Digital sheet music and page turner

[Jerryleejr]

Just curious how many are using iPads or other devices to store their music? And if so have you used the hands free page turners that are on the market? I'm looking at scanning my library to consolidate.

JJ

[Kirley]

I use the Gig Books app on my iPad, a Firefly page turner, and the iKlip iPad holder.

I've been using this setup for a couple of years now and love it.

I play trombone so the page turner is a necessary part of the set up. It takes a little getting used to especially on larger charts with lots of repeats and D.C./D.S. jumps. I've definitely bungled things up a few times but practice makes perfect.

Some benefits that I didn't immediately anticipate:
1) No need for a stand light.
2) No wrestling with clothespins/plexiglass on outdoor gigs.
3) Super easy to put all the music in set order.
4) No need to carry a stand to most gigs since I can just attach the iKlip to a mic stand.

[Dubby]

I use the Gig Books app on my iPad, a Firefly page turner, and the iKlip iPad holder.

I've been using this setup for a couple of years now and love it.

I play trombone so the page turner is a necessary part of the set up. It takes a little getting used to especially on larger charts with lots of repeats and D.C./D.S. jumps. I've definitely bungled things up a few times but practice makes perfect.

Some benefits that I didn't immediately anticipate:
1) No need for a stand light.
2) No wrestling with clothespins/plexiglass on outdoor gigs.
3) Super easy to put all the music in set order.
4) No need to carry a stand to most gigs since I can just attach the iKlip to a mic stand.

What size iPad do you use? Im looking at purchasing one soon and am torn between the iPad Pro and iPad Air

[Kirley]

I use an Air. But I have relatively good eyesight.

Also, with the Air mounted on a mic stand, it's a pretty stealth set up. Which is good when you're a sub with a group and the rest of the section has the material memorized.

You should definitely look into the mounting options for the iPad Pro since it's quite a bit larger. I'm sure someone out there has made a pole-mount for it. Or you can always just plop it down on a music stand.

[Jerryleejr]

I use an Air. But I have relatively good eyesight.

Also, with the Air mounted on a mic stand, it's a pretty stealth set up. Which is good when you're a sub with a group and the rest of the section has the material memorized.

You should definitely look into the mounting options for the iPad Pro since it's quite a bit larger. I'm sure someone out there has made a pole-mount for it. Or you can always just plop it down on a music stand.

I've got a mini but good to know.

JJ

[hup_d_dup]

How do you mark up parts during rehearsals?

Hup

[Jerryleejr]

How do you mark up parts during rehearsals?

Hup

I can mark up PDFs all day long, haven't tried it with sheet music.

JJ

[hup_d_dup]

I can mark up PDFs all day long, haven't tried it with sheet music.

JJ

I don't understand your answer, or perhaps you don't understand my question.

I'll try again: You are in a rehearsal, using an iPad. How do you pencil in a crescendo?

Hup

[binlove]

iPad Pro with Apple Pencil is a perfect, but expensive solution.

[Kirley]

Marking up parts is easy.

Within Gigbooks (and probably all the other music pdf apps) you can draw on your pdfs. You can choose a range of colors and how fine you want your "pen" tip to be. If you zoom in enough, you can just use your finger to draw/write whatever it is you need. You can also draw in white which has the same effect as erasing what is on the original pdf (assuming it's your standard black on white sheet music).

After a while I picked up a stylus and now much prefer to use that. It looks like a pen with a weird semi-metallic eraser. You use the "eraser" part to draw on the screen. It works great especially if you zoom in a bit.

And to be clear, I'm not talking about the Apple Pencil. I think that only works on the iPad Pro models. The stylus I got was like $10 or less. Just do an internet search for "iPad stylus". There are lots of them out there.

[The Big Ben]

What happens when the battery runs low? Paper doesn't need batteries.

[Bill Troiano]

My wife bought me an iPad Pro for Christmas. I didn't know exactly what I'd do with it and it's my first tablet. Old me says, do I really need another device, besides my Mac Book and iPhone? No, I don't and I'm always charging some device. But, the iPad Pro has been useful for me. I scanned and was given pdf's of trad. jazz books. They're on my Mac Book, so I sent them to DropBox. I bought the Gigbook app. for my iPad and from Gigbook, you can download the music from Dropbox. In Gigbook, there's a folder called, Collections. I've indexed over 500 trad. jazz songs and they're alphabetized. Some are duplicates from various books and some of those are in different keys. I can access any tune in moments - a lot faster than anyone working from a book or multiple books. Yes, it took many hours to set this up. Of course, it's not very useful on strolling gigs, so you still have to have a lot of tunes in your head.

