Need advice on tablet for music

wildbill1962 · #1 07-25-2020, 08:30 AM

Howdy everyone, I am looking for some of your great advice and wisdom. Been playing for 35 years, have binders full of lyrics with chords, but really need to change with the times. I see alot of players using tablets now and want to move in that direction. Want to keep it fairly budget friendly, but need something big enough for old eyes and user friendly. What tablet and app would you suggest I look at ? How do you turn pages or advance the lyrics while playing ? Looking forward to hearing your advice.

Thanks
Bill

JonPR · #2 07-25-2020, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildbill1962

Howdy everyone, I am looking for some of your great advice and wisdom. Been playing for 35 years, have binders full of lyrics with chords, but really need to change with the times. I see alot of players using tablets now and want to move in that direction. Want to keep it fairly budget friendly, but need something big enough for old eyes and user friendly. What tablet and app would you suggest I look at ? How do you turn pages or advance the lyrics while playing ? Looking forward to hearing your advice.

Thanks
Bill

Still old school here. (When I play live, I don't need any reference, it's all in my head. But then I'm not singing...)

So - no advice on tablets but I know you can get bluetooth footpedals to turn pages. (I got one myself to try to save manual keystrokes when using Transcribe software, but it didn't do what I needed - the software only partially recognised the device. But for simple commands like "next page" it would be fine. Some have twin pedals too.)

difalkner · #3 07-25-2020, 08:46 AM

I use an old iPad and OnSong app for my music playing in the Praise Band at church. I also use an AirTurn Bluetooth pedal to advance to the next page and song. It's been working just great for the last 5 or 6 years.

David

rllink · #4 07-25-2020, 09:05 AM

I use a ten inch Kindle Fire with a MobileSheets Pro app. I added an AirTurn BT200S-2 Bluetooth Pedal Page Turner. The page turner is very small and easy to carry around. I have less than two hundred bucks into the whole thing. I use the Kindle for a lot of things. It is a very handy and cheap tablet. I will never go back to the stacks of three ring binders that I used to haul around everywhere.

JimCA · #5 07-25-2020, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildbill1962

Howdy everyone, I am looking for some of your great advice and wisdom. Been playing for 35 years, have binders full of lyrics with chords, but really need to change with the times. I see alot of players using tablets now and want to move in that direction. Want to keep it fairly budget friendly, but need something big enough for old eyes and user friendly. What tablet and app would you suggest I look at ? How do you turn pages or advance the lyrics while playing ? Looking forward to hearing your advice.

Thanks
Bill

The larger iPad Pro is ideal for this because it is close to 8.5" x 11" page size. So, just put it on music stand like a sheet of paper. I use forScore app -- lots of functionality, page turning with pedals, multiple set lists, metronome, associate and play recording with score... Rotate to landscape mode and 2 pages of score displayed, although smaller. I do a lot of editing of pdf files (on mac) to squeeze complete scores to 1 or 2 pages so no page turning needed.

wildbill1962 · #6 07-25-2020, 11:20 AM

Thanks for sharing your great advice and wisdom. I would like the iPad pro, but that's way out of my budget. Will take a look at the kindle that rlling suggested.

ceciltguitar · #7 07-25-2020, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimCA

The larger iPad Pro is ideal for this because it is close to 8.5" x 11" page size. So, just put it on music stand like a sheet of paper. I use forScore app -- lots of functionality, page turning with pedals, multiple set lists, metronome, associate and play recording with score... Rotate to landscape mode and 2 pages of score displayed, although smaller. I do a lot of editing of pdf files (on mac) to squeeze complete scores to 1 or 2 pages so no page turning needed.

+1 iPad and ForScore. My wife likes Onsong on her IPad, as she uses strictly lyrics and chords, not sheet music.

wildbill1962 · #8 07-25-2020, 04:10 PM

With Apps will I be able to scan or take pic of the lyrics I have and download and use ?
Can you take lyrics from places like chordie and copy and paste into the app ?

New to this, so forgive all the questions

rllink · #9 07-25-2020, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildbill1962

With Apps will I be able to scan or take pic of the lyrics I have and download and use ?
Can you take lyrics from places like chordie and copy and paste into the app ?

