Well the little girl that Archie and Edith adopted at the end of All In The Family's long TV run co-wrote it, so I can get why you'd say that
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Choosing a Tablet for Reading Charts
- Thread starter JimmyM
- Start date
Excellent question. It's because psychology matters when landing gigs. From the looks of things I can make either iPad or Android work no problem except for the learning curve, but first impressions are everything. It's a very happy coincidence that I found my love for Fenders again and rarely play anything else anyway, but I always show up to first time outings with one of my Fenders or an FSO. Even got myself a Yamaha BB 5-string this year because my only 5 wasn't Fendery. In black, of course
When you're on a reading gig, these days pretty much nobody uses paper except for emergencies, and I want to make sure that it's easy to communicate back and forth for people who have iPads and Apple computers. The more I read this thread, the more I'm figuring out that nobody really cares what you bring as long as it's reliable long enough to do the gig. And big. But I did want to know how much most musicians and BL's (especially on cruise ships) care which OS you go with. So Android is back in the game.
One thing we used to do is slave /master our iPads together and with OnSong.
In between tunes the designated “master” hit the next chart and it would pop up on the other iPads
No individual scrolling looking for the right chart
In between tunes the designated “master” hit the next chart and it would pop up on the other iPads
No individual scrolling looking for the right chart
I have one remaining hold out that still uses paper for all his charts. Has a print shop custom cut 9.5x12.5 inch paper and pens all of his arrangements by hand with a stub nib. I kind of admire the musical neo-Luddism. It also doesn’t hurt that he has one of the best big band books in town.
I'm a little over halfway done with this thread, and I must say this has been a gold mine of info! It's a lot to absorb, though, and that's why I'm done for the night with it. Been taking notes because I need to these days but wow, so much info...thank you all!
Got one question, though...
---You all have talked about arranging songs in order, and while most reading gigs do have an order, unless it's a play, sometimes things change. And there are more than a couple bands I sub with that just call out songs or change the list on the fly, and there's nothing you can do about it except hang in or they call someone else next time. And trust me...if the front person or whoever counts off the song is ready to start a song, they're doing it.
Now I know it can be done because the horn players in the oldies show band I used to be in were able to look up songs quickly on their iPads, which by now are pretty old, and in that band when we did gigs by ourselves, the BL never used a set list, called them out sometimes giving you no time at all to think about it, and never cared if you weren't ready to start a song.
So how is it done? And does one OS or app have an advantage over the other in that regard?
Got one question, though...
---You all have talked about arranging songs in order, and while most reading gigs do have an order, unless it's a play, sometimes things change. And there are more than a couple bands I sub with that just call out songs or change the list on the fly, and there's nothing you can do about it except hang in or they call someone else next time. And trust me...if the front person or whoever counts off the song is ready to start a song, they're doing it.
Now I know it can be done because the horn players in the oldies show band I used to be in were able to look up songs quickly on their iPads, which by now are pretty old, and in that band when we did gigs by ourselves, the BL never used a set list, called them out sometimes giving you no time at all to think about it, and never cared if you weren't ready to start a song.
So how is it done? And does one OS or app have an advantage over the other in that regard?
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Hey Jimmy, I can see where this thread would be info overload. Just briefly, forScore (which requires an iPad, no Android or Windows version) has this ability. When a song is called, you can go into the forScore library (which contains all the songs you have loaded into forScore) and they're in alphabetical order, with an alphabet index thingie on the right edge of the screen. So if the BL calls I'm Beginning To See The Light, just tap on the "i" index and scroll down to the song. Once you get used to it, it's not hard and it's pretty quick.
Sweet! Thx John! Not priced badly, either. On the website it says for $19.99 it offers in-app purchases. I guess to make that go away, you have to pay the subscription fee every year? Don't need that popping up while I do a switch or something!
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I only have experience with one app, and that is Songbook. In that app you can arrange a set list any way you like. Our BL will create a master list with three sets and a blank page in between sets. The songs are all listed by name on a front page so if he calls something out of order you only have to swipe back one page and look at the list to find it.
Easier for those bands whose BLs call random stuff all night long would be to do the same thing but with an alphabetical order to make everything super easy to find.
Yeah, with ForScore I have a "library" for each band I'm in (and I can assign one chart to multiple libraries if I want to). So that cuts down the searching to just the charts in each band's library (or you can search through all of them if you want). You can also make multiple set lists within a library, which is very handy for when they do mostly stick to a predetermined song sequence.
I'm not an Android hater per se. (Kind of miss my old Motorola phones in some aspects.) But if you do go that route, maybe avoid those too-good-to-be-true bargain models. (A buddy of mine was all touting his $40 tablet, then he delayed his show half an hour trying to get the thing to power up.)
I'm not an Android hater per se. (Kind of miss my old Motorola phones in some aspects.) But if you do go that route, maybe avoid those too-good-to-be-true bargain models. (A buddy of mine was all touting his $40 tablet, then he delayed his show half an hour trying to get the thing to power up.)
No subscription fee. I just paid once, when I downloaded the app onto my iPad. It was about five or six years ago so I don't remember how much I paid. Maybe they've changed their pricing since then.
I have another question...
I've got a couple mic stands and I can just get an adapter so I'll be covered for a stand. But let's say it quits working for no reason all of a sudden. Let's hope not but things happen. I saw that a couple of you bring paper music and tablet for each show you read. Is it important enough to most of you to bring a proper music stand to all your reading gigs? I do have one that folds up nicely in a bag and is super light and very strong, but is it something to be paranoid over?
I've got a couple mic stands and I can just get an adapter so I'll be covered for a stand. But let's say it quits working for no reason all of a sudden. Let's hope not but things happen. I saw that a couple of you bring paper music and tablet for each show you read. Is it important enough to most of you to bring a proper music stand to all your reading gigs? I do have one that folds up nicely in a bag and is super light and very strong, but is it something to be paranoid over?
Personally, I bring a regular music stand, which is pretty lightweight. I just put the iPad on the music stand. I prefer this, because the music stand has the little shelf that I can put picks, a metronome, or any other gadget I need.
Excellent point! I play with a pick sometimes and I carry a couple gadgets. I'll still get a mic stand adapter for those tight stages and pits, but for that reason alone, the music stand is the way to go.
OK, that was easily solved!
I use one of these, I think it's the Peak 40. They're very light and fold up small into a carry bag that comes with it.
https://www.peakmusicstands.com/peak-music-stands
https://www.peakmusicstands.com/peak-music-stands
Exactly what I have! It is fantastic. I've put extremely large books on it and they don't budge. The whole of my former oldies band switched over to Peak stands after seeing mine. Still got an old Manhasset but I can vouch for the Peak. Only thing wrong with mine is it fell one day due to not properly checking everything before I put stuff on it, and chipped the thing you slide in to hold the music in one little spot.
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Totally still works. I'm about to get it and set it up...now if only I could find all my music with all this moving going on!
