Managing my acoustic music

[Johann]

Originally Posted by Kelly Grayum

Do all you OnSong users realize all you have to do is go to Ultimate Guitar, find the song you want and then just click “share” then click on the OnSong icon ( you have to enable this in settings) and it imports directly to OnSong App. It also only imports the chord chart automatically none of the other mumbo jumbo on the screen. No need to convert anything. It does it automatically and all the OnSong functions ie, font size, capo, key change etc. work like a champ.

Unless I'm checking the wrong place, when I click Share within the Ultimate Guitar iOS it wants me to have a pro account (which I don't have). I don't see a "share" option on Windows machine using a browser either.

[Skip Ellis]

Originally Posted by shawnco999

I’ve used OnSong for years and always had great success with it - but, the “show entire song on one page” need has caused me to recently convert to SongBook. SongBook allows multiple columns on a single page as a view option. I’ve always used text files with either app in chordpro format so I can quickly change keys, etc. No scanning or pdf files, too limiting in the long run. SongBook runs on iOS and Windows, is editable and shareable everywhere, and again can be used wherever a simple text file can be used.

I recently downloaded the demo of Songbook to my PC and it works great - i can copy and paste Chord Pro files with no problem, HOWEVER, I downloaded the paid version to my Fire tablet and, while I can copy and paste files, they don't come in right - the chords are all bunched at the beginning of a line. Am I doing something wrong or does it just not work well on portable devices. My duo has several hundred tunes and I like to be able to have the chords in front of me for some of the weird pop stuff that we don't do often. Any suggestions? Does Songbook have a forum for help with stuff like this?

[shawnco999]

Originally Posted by Skip Ellis

I recently downloaded the demo of Songbook to my PC and it works great - i can copy and paste Chord Pro files with no problem, HOWEVER, I downloaded the paid version to my Fire tablet and, while I can copy and paste files, they don't come in right - the chords are all bunched at the beginning of a line. Am I doing something wrong or does it just not work well on portable devices. My duo has several hundred tunes and I like to be able to have the chords in front of me for some of the weird pop stuff that we don't do often. Any suggestions? Does Songbook have a forum for help with stuff like this?

You may have some problem on the Fire tablet app - I'm not familiar with that platform. Works great for me going between the Windows version and the iPAD iOS version. I'm not sure if there are forums for SongBook, however, I have asked many questions directly of LinkeSoft (they developed and maintain SongBook) and they have been very responsive with a few issues I had early on.

[shawnco999]

Originally Posted by justonwo

Does that format contain the tablature, the time signature, and the musical time? I'm not familiar with chordpro format.

To my knowledge, the chordpro format supports the following: (pasted from a google search and finding https://www.chordpro.org/chordpro/Ch...irectives.html)

Each song can have meta-data associated, for example the song title. Meta-data are mostly used by programs that help organizing collections of ChordPro songs.

title (short: t)
subtitle (short: st)
artist
composer
lyricist
copyright
album
year
key
time
tempo
duration
capo
meta

[justonwo]

Originally Posted by shawnco999

To my knowledge, the chordpro format supports the following: (pasted from a google search and finding https://www.chordpro.org/chordpro/Ch...irectives.html)

Each song can have meta-data associated, for example the song title. Meta-data are mostly used by programs that help organizing collections of ChordPro songs.

title (short: t)
subtitle (short: st)
artist
composer
lyricist
copyright
album
year
key
time
tempo
duration
capo
meta

Yeah, I did the Google search as well and it seems like it really only capture chords and lyrics. Seems like maybe that’s all the OP may need. I’m used to full sheet music with all the standard and tablature notation.

[shawnco999]

Originally Posted by justonwo

Yeah, I did the Google search as well and it seems like it really only capture chords and lyrics. Seems like maybe that’s all the OP may need. I’m used to full sheet music with all the standard and tablature notation.

Agreed - if you want something beyond a cheat sheet of music (chords and lyrics) then go with something like Guitar Pro (I have that for more extensive notation where needed).

[Twitch]

I recently posted the response below on another thread. Tablets are great and I highly recommend finding one with an app you like. Once you get rolling you'll be amazed at how simplified your music organization life has become and will never look back.

"We use 11" Insignia Windows 10 tablets in our performing duo. Each song is a single page word doc, converted to .pdf. I'm a capable software engineer so I wrote my own app that we use to gig. We can load in different set lists on the fly, each tailored for the specific venue or for 2/3/4 hr. gigs.

In addition to displaying lyrics and chord reminders, it displays the next 3 songs titles coming up, the current time, an optional blinking light metronome for proper count-in tempo, auto scroll, and a provision to swap in an alternate song for each song during the set if we're moved to do so. It also holds our entire song base in case we get a request that we can honor - its very quick to just call it up.

We will always use tablets. We keep them low and unobtrusive, use them only for memory nudges, no issues with wind or dim lighting, and have never suffered the embarrassment of forgetting lyrics."

[valleyguy]

Originally Posted by Johann

Unless I'm checking the wrong place, when I click Share within the Ultimate Guitar iOS it wants me to have a pro account (which I don't have). I don't see a "share" option on Windows machine using a browser either.

To import a song to Onsong, open Safari, find your song on Ultimate Guitars website, then click the box with the arrow to send/share to Onsong.

Works great. However, there is always some correction of chord locations or wrong chords to be made. In the Onsong editor, you can convert chord-over-lyric to bracketed-chord (chordpro) also.

