Playing from iPad

[bbocaner]

I do pretty much all of my playing from an iPad. I used to have a music pad pro, but I find the iPad to be better in every way. I use forscore, the airturn pedals, and the gigeasy manhasset stand adaptor. The battery lasts at least 8 hours on a charge if I put it in airplane mode, and it's very reliable. I've used it for all day recording sessions without a problem. I never have any trouble with glare and it's big enough considering the screen is very sharp for pretty much any music if you have a nice clean scan and crop carefully. I find annotations to be a little bit tedious, but it works.

It's great to have all my music with me and it's easy to search, put things in set list order, etc..

[Rick Denney]

I never have any trouble with glare and it's big enough considering the screen is very sharp for pretty much any music if you have a nice clean scan and crop carefully.

Yes, the Retina display is sharp.

No, my eyes are not. I wear trifocals, and have special glasses for music. Not enough.

Rick "who cannot read march-sized music in dim light, either" Denney

[bbocaner]

I never have any trouble with glare and it's big enough considering the screen is very sharp for pretty much any music if you have a nice clean scan and crop carefully.

Yes, the Retina display is sharp.

No, my eyes are not. I wear trifocals, and have special glasses for music. Not enough.

Rick "who cannot read march-sized music in dim light, either" Denney

You can, for particular pieces of music where the type is small, turn the ipad to landscape format and read half a page at a time. It's doable with the footpedals for page turns. And you can script out the page turns so that it's aware of any repeats/DC/DS/etc. business that might otherwise have you dancing back and forth on the pedals.

Many march-sized pieces of music are actually much larger on the ipad than the original sheet of paper was!

[aqualung]

Consider the inevitable - some clown WILL knock over your music stand.
You will most likely end up with a no-longer-functioning iPad. And no chartage for the rest of the gig.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

Throughout this thread I keep wondering what's wrong with good old sheet music.

Methinks some folk just like shiny toys.

[bbocaner]

There are a lot of good reasons to use the ipad rather than sheet music. It's certainly not just about liking shiny toys.


*it's backlit so I don't have to worry about a separate stand light
*I can carry everything I'm working on in my lessons, and the whole book for all the groups I play with everywhere I go. I never show up without my music or with the wrong folder for a particular group
*awkward page turns are never a problem
*It never takes me more than a few seconds to find something, no digging through folders with hundreds of pieces of music in it.
*I can super easily email all my parts to subs with all my markings on them
*I never spill the whole folder or stand on the ground, shuffling my sheet music parts every which way (this often happens to me with paper music!)
*ipad is less than 7.5 inches wide. This gives you a lot more space in tight quarters than a standard manhasset stand which is 20 inches wide.
*saves paper and ink/toner
*I can play angry birds er... I mean check the stock market during breaks and long rests.


the ipad is pretty durable and is much lighter than a regular stand desk full of paper, meaning the stand's center of gravity is lower. I'm not too worried it's going to take a spill, or that if it did take a spill it would break.

[Homerun]

I use ForScore, and have almost my entire sheet music collection stored on my iPad. Solos, excerpts, brass quintet- you name it, it's on there. I can load a track from iTunes directly into a "sheet" of music, and play it straight from the app as I play along. Notations, metronome, highlights, playlists- basically everything that everyone else has mentioned I like.

Several 1" ring binders + plastic protectors + extra copies for awkward page turns + velcro'd pencil + audio device for playback + metronome

OR

iPad. Not just a silly toy.

[MartyNeilan]

Throughout this thread I keep wondering what's wrong with good old sheet music.

Methinks some folk just like shiny toys.

[bort]

Sorry, I just can't get over the thought that, besides battery life, if it falls off your stand and breaks you are totally f---ed. If you're gigging enough that you are using the iPad to lighten the load, chances are you won't know the piece well enough to fake it. My preference is and always will be paper music, kept on my person.

Reminds me a bit of a community band trip to Europe about 8 years ago. Director told us to put all our music in 2 boxes, which would be checked luggage. Big surprise, one of the boxes didn't make our connecting flight and finished the trip a day behind us. About 1/3 of us had no music for our dress rehearsal later that day.

During the rehearsal, without music, I nailed about 90% of the music and could fake the other 10% well enough. At the break:

Director: I thought you didn't have any music?
Me: I don't, it's with the others that are lost
Director: You played that all from memory? It sounded really good.
Me: Well, we've been playing these pieces for 5 months, I couldn't *not* memorize it.

I don't think he really appreciate my answer, but it was the truth!

I think in a case like this, an iPad would be a good backup, but I would never depend on it as a primary source.

[chronolith]

I tend to work the other way around. I have all my music archived on my ipad as a backup in case something goes awry with my sheet music (and thanks to IMSLP, I am often backing up the trombone section also). I am sure all of you have had one or two trombone players in your life who have needed a little extra help...

My iPad shines on the practice stand though, which I think is where it belongs. As an orchestra player I can't complain much about the weight of music I am carrying around, but all of my solo, etude, and excerpt material is quite another story. ForScore is a great app (once you learn how to use it) and syncs up with Dropbox.

[Bubba Blasen]

I am just about to get an iPad, in spite of the drawbacks mentioned (which I understand).
I would prefer a bigger screen size, but seeing one on a bandstand convinced me that it was big enough.

MY concern/question for the group:

I want to use this to hold and access the commonly used collection of @10 jazz fake books with the master INDEX.
Using the Adobe reader on any computer, you can use the index to look up a tune and then CLICK on the tune name and then the correct page in the correct book will quickly open.

HOWEVER, with the iPad, one does not use Adobe reader, you use an app. I know there are a few apps the display pdfs, but to my knowledge, there is not an app that will open a specific page from an index file.

Is there an app that does what Adobe reader does?

Thanks, Bubba

PS I do know there is a fake book app that contains chord changes to a large number of tunes, but I want see the lead sheets, and have the much larger selection of the big fake book collection

[Rick F]

I just started experimenting using ForScore on my iPad to read music. It does show promise as it wasn't as hard to read as I thought it would be. Since I'm over 60, I have to wear special music glasses — which work fine with the iPad. Some of the concerns mentioned in this thread are also concerns of mine. Turning a page, although easy enough to tap the screen, I'd have to have a few beats rest to do so... or get one of those blue-tooth pedals.

BTW, for those who use Finale or Silbelius, CutePDF writer works well. It's free and installs as another printer driver. Just select 'CutePDF' as a printer, and name your file and print it to desktop.