My songbook (lyric/chords) approach / Transferring files to an iPad

[Acousticado]

No more thick, heavy, cumbersome books/binders for me. I've been creating a PowerPoint song catalogue on a laptop, each song displaying in a two column slide template in a large font with color-coded chord indicators, some songs spanning 2-3 slides. I have over 100 songs in it now, and I expect to enter a couple of hundred more. A lot of time and effort went into it.

When I use it at home or at gatherings, upon opening the file, I do a 'crtl-F' to open the "Find" box and I'll leave it open. That way I can quickly enter a few letters of the song or artist I want to find, and voila. I'll have a printed master song list for ease of reference. Then, when ready to play a chosen song, I hit 'shift-F5' to view in full-screen mode. With a mouse positioned on the floor (buttons facing me), I can tap the left button with my right foot to advance to the next screen while playing. To change songs, I hit 'esc', then using the mouse pad (rather than the mouse 'pedal' on the floor -- they'll both work), I search for the next song. It really is quick and easy. I've also duplicated the file to create set lists with the songs I plan to play, in proper order so I just keep advancing the screen. The backlit screen works great in low light and all players referring to it can easily see.

Now, my question: I have read that the iPad is a good songbook monitor, hopefully as good as the set-up I have going. If so and I want to transition from my laptop to an iPad, does anyone know if the iPad will recognize my PowerPoint file and display my format like I have it? Or, will I be in for many more hours of adjustments? If so, I'll probably stick to what I'm doing.

[daza152]

I might not be old but I am into old school and prefer my messy song books as they tell a story of when I was transcribing songs down or little bits here and there, it has character.....whats next electronic guitars?

[susitna]

There may be some issues. You'll have to use Keynote instead of PowerPoint, which is a Microsoft application. There might be some reformatting to do, but it should work. However, you can't use a USB mouse with an iPad. You'd have to jailbreak the iPad to use a bluetooth mouse.

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by susitna

There may be some issues. You'll have to use Keynote instead of PowerPoint, which is a Microsoft application. There might be some reformatting to do, but it should work. However, you can't use a USB mouse with an iPad. You'd have to jailbreak the iPad to use a bluetooth mouse.

Thanks. I think I read somewhere that there might be an app for the iPad when used as song catalogue that would recognize a foot tap to change the page/screen.

[markm2553]

Some folks have far more trust in their laptop than I do mine.

Maybe I just need a new one...

[sjino]

What a great idea!

I don't know if there's an easy way to transfer your slides to iPad, but if all else fails and you can't find any other way, you can always take snapshots of your PowerPoint slides and then use a photo viewer on the iPad. There are some freeware screen capture programs, or you could use something like Snagit to capture your slides in jpeg or similar format.

Good luck.

[skillet]

Another alternative would be to scan them with a scanner and create a PDF songbook (this way, no matter what platform you're on, you should be able to open it). You might even create multiple PDFs, one for each song, and find a useful way of naming the files so that a Search quickly shows the results you want.

I still use a notebook, although it is getting close to being full. I like being able to scribble notes here and there, but I've considered something like an iPad given it would be very convenient and not as messy. I haven't checked the App Store, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are applications you can get for the iPad that do all this for you (I know they have eBook and Comic Book readers, surely someone has come up with a music score/sheet application with a useable interface).

[Acousticado]

sjino/skillet, thanks for the ideas. Your suggestions seem like workable alternatives if it comes down to it.

[DrDavid]

Tom,

I'm not sure about the specific transition issues you'd face with your Powerpoint slides, but I've recently moved to an iPad as an alternative to 3-ring binders.

On the iPad I am using a wonderful app called OnSong, which handles many import formats (most of my songs are Word docs), organizes the songs into set lists, and displays lyrics/chords beautifully, including autoscroll functionality.

So far, I am finding this approach a workable and efficient improvement.

OnSong is truly impressive.

Hope that helps.

..

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by DrDavid

Tom,

I'm not sure about the specific transition issues you'd face with your Powerpoint slides, but I've recently moved to an iPad as an alternative to 3-ring binders.

On the iPad I am using a wonderful app called OnSong, which handles many import formats (most of my songs are Word docs), organizes the songs into set lists, and displays lyrics/chords beautifully, including autoscroll functionality.

So far, I am finding this approach a workable and efficient improvement.

OnSong is truly impressive.

Hope that helps.

..

That does help, David. Thank you. If the lyric spans more than one screen, how do you change screens on the iPad without breaking your flow?

[DrDavid]

Originally Posted by Acousticado

That does help, David. Thank you. If the lyric spans more than one screen, how do you change screens on the iPad without breaking your flow?

That's where the "auto scroll" comes in. You can set a tempo (beats per minute and/or beats per line), and then OnSong automatically adjusts to scroll the screen at the rate you need. Really spiffy.

..

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by DrDavid

That's where the "auto scroll" comes in. You can set a tempo (beats per minute and/or beats per line), and then OnSong automatically adjusts to scroll the screen at the rate you need. Really spiffy.

..

And the timing always works? If one is off at all, I'd think that could throw the player off a bit, no?

[DrDavid]

Originally Posted by Acousticado

And the timing always works? If one is off at all, I'd think that could throw the player off a bit, no?

It takes a bit of fiddling to set the auto scroll timing appropriately for each song, but once you get it in the ball park there's generally a good measure of "forgiveness" if you stray from the timing during performance.

By this I mean, it doesn't scroll an entire page at a time, but rather line by line. So even if you're a little ahead or a little behind the tempo, you're not suddenly going to lose your place in the lyrics. Instead, maybe your eye is on the middle of the iPad screen, when perfect tempo would have had you two or three lines farther up the screen.

In my case, I do try to format songs for a single page where possible. But for those that span more than one page, I am finding auto scroll to be remarkably workable.

..

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by DrDavid

It takes a bit of fiddling to set the auto scroll timing appropriately for each song, but once you get it in the ball park there's generally a good measure of "forgiveness" if you stray from the timing during performance.

By this I mean, it doesn't scroll an entire page at a time, but rather line by line. So even if you're a little ahead or a little behind the tempo, you're not suddenly going to lose your place in the lyrics. Instead, maybe your eye is on the middle of the iPad screen, when perfect tempo would have had you two or three lines farther up the screen.

In my case, I do try to format songs for a single page where possible. But for those that span more than one page, I am finding auto scroll to be remarkably workable.

..

Ok, I get it now. Thanks for the expanded explanation. Yeah, I can see how that would work quite well. I'm going to investigate it.

Thanks again, David!

[DrDavid]

Originally Posted by Acousticado

Ok, I get it now. Thanks for the expanded explanation. Yeah, I can see how that would work quite well. I'm going to investigate it.

Thanks again, David!

Good. Glad to help, Tom.

If you give OnSong a try, I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.

..