A dumb question about tablets

[DoctorZee]

I’ve never been a tablet guy, but my wife has an old iPad that she doesn’t use, and I have hundreds of handwritten or typed chord charts that I’ve made through the years. If I wanted to load those onto the iPad for a practice or gig, is it as simple as scanning them into a PDF and opening the PDF on the tablet? Or is there a better way?

 

[briandavismurph]

I’ve never been a tablet guy, but my wife has an old iPad that she doesn’t use, and I have hundreds of handwritten or typed chord charts that I’ve made through the years. If I wanted to load those onto the iPad for a practice or gig, is it as simple as scanning them into a PDF and opening the PDF on the tablet? Or is there a better way?

I use adobe scan and acrobat reader, pretty easy and works great, and its free

 

[Wfrance3]

I have lots of songs scanned into my "Google Drive". You can get a small cloud based storage solution for free from several places online. Dropbox, Google, Apple, if you have an iPhone/iPad. They all charge more if you grow to need more space, but if all you do is put .PDFs on your drive accout, you probably won't be out of room very soon.

If you are scanning, there is a little tool that I use to make PDFs smaller:
Compress PDF Files with NXPowerLite | Neuxpower
Not necessarily to save space, although it does do that. I like to make my PDFs as small as possible so they load up faster on my pad.

If it's an older ipad like mine, it probably has wi-fi only capability. Be aware, that if you do go to a cloud-based storage solution, you won't have access to all your stuff unless there is wi-fi where you are located. You can download a .pdf reader that will put what you select on on your pad so you can access it whether you have wi-fi or not, so be sure to get one of those. Watch for capability to do on-screen editing. If you find the right one, you can use your finger, or a pad-compatible stylus to make notes right on the .PDF.

Another thing that may prove helpful is using your phone as a "hot spot". My phone carrier includes this feature with my cell plan, so I can just make my iPhone the wi-fi when I need it. I never leave this feature on because skeve-bags will hack your phone in public places if you leave that vulnerability open to them. I just turn on the phone's hot spot feature, do what I need to do and then turn it back off again. It's more convenient than tracking down the wi-fi password to the place where you are....

Last thing, I know nothing about, but there is plenty of info here on TB, is page turners. If you want to be super fancy, you can get one of those that will connect a page turning foot pedal to the your pads bluetooth. Page forward and back by pressing a forward or back pedal.

I don't actually use any of this stuff, am a paper-pencil-highlighter kinda guy. I know most of what I just posted because I just know it. A couple of things I am passing on just what I have read here on TB... Hopefully this helps you!!

 

[StyleOverShow]

I use For Score, has import functionality. It accepts pdf’s and jpgs. Easy to use, allows creation of set list, backup too. I keep three bands worth of music and a Real book on mine. Love it.

I use a foot pedal to flip pages too

 

[mrcbass]

One thing I've found with tablets, is that typical hand written charts (or even typed charts) on paper don't work well on a tablet. Unless it's a really big tablet, you really can't see the whole chart and while there are aps that have teleprompter like scrolling functionality, you'll want to reformat the charts to work with the scroller (a more vertical layout vs a wide layout). If you're using actual music, then that's a different game.

I've found that I needed to create shorthand versions of the charts for tablet use. After I have my chart locked down. I go to the top of the page and write the form I: (intro or instrumental), V: (verse), C: (chorus), G: (guitar solo) etc with either chords of each section (sometimes specific note runs) to queue my memory. I'll also add lyric snippets for my back vox. My chart for Chain Gang Looks like this:

Back on the Chain Gang

I: D A Em7 ...
<if I needed to note the actual line I play it would looks something like: D-F#-A A-C#-E, E-G-B G-A - the dashes indicate noted runs, the gaps indicate some phrasing>
V: D A Em7 Bm G
C: Em A .... D A D

V: D A Em7 Bm G
C: Em A .... D A D

I: D A Em7 ...
B: Dm A ....

The powers that be / that force us to live like we do
Bring me to my knees / when I see what they've done to you

And will I die as I stand here today / knowing that deep in my heart
They'll fall to ruin one day / for making us part

I: E B A C#m A
V: D A Em7 Bm G
C: Em A .... D A D

--------------------------

I keep the full lyric/chord reference below the line so I have it for rehearsal reference, but this form serves me well. By the time I hit the stage I really don't need these charts, but can give a quick glance at the form and I will make notes for little spots that trip me up (ie "remember the odd timing in the outro") just to trigger the thought. For songs that I refuse to learn the lyrics for, I'll read off the tablet, even teleprompt it for one, but for the most part it's just a quick reference for practice and rehearsals.

You may need something different, but this is my shorthand.

I've gotten to where I can burn these out in a few minutes (prepped 15 songs in under an hour yesterday). I tried to resist going through my whole catalog, but just wound up spending some time when I was giving my hands a rest to bring all my charts up to speed.