Last night's gig, outdoors on a patio at sunset with the evening winds kicking up, proved two things. First, if you can memorize your music, do it. Second, if there's just too much to keep track of, paper charts are not always the best option. Not only do you need a reading light once the sun fully sets, you need so many clamps and clips on the paper it's a real hassle to go from song to song.
I bit the bullet with this band and have been memorizing the patterns and roadmaps on bass, but the lead singer has far more words to remember than I do, and the lead guitarist is bandleader and has quite a bit to keep track of himself, so both of them use charts at the gigs. The bandleader's been talking about a technology upgrade, last night really tipped the scales.
So, the question. For all you guys who either use a digital chart system or play with someone who does, what do you have, and do you like it?
The stuff I've seen personally comes in two basic variants. First, you can compile all the songs in your set into one word processor document, print that to PDF, and load it into any old reader app. Simple, effective, works with any device you have. Second, my church's worship leader uses SongSheet on his iPad, which has considerably more in-app flexibility. It's not ideal but pretty darn good, provided you have an iPad or are willing to buy one. I'm looking at anything anyone's found to be effective for them.
One thing that would help a lot is a footswitch page turner; the one-page setup of most tablets makes page flipping during the song a necessity. I see quite a few options, all ridiculously overpriced for what the thing is and does but maybe I'm being too harsh. If anyone has a line on a quality but inexpensive option I'm all ears.
I bit the bullet with this band and have been memorizing the patterns and roadmaps on bass, but the lead singer has far more words to remember than I do, and the lead guitarist is bandleader and has quite a bit to keep track of himself, so both of them use charts at the gigs. The bandleader's been talking about a technology upgrade, last night really tipped the scales.
So, the question. For all you guys who either use a digital chart system or play with someone who does, what do you have, and do you like it?
The stuff I've seen personally comes in two basic variants. First, you can compile all the songs in your set into one word processor document, print that to PDF, and load it into any old reader app. Simple, effective, works with any device you have. Second, my church's worship leader uses SongSheet on his iPad, which has considerably more in-app flexibility. It's not ideal but pretty darn good, provided you have an iPad or are willing to buy one. I'm looking at anything anyone's found to be effective for them.
One thing that would help a lot is a footswitch page turner; the one-page setup of most tablets makes page flipping during the song a necessity. I see quite a few options, all ridiculously overpriced for what the thing is and does but maybe I'm being too harsh. If anyone has a line on a quality but inexpensive option I'm all ears.