[Skip Ellis]

Originally Posted by shawnco999

You may have some problem on the Fire tablet app - I'm not familiar with that platform. Works great for me going between the Windows version and the iPAD iOS version. I'm not sure if there are forums for SongBook, however, I have asked many questions directly of LinkeSoft (they developed and maintain SongBook) and they have been very responsive with a few issues I had early on.

Thanks for the tips! I contacted them and they got back to me in 15 minutes! I found that I had to license the PC version as well as the tablet app. After that it was just a matter of getting Dropbox configured on both machines. Now I can download chord/lyrics onto the PC at my leisure then just transfer them to the tablet for use onstage. My duo partner uses karaoke backup files so he can see the words on a separate monitor (we have a LOT of tunes and he's old like me so we need all the help we can get!..LOL). I run the laptop, call the tunes, make sure the levels are good, plus play lead and rhythm guitar as needed.........he just sings.....doesn't seem fair! Anyway, this lets me keep quickly available chord/cheat sheets for any tunes that are obscure or that we don't do that often or that I just can't keep straight in my aged brain. Thanks again!!

[Kelly Grayum]

Originally Posted by Johann

Unless I'm checking the wrong place, when I click Share within the Ultimate Guitar iOS it wants me to have a pro account (which I don't have). I don't see a "share" option on Windows machine using a browser either.

I don't have the Pro version. If you click on the small box with an arrow in it (at the top left of the browser) it will give you all your options to "share" the chord chart to. Once you have enabled sharing to Onsong in your settings. Just click the Onsong icon. Then open Onsong app and it will ask if you want to import the song. Click import and the song will appear. Their may be a few minor mistakes in the transfer but they are easily fixed in the Onsong Editor. I usually delete any words with brackets around them as they cause problems in Onsong. And make a few minor adjustments. I spend maybe 3 minutes to add/edit a song to Onsong. I just use the general charts with chords above the words. It's more of a reference thing for me. I play at multiple churches with different worship bands all the time or other church or community functions were the musician lineup changes for me constantly. Also, the I might be asked to play a song that I haven't played in years and in a key that I am not used to with 30 minutes notice or less. This is why for me an app like Onsong is so invaluable. There is just no way my mind can memorize that much music and transpose to a different key with little to no rehearsal with a band I've never played with before. I played at a "See you at the Pole" youth rally Sunday night at a church I'd never been to before with a band I'd never played with. The told me the songs they would like to do the day before, but when I showed up 2 of the songs they wanted to play in a key I had never played them in because they had a very inexperienced keyboard player. I said no problem, because an app like Onsong enables me to do so. I wish I could tell you I have this immense talent and can memorize songs and transpose them on the fly in my feeble brain, but that's not the case. I guess I am asked frequently to lead at these types of events because of my abilities to lead and engage the audience...not my mad guitar skills

[Johann]

Originally Posted by valleyguy

To import a song to Onsong, open Safari, find your song on Ultimate Guitars website, then click the box with the arrow to send/share to Onsong.

Works great. However, there is always some correction of chord locations or wrong chords to be made. In the Onsong editor, you can convert chord-over-lyric to bracketed-chord (chordpro) also.

I go to Ultimate Guitars and search on Beginnings. The first two things that come up are CRD files. I can click the Safari arrow (bottom center) and share / Save to Onsong from there, but that doesn't save the chords and lyrics because there is no specific song selected. If I I click the link to select the CRD document I want, then select "Continue with Safari" (the other option is to open it with the Ultimate Guitars app), it shows me the lyrics and chords but there is no Safari arrow on that screen.

I can't figure out what you guys are doing to get this to work. I'm using an iPhone.

[Johann]

One thing I haven't liked about Onsong and Songbook, and this may be more of a commentary on the ChordPro format, is that I'd really prefer it when I click on a chord above a lyric to just see the variant of that chord that I want it to show. I pay attention to how a chord progression flows for a particular song and so I may play even the same chord 3 different ways within a song depending on where I'm at. In other words, one of the values of using a cheat sheet is that I can remember how I like to play a song-- not just that it's an A chord in the chorus, but specifically that it's the partial A at the 5th fret.

Am I missing a way to do this?

[lisciandro]

Originally Posted by shawnco999

I’ve used OnSong for years and always had great success with it - but, the “show entire song on one page” need has caused me to recently convert to SongBook. SongBook allows multiple columns on a single page as a view option. I’ve always used text files with either app in chordpro format so I can quickly change keys, etc. No scanning or pdf files, too limiting in the long run. SongBook runs on iOS and Windows, is editable and shareable everywhere, and again can be used wherever a simple text file can be used.

Could you explain how you can get the entire song on one page with SongBook?

Thanx

[Mr. Jelly]

At this point I'd say this thread as made a good point has to the logic of the old three ring binder.

[embo]

I use Ultimate Guitar (paid via the phone app, total of $23 and I have all features at that price), and a Mugig pedal for scrolling via BlueTooth. It works really well. I did a gig this summer with a laptop and the Mugig pedal, and it worked just fine. Downsides are that you need Internet access for UG to work in a gig setting. But I really like the organization and interface for UG, so I'll keep stuff in UG, but print it to PDF if I know I'll need it where Internet is shaky.

I've also used ChordPro based stuff (Chordastic and Songsheet Generator), and they were pretty good as well, but I didn't care for the interface as much, and I hated not having access to my music from any device, anywhere. UG gets me that, so it won out.

I've tried memorizing, and I can get only so far before my aging brain craps out on me. I need the crutch of the music either for the chords or for the lyrics...sometimes both!