but at warp speed. He found the store, which was accessed through the music app. I THINK I can get back to that place again.

I downloaded a free set of pieces by Handel and found there were 13 in all. Most are one page long. What a delight! I sat down and sight read seven of them, finishing the rest the next day. Perhaps a second grader would be challenged by them. I am going to have to look at them closely, because I found I couldn’t see the little dots under the notes indicating staccatos. Meanwhile, I am so grateful to David for unlocking this music for me.