Internet and cell phones helped us at the gig last night

[mrpackerguy]

Got a request for "Fishin in the Dark" by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band at the gig last night. So most of the musicians in the band, having heard that song in our youth, knew we could fake our way through the music. Singer knew the melody, whips out his Samsung Mesmerize, gets on the internet, pulls up the lyrics in less than 30 secs...we're good to go. The Bride's sister who requested it was in tears after we played it because it was her and her sister's favorite song growing up. Epic win all around.

[slap-a-da-bass]

The singer in my old band did a guest spot with a local band, and he sang rebal yell wihile reading the lyrics off his blackberry. The crowd thought it was pretty cool to whip out a song that way.

[ggunn]

Our keyboardist also works as a hired gun in a couple of cover bands, and he always has his iPad and iPhone with him at gigs. His iPhone generates a mini WiFi that he connects to with his iPad (at least that's how I understand it), so he can download chords and lyrics on the fly and display them on the larger screen. He's also got his whole fake book on the iPad.

[SelenaBassGirl]

that's what my bf does, he has the lyrics on his laptop and transports it on another screen that we use in front of the stage on karaoke nights. He also uses his laptop during band breaks for DJ music as well as karaoke nights.

[SteveC]

Originally Posted by ggunn

Our keyboardist also works as a hired gun in a couple of cover bands, and he always has his iPad and iPhone with him at gigs. His iPhone generates a mini WiFi that he connects to with his iPad (at least that's how I understand it), so he can download chords and lyrics on the fly and display them on the larger screen. He's also got his whole fake book on the iPad.

This is what we do. 2 of us have iPads and I wouldn't be without it any more. We have a ton of jazz, pop and rock fake books scanned in as PDFs and the ability to look up lyrics, chords, etc. A great tool. Sure beats lugging all those books around.

We are the only people I know of around here that are using them so we get looks and comments on our use of iPads and how cool it is.