Run a live Follow session

A live session is Follow me live mode: Page Turner listens through the microphone, tracks your position in the open score, and turns pages when you reach the turn point. This page takes you from a prepared score to a running session, through mid-session corrections, and back out. What each setting means is explained in the Follow overview; getting a score ready is covered in Prepare a score for Follow.

Before you start

• A Catalog piece is ready as soon as it opens — the Follow pill works with no preparation. A piece you imported yourself must be prepared in Trainer first: until every step is complete, its Follow pill stays greyed out, and tapping it opens Trainer instead of starting a session.
• The device needs a microphone input that picks up your instrument. iPadOS asks for microphone permission the first time you start a session.
• The device needs a network connection: a live session streams short segments of microphone audio to the alignment service and receives position updates back. The stream stops when the session stops.

Note This live audio stream is what makes tracking work; it is separate from the optional Share follow audio for model training toggle, which is off by default. Both are described in Data and audio.

Start the session

1. Open the piece and go to the passage where you will begin.
2. In the reader toolbar, tap Calibrate — the slider icon in the Follow widget, between Trainer and the Follow pill.
3. Under WHAT PLAYS, keep Follow me live, the default. (Replay a take plays a recorded take instead and turns the pill into Play; see Record a training take.)
4. Under ON-SCREEN, choose the overlay: No tracker, Blue band, or Band + note dot. With either band overlay, the RECTANGLE rows below set the band's grain — By measure or By beat — and System pointer toggles an extra coarse rectangle that marks the current line. The Follow overview describes what each one draws.
5. Under PAGE TURN, choose Practice for rehearsing or Concert for performing, and check the Turn at and Confidence gauges.
6. Close the pane and tap Follow. Grant microphone access if iPadOS asks.
7. Wait until the pill reads Stop with a pulsing waveform icon, then begin playing.

The pill keeps the single word Stop for the whole session; the pulsing waveform beside it confirms the microphone is picking you up. If the pill shows Retry instead, the session failed to start — see If the session cannot start.

How the button reads

The Follow pill is also the session's status display:

Correct the tracker mid-session

Two icon-only buttons sit near the pill during a session; neither carries a text label. A small ? beneath them re-opens the in-app reminder of what they do.

• The anchor (line-drawn anchor glyph) — the marker drifted. Tap the anchor, then tap the note you are actually on: the marker snaps back, and the tracker uses that correction to align the rest of the session.
• The pin (map-pin icon) — you are deliberately moving. Tap the pin, then the spot where you will play next: a jump, not a correction.

The distinction matters: an anchor tap tells the tracker it was wrong; a pin tap tells it you moved on purpose.

If you are correcting often, hold the anchor instead of tapping it. It stays armed: every tap on the score re-anchors, and you turn pages with the on-screen arrows.

Note When tracking confidence stays very low for several seconds, the session arms the anchor for you and asks where you are — you only tap the spot. This automatic prompt fires at most once every 45 seconds.

Switch Practice and Concert while playing

Open Calibrate again and pick the other mode under PAGE TURN. The switch takes effect immediately, without restarting the session. Practice re-anchors freely and shows hints; Concert only turns on a clean, confident read.

Stop the session

Tap Stop. Manual page turns stay available for the whole session, so you can also take over by hand at any point and stop when convenient.

If the session cannot start

The alert Follow can't start shows the reported cause — read it before retrying. The pill reads Retry; tapping it clears the error and attempts a fresh start. Check, in this order:

1. Microphone permission is granted (iPadOS Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone).
2. The device has a working network connection.
3. For a piece you imported yourself: preparation is complete — open Trainer and finish any step that is still open. A Catalog piece needs no preparation.

Beta If the network path drops mid-session, the session restarts itself silently with the same settings — the pill stays Stop while that happens. After two failed restarts in a row the pill turns Retry: restore connectivity, then tap it. Keep manual turns or a Bluetooth page pedal ready for anything critical.

For drift, late turns, or a session that holds position, see Improve Follow reliability and Follow troubleshooting.