Art Hovey wrote:Did anyone else see Carol Jantsch perform with her tuba-euph quartet at the Army Conference last month? They all had digital sheet music and foot pedals for turning pages, but her pedal wasn't working. After stomping on it a few times she managed to flip the pages manually without missing a note, while standing with her tuba. The pedals looked like boomerangs. I think the video is still on You-tube.
Miraphone 5050 - Warburton BJ/RF mpc YEP-641S(recently sold), DE mpc (102 rim; I-cup; I-9 shank) Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches: "Always play with a good tone, never louder than lovely, never softer than supported." - author unknown.
I've been using an iPad for about 90% of my playing since 2011. Here's my current rig:
-iPad Pro
-Forscore app
-apple pencil
-airturn ped bluetooth pedal (I used to use the old airturn pedal, which I like the feel of better, but the Ped uses low-energy bluetooth which means I never need to recharge and only change the battery once every 6 months or so)
-manhasset 3200-u tablet holder (attaches to a manhasset base, although most of the time I just place the iPad on the desk of a regular stand)
I scan all of the music for all of the groups I am playing with in. I've scanned most of the method books that I usually practice out of too. It's really nice to have this device with EVERYTHING on it rather than having to keep track of huge piles of music.
I got the iPad Pro about 3 months ago and it makes a HUGE difference. A standard iPad works, but you need to be really careful to crop out any whitespace around the staff to maximize the size of the music, and then it still can be on the small side. Usable, but on the small side. iPad Pro feels really luxurious in comparison. Also, the apple pencil is an absolute MUST. There are capacitive styluses available, but they are pretty imprecise. The apple pencil (which, right now, only works with the ipad pro) is so much better.
Battery life is not a concern at all. A fully charged iPad can go 8+ hours. More if you turn off cellular and WiFi (which is a good idea so you don't get a pop-up about a text message or something when you're trying to read music). I don't worry at all even if I show up for a 2 hour rehearsal with the iPad at 25% battery. If I charge at home every night I don't even need to think about it. I've done 8-hour-a-day recording sessions with it and had 40% battery left at the end of each day.
I also don't let my daughter use my music iPad anymore, as she loaded my old iPad up with all sorts of apps which tended to pop up and make noise when her virtual baby dolls needed to be fed or whatever.
The pedal takes some practice to use properly. If you can play your instrument with one hand, then you may not need it, but I also play trombone and you can't spare a hand. I was seated up front at the Tubular concert at TUSABTEW and observed the difficulties all four of them were having. I think their biggest issue was that they placed their pedals too far in front of them. It needs to be right in front of your foot. If it's placed right next to the base of your stand, then it's at least a step or two from where you're standing to get to the pedal. If you are looking at the music, there is no way you can reliably step on something that far away. Several times they were doing things like stepping on the "previous page" pedal rather than the "next page" pedal and then they'd have to use their fingers to go forward two pages to get to where they had intended to be. I'm also not familiar with the brand of pedal they were using which may be a little more fiddly than the Airturn pedals I am used to. My suspicion is that they just didn't get enough practice with the pedals before the gig to figure out how to use them reliably.
bbocaner wrote:
-iPad Pro
-Forscore app
-apple pencil
-airturn ped bluetooth pedal
What is the "educational discount" price for each of these? (Father's Day is coming...) I doubt this, but any "bundling" price quote available? (I know, all 4 items are probably not sourced from the same merchant/Apple store.)
bbocaner wrote:
-iPad Pro
-Forscore app
-apple pencil
-airturn ped bluetooth pedal
What is the "educational discount" price for each of these? (Father's Day is coming...) I doubt this, but any "bundling" price quote available? (I know, all 4 items are probably not sourced from the same merchant/Apple store.)
Educational discount on iPads isn't that great.
iPad Pro 12.9" wi-fi 32GB $779 (educational price. I've seen it for $699 on sale at electronics stores which is better)
Forscore app (from app store) $9.99
Apple Pencil $99 (from apple store or electronics store)
Airturn Ped $69 (from store.airturn.com or from WWBW or similar)
it's a pretty big investment for sure, but I think it works really well and is a lot less hassle than keeping up with all the paper parts.
