Sheet Music charts on tablets

[Merryfisher]

Does anyone use ipad like tablet thingys that attach to their mic stand to read their dots on stage? i got few gigs coming up where chart stands are'nt allowed - please don't suggest committing the parts to memory - there is too much and it just ain't gonna happen. An inobtrusive yet decent sized tablet would be ideal - but its gotta be big enough and bright enough to read without the battery failing half way through - and easy to scroll pages! anyone advice out there?

 

[Tenor Viol]

I have a partially sighted colleague in orchestra who uses a tablet - but it's not exactly compact. It's an A4 tablet, which is mounted on a stand similar to an orchestra music stand and requires a power supply. It has a pedal to control scrolling

 

[Jazzaferri]

I use my iPad2 (ancient now) with forScore app. Works a treat. I have all the sax parts for all the saxes in our R & B band and it doesn't get any heavier to carry around. If you have good eyes the iPad mini is small enough to escape notice. Attach it to your mic stand and hey presto.

Get a Bluetooth pedal to flip the pages. Couple of different ones. Sunlight can make the screen hard to see so bright light requires some placement thought. Dark is great.

I am getting a mini soon to replace my aging 2

 

[Targa]

I play at home and use an ipad on the music stand and flip pages by swiping no complicated expensive extras.

 

[Jazzaferri]

I use my finger too as none of the pedals now on the market will work with my ancient iPad.

Having used a pedal once though they come in handy on those page turns in the middle of a complex figure. And people cant detect you are using a chart as easily. LOL

The iPad pro is same size as a normal sheet. The Widnows 10 Surface4 works but the program is more cumbersome to load the songs onto.

 

[nigeld]

This is reviving an old thread, but I want to use my 12.9" iPad Pro with ForScore for music. I am a bit nervous about simply putting the iPad on my music stand - I imagine it could easily fall off.. Does anyone have experience doing this? And can anyone recommend a tablet holder that can take the large iPad Pro?

 

[David Dorning]

I have a K&M iPad holder for my iPad air. I think they also do other sizes for the bigger iPads. Holds it very firmly and clamps onto
any vertical tube. Using Forescore.

I tried the Airturn PED (the one on the right) but it kept losing bluetooth connection and eventually stopped working altogether, Customer service were helpful but the kit wasn't very good quality. I now have a STRICH BT-FP2 (the one on the left) which is much more reliable.

 

[nigeld]

I have a K&M iPad holder for my iPad air. I think they also do other sizes for the bigger iPads.

I can’t find a. K&M holder for the large size iPad Pro. And I thought I was being clever getting the big one so I could see the music better!

Sadly, I also have got an Airturn PED. I will have a go with it.

 

[David Dorning]

I can’t find a. K&M holder for the large size iPad Pro. And I thought I was being clever getting the big one so I could see the music better!

Sadly, I also have got an Airturn PED. I will have a go with it.

I don’t know exactly what sizes K&M do but I know from experience they do one larger than my Ipad Air because initially I ordered the wrong size and got one too big! Hope you do ok with the PED, yours might be fine.

 

[Wonko]

I can’t find a. K&M holder for the large size iPad Pro. And I thought I was being clever getting the big one so I could see the music better!

On their website they claim it holds an I-pad Pro:
A holder for everything from 9-inch tablets to iPad Pro
"Alongside classic iPads, the iPad Air, a Samsung Galaxy Tab (starting at 9.7”) and the Microsoft Surface or Surface Pro, the holder also fits other models, such as the large iPad Pro. "
It is a news item from november 2015
And on this page All iPad, smartphone & tablet holders | König & Meyer Blog is a complete list of which holder is suitable for which tablet.....

 

[thomsax]

chart stands are'nt allowed

.. but it's ok to have an ipad + holder? I use to have my charts beside the monitor on the floor. No stand. But an ipad can be place there as well.

 

[Colin the Bear]

Stick your phone in a lyre?

 

[nigeld]

Many thanks for the information. I think it is this one for the 12.9" iPad Pro
K&M 19791 Tablet Holder, Black at Gear4music.com

I have ordered one, so I will soon find out.

 

[nigeld]

Stick your phone in a lyre?

Could be tricky with an iPad!

A phone would be OK for simple charts, but I'm planning to use the iPad for classical bassoon orchestra music and I think reading my part for Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition off an iPhone might be a bit tedious - it's 27 A4 pages long. The page turns are quite tricky in the paper version because it's really fast. I'm hoping that the foot pedal will help. But I will still need to learn the notes!

 

[Colin the Bear]

Could be tricky with an elephant too, which is why I wrote phone. It was a suggestion for the OP where no stands are allowed.

 

[David Dorning]

Could be tricky with an iPad!

A phone would be OK for simple charts, but I'm planning to use the iPad for classical bassoon orchestra music and I think reading my part for Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition off an iPhone might be a bit tedious - it's 27 A4 pages long. The page turns are quite tricky in the paper version because it's really fast. I'm hoping that the foot pedal will help. But I will still need to learn the notes!

That reminded me when I first got a foot pedal changer I was surprised how tricky it was to do a simple thing like pressing it at the right moment whilst playing. It's also more difficult that you would think to move your foot accurately if you have to turn back and forward for repeats. Lot of fun if you get that wrong.... Also, having said the STRICH was more reliable it does have one annoying habit of going into sleep mode after a while, then you need to press it twice before it responds. It's worth doing a quick page forward and back before starting to play to make sure it is going to be awake when you need it. But these are not big problems, overall it's a really good bit of kit when you get used to it.

 

[nigeld]

That reminded me when I first got a foot pedal changer I was surprised how tricky it was to do a simple thing like pressing it at the right moment whilst playing. It's also more difficult that you would think to move your foot accurately if you have to turn back and forward for repeats. Lot of fun if you get that wrong.... Also, having said the STRICH was more reliable it does have one annoying habit of going into sleep mode after a while, then you need to press it twice before it responds. It's worth doing a quick page forward and back before starting to play to make sure it is going to be awake when you need it. But these are not big problems, overall it's a really good bit of kit when you get used to it.

I am using the ForScore app on the iPad, which has a feature for getting back to the right page for a repeat, so I hope this will not be a problem. ForScore also has a feature that turns half a page at a time so that I don't need to get the page turn timing exactly right. But I will be interested to see how I get on with the foot pedal in practice. I can easily imagine hitting the wrong button and going backwards, or going forwards too much and getting hopelessly lost.

A "feature" I noticed yesterday is that the Bluetooth foot pedal registers itself with the iPad as a Bluetooth keyboard. This means that the iPad pop-up keyboard is disabled, which confused me. The foot pedal has a special button to bring up the iPad keyboard.

 

[Colin the Bear]

Wasn't technology supposed to help? I often find a pencil and paper quickest.

 

[nigeld]

I got the K&M tablet holder from Gear4Music today. It is a solid piece of kit and it holds the tablet firmly, but it is rather big and clunky.

The holder can be clamped onto a music stand or it can be screwed directly onto the top of a microphone stand, without using the connecting arm, which is a lot neater.