New to this, so forgive all the questions

I haven't explored everything you can do with it. Don't plan on using the free MobileSheets. It doesn't do much. You need The pro.The app is not very expensive. I do know that MobileSheets pro is PDF friendly. Everything I put in it has to be a PDF. If you can save things as a PDF you can put it in the app. If you can't and don't want to learn how, it isn't going to work for you. I love it though.

YamahaGuy · #10 07-25-2020, 04:52 PM

My wife and I use Samsung 10.1A. In the app we use, you can increase the font size. I use my finger to swipe (I usually have enough time to). The app has an auto scroll feature that allows you to adjust the speed. Songs that are imported as Word files can be modified and the app will allow you to transpose them. If you import the song as a pdf (or an image file) you cannot modify anything. The app we use costs $5.99 per device (1 time fee). Songbook Pro is what we use.

JonPR · #11 07-26-2020, 05:52 AM

Just checking out forScore pro, and I saw this:

"If your device features Apple’s TrueDepth camera system, you can use facial gestures to turn pages—either by turning your head or by moving your lips to the left or right."

Sounds great, but I can imagine the likely problems... "Ow, I just played a wrong note! Oh no, now my face just turned the page!"

And if you reserve a special facial gesture to turn the page, that could well look like a bizarre tic...

rllink · #12 07-26-2020, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonPR

Just checking out forScore pro, and I saw this:

"If your device features Apple’s TrueDepth camera system, you can use facial gestures to turn pages—either by turning your head or by moving your lips to the left or right."

Sounds great, but I can imagine the likely problems... "Ow, I just played a wrong note! Oh no, now my face just turned the page!"

And if you reserve a special facial gesture to turn the page, that could well look like a bizarre tic...

I can touch my nose with my tongue. Just thinking that would work well enough..

For anyone thinking of going the Kindle and MobileSheets route, for your two hundred bucks you aren't going yo get what you will get for seven hundred bucks, so don't compare it to an i Pad and OnSong. The question is always how can I get into it cheap, and the answer is a Kindle and MobileSheets. You get what you pay for and that setup has limits. I'm saying that for my purposes it works great.

wildbill1962 · #13 07-26-2020, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rllink

I can touch my nose with my tongue. Just thinking that would work well enough..

For anyone thinking of going the Kindle and MobileSheets route, for your two hundred bucks you aren't going yo get what you will get for seven hundred bucks, so don't compare it to an i Pad and OnSong. The question is always how can I get into it cheap, and the answer is a Kindle and MobileSheets. You get what you pay for and that setup has limits. I'm saying that for my purposes it works great.

I think I am going with the Kindle and Mobilesheets, I believe it will do everything that I need.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your advice and wisdom. Much appreciated!

penname · #14 07-26-2020, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonPR

Just checking out forScore pro, and I saw this:

"If your device features Apple’s TrueDepth camera system, you can use facial gestures to turn pages—either by turning your head or by moving your lips to the left or right."

Sounds great, but I can imagine the likely problems... "Ow, I just played a wrong note! Oh no, now my face just turned the page!"

And if you reserve a special facial gesture to turn the page, that could well look like a bizarre tic...

I tried the ForScore facial recognition feature on a large iPad Pro for several months. And yes I managed to turn pages by mistake or suffered from laggy response. But my instructor never commented on any strange facial features. Not sure if that is because she didn’t see them or she just expects strange facial expressions from me.

MartinGibsonFan · #15 07-26-2020, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildbill1962

I think I am going with the Kindle and Mobilesheets, I believe it will do everything that I need.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your advice and wisdom. Much appreciated!

Mobile Sheets at $13 seems like a very reasonable alternative, given that you have to buy the Kindle device, not sure how much that is.

I was thinking along the same lines, scan your source to a PDF and then display it on your device.

It eliminates the complexity of learning the application, i am very curious on Mobile Sheets, at $13, it has to be a Keep It Simple Stupid application, which are my favorite type.

I would however, be concerned that by purchasing Mobile Sheets, you are buying software on the internet without a physical media or hardwired key. Par for the course these modern days. But I'm always suspicious buying virtual applications without a physical back up. Something kids wouldn't understand these days.

J