Interesting idea

[tbeltrans]

Recently watching a ProGuitar youtube video on arranging Summertime for guitar, I noticed that he was writing out the arrangement on a tablet, though I don't know what brand or model, nor the software he was using.

What I did notice was that he was using a tablet pen on a display of blank music staves (no TAB). He could quickly erase and write over as the arrangement progressed.

Here is the link to that video for anyone interested in one person's arranging process:



I have an Android-based Samsung S8 Ultra (14.6" display, and would much prefer his approach to using music notation software because writing by hand is so much faster for me.

After experimenting with some PDF edit type packages, I found that Write On PDF is simple, free, and works well for this purpose. It is easy enough to find blank staff PDFs, or staff plus TAB, or even just TAB if you prefer. Bring that file up in Write On PDF, and then just start writing your music.

I make a copy of the blank stave file and name it whatever I need to remember what it is for, and then bring that up in Write On PDF.

For me and anyone else who works with guitar and pencil/staff paper, this is a fast an easy approach. Samsung's S Pen and tablet are perfect for this and I assume that many other tablets and Apple's iPad products support this sort of thing well enough these days.

One thing I appreciate about Samsung's system is that if my hand touches the display while writing, it doesn't make any marks. Only the S Pen does while it is in use. For erasing, I can use my finger to erase a larger area or the S Pen for more detailed erasing.

So now I have the best of both worlds, the pencil/paper approach I like to use for arranging for solo guitar, coupled with the speed and ease of my tablet.

If I were to publish an arrangement, then it would be time to take my scribblings to a music notation program. My preference on a tablet is Crescendo - easy to use for a notation program, but of course not nearly as fast and easy as the "by hand" approach described above. All notation programs I have tried just feel clunky compared to the pencil and paper approach when working out an arrangement.

Tony

[islandguitar]

This was just great Tony!! Great process.....beautifully explained. Thanks

[mr. beaumont]

This is cool.

I really need to enter the 21st century when it comes to this stuff.

[tbeltrans]

One thing I probably forgot to mention...

Initially, I was looking for a PDF editor, but soon realized what I really wanted was an app that could scribble on a PDF without modifying the PDF itself. There are a number of apps that can do just that, but most pack in too much other crap that I didn't need and it seems many are now going to a subscription model instead of buying the "pro" version with a one time purchase. I never liked subscriptions for software.

Fortunately, Write On PDF is free and only does that one function that I needed. When you load your PDF staff paper, you are writing your notation on top of that, and are NOT editing the original PDF itself. This is just like writing on staff paper with pencil. When you erase, you don't erase the staff itself, but only whatever you wrote on it.

I personally tend to prefer staff only and not TAB. I find that standard notation tells me all I need without the clutter of TAB, but others might prefer to find TAB instead or TAB + staff.

Tony

[BlueStarfish]

Tony, I’ve been using Notability on my iPad for a very similar iPad-based workflow for a couple of years. I’m not doing anything fancy, just lead sheets for songs and tunes where I haven’t easily found a suitable version in a printed fake book or online. It works great. The end result doesn’t look like professionally prepared notation, it’s handwritten of course, but it’s just for me so that’s fine. Notability lets me not only do the music staves part but also easily add a typed inserted box or added page with the lyrics. There are proper music notation software packages available for iPad but they just seem too complicated for what I need.

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by BlueStarfish

Tony, I’ve been using Notability on my iPad for a very similar iPad-based workflow for a couple of years. I’m not doing anything fancy, just lead sheets for songs and tunes where I haven’t easily found a suitable version in a printed fake book or online. It works great. The end result doesn’t look like professionally prepared notation, it’s handwritten of course, but it’s just for me so that’s fine. Notability lets me not only do the music staves part but also easily add a typed inserted box or added page with the lyrics. There are proper music notation software packages available for iPad but they just seem too complicated for what I need.

On youtube, I see there are many comparison videos between the Samsung S8 Ultra and one version of Apple iPad or another. These videos seem to claim that the Samsung is superior in many cases. However I believe that Apple has it over the Android world in terms of software, and that is hard to beat.

The reason I haven't gone with Apple is that it would be too costly at this point in my life to switch to Apple's ecosystem. I am fine with the Android and PC worlds and for the most part, the software seems to work for me, but I must admit that some of the software I see for the iPad is rather compelling.

Since I was a software engineer before I retired, I am comfortable writing code and Java would be just another language, so I could write the software that would really fit well for me, but I really am not inspired to spend my retirement years writing still more code and Write On PDF works very well for me at the moment.

Tony

[BlueStarfish]

Hi Tony — for clarity wasn’t trying to convince you to get an iPad, but rather just validating that your suggestion of “mark up a PDF full of blank staves” works well on iPad for me and I bet it works well on other devices too. Cheap and cheerful and simple for the win.

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by BlueStarfish

Hi Tony — for clarity wasn’t trying to convince you to get an iPad, but rather just validating that your suggestion of “mark up a PDF full of blank staves” works well on iPad for me and I bet it works well on other devices too. Cheap and cheerful and simple for the win.

BlueStarfish (what a cool name!), I didn't think you were. However, I have noticed that the iPad does have some pretty nice and polished apps compared to the typical fare on Android platforms. Android is essentially stripped down Linux, but the development environment is quite different and probably doesn't attract the "big guns" in the Linux world. For the most part, the Android apps are plenty good, but the iPad stuff seems that much better on the whole. I was just acknowledging that.

Tony