Then, I also created pdf's of any method books, and duet books I use for teaching or just for fun. And, I have solo pdf's. Through Dropbox, that's all now on my iPad. It comes in handy when searching for something to help a student (various exercises.) Plus, I have many of the Texas UIL solos on there too. The iPad is a very useful tool for a musician and the Pro is great for my eyesight, being almost actual page size. And, ditto the items that Kirly mentioned - great not needing a light or wind clips.

As far as marking music, in Gigbook you can use your fingertip to mark parts. If you've added the music to a set list, Binders or Collections, you can mark them without it affecting the original in the Gigbook library index. You can erase it too. Apple also sells a pencil stylus, but I haven't gotten that yet. My fat finger works OK.

I also don't have a page turner, but so far, I've gotten by. In Gigbook, just touch the screen anywhere on the right and it advances to the next page (left, it advances back). It's quicker than if you had to manually turn a sheet of music. It's probably not as good as a digital page turner, but so far, I'm still in the mode of the less the better. I really don't want to carry all of this stuff around.

I was looking into a stand, but so far, I've been using a basic black music stand. That way, some places have stands and I don't have to carry one. And, in some cases (at a rehearsal mainly) while using the iPad, someone would hand out a new piece of music, so I would need a music stand anyway. I'm trying to devise a way where the iPad can be clipped to the music stand so it doesn't fall off. I really don't want to carry around a clip device, stand thing, especially if I might need a music stand anyway.

I haven't had a battery issue yet. I try to make sure it's fully charged on a gig. I imagine, like with all of these devices, it only has so many charge cycles in it before you have to plug it in to charge much more frequently. Hopefully, I have a few years of full battery charging life. For teaching, I can plug it into an AC outlet someplace, if necessary.

I highly recommend these things, if it's something within your budget. The future is now!

[aprilmary]

If your battery dies, you don't have music. You can get portable batteries that you could hook up to your ipad or device, these are relatively inexpensive but they have some problems. I usually forget to charge mine and the one I have doesn't really hold charge enough to save my ipad for longer than an hour (if even)

[Kirley]

I feel like the battery thing is really a non-issue if you're at all prepared. My fully charged iPad lasts for many hours. I've never gotten even close to it dying on a gig.

But with that being said, I still bring my charger with me just in case. It never comes out of my gig bag but it's cheap insurance. If the battery were to get low, you can still use the iPad while it is plugged in. If you ask nice, the guy next to you using a stand light will probably let you plug into his extension cord. : )

[pgym]

What happens when the battery runs low?

You plug it into your $55 Monoprice 27,200mAh (2.25x the capacity of an iPad Pro battery) external battery pack and keep playing for another 20-22 hours,until your lips fall off, or you get home after the gig and plug your iPad Pro into a wall outlet, unless you're a wuss, then you plug it into your $13 Monoprice 6000 mAh charger so you only have to play for another six hours.

[The Big Ben]

Ah. The "don't be a wuss" argument.

Then, of course there are the guys (and you know who you are) who say, "Music? Music? We don' need no steeenking music.."

[Art Hovey]

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.

[GC]

What happens when the battery runs low?

You plug it into your $55 Monoprice 27,200mAh (2.25x the capacity of an iPad Pro battery) external battery pack and keep playing for another 20-22 hours,until your lips fall off, or you get home after the gig and plug your iPad Pro into a wall outlet, unless you're a wuss, then you plug it into your $13 Monoprice 6000 mAh charger so you only have to play for another six hours.

Portable Lithium Ion battery packs are the solution for a lot of charging problems. I have some for power failures to maintain phone service. They're getting cheaper and higher in capacity. Most have multiple USB ports for charging just about anything in an emergency.

[Bill Troiano]

I saw that, Art. She was doing what I mentioned, in that you just have to touch the screen on the right and the page instantly turns - very easy and easier than turning pages using sheet music.

[aqualung]

you just have to touch the screen on the right and the page instantly turns - very easy and easier than turning pages using sheet music.

Do you still have to wet your finger ?