Sheet Music on a Tablet

[CharlieKnuth]

I am hoping someone will have some experience with this and be willing to make helpful suggestions. I am wanting to purchase a tablet (Android or IPad) with the express purpose of uploading sheet music that I have in books and sitting around in notebooks. How well does this work with either platform and what apps are available that work well in doing this. Any help with this would be appreciated. I am thinking that the local stores wouldn't necessarily be knowledgeable with what I want to do.

Thanks,

--charlie

[DavidKOS]

I know a number of jazz players that refer to pdf files now, instead of fake books, for tunes they don't play often. It's smaller to take a portable device than a box of sheet music.

[Jim Garber]

I am sure that the real books are available as PDFs or ebooks. I have a friend who also has a foot pedal for her iPod to turn pages.

[multidon]

I started using iPad for my gigging sheet music and it has really changed my life. I was doing the same thing as my band mates, keeping music in big heavy binders and using page protectors too, which collectively double the weight. We have a library of hundreds of songs. But now the entire library is just the weight of the tablet.

I use the ForScore app for organizing the music. I bought it 6 months ago for 1.99. It is now 9.99 and worth every penny. You can organize your music multiple ways in any way you choose- by libraries, set lists, genres, composers, etc. there is ever a built in tuner and metronome. Not the main purpose but a neat little bonus anyway. You can get your music in there a number of ways. It just needs to be a PDF. You can purchase it or download from free sites, or scan it yourself. I scan it as a PDF then e ail it to myself. You can also use Dropbox if you have it.

I also have the Cicada Bluetooth pedal for turning pages. Works like a charm. No wires.

I would advise buying an iPad with the highest memory you can afford. The basic model will not be enough if you do other things with it. Mine is 32G. I wish I had bought 64. But regardless ForScore is the way to go.

[bratsche]

Here's a related question that someone will hopefully know the answer to: How do you make PDF files? I have all sorts of things on my computer in .mus format (that I've created in Finale PrintMusic), and printing them out is easy, of course. But there is no way to post them online, unless I figure the PDF thing out (I use Foxit Reader to view them). Thanks for any help!

bratsche

[Manfred Hacker]

Hi Charlie,
I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab 12.2 with the main purpose of organizing my sheet music. I also looked at an iPad, but much prefer the larger display on the Samsung. It lets you view sheets almost in letter size.
There are several software options available in the Android play store. Upon a recommendation I have chosen mobilesheets:
http://www.zubersoft.com/mobilesheets/
I love it. I already had plenty of pdf scans from my books for these big binders. pdf or image files can be imported easily. You can also just take a photo of a page or a screenshot. Tunes can be arranged in multiple ways, set lists created, etc.
Also works great with a bluetooth pedal. NFI, just very glad I have my repertoire (or practice material) of more than 300 tunes/pieces virtually at my fingertips.

[DavidKOS]

Here's a related question that someone will hopefully know the answer to: How do you make PDF files? I have all sorts of things on my computer in .mus format (that I've created in Finale PrintMusic), and printing them out is easy, of course. But there is no way to post them online, unless I figure the PDF thing out (I use Foxit Reader to view them). Thanks for any help!

bratsche

You can buy Adobe, but if you are on Mac, just start print, and there's an option to save as a pdf.

[bohemianbiker]

Here's a related question that someone will hopefully know the answer to: How do you make PDF files? I have all sorts of things on my computer in .mus format (that I've created in Finale PrintMusic), and printing them out is easy, of course. But there is no way to post them online, unless I figure the PDF thing out (I use Foxit Reader to view them). Thanks for any help!

bratsche

If you scan something, you can have the scanned copy emailed to yourself as a PDF file. If your sheet music is in unbound sheets, it's pretty easy/quick if you have access to a good copier. But if it's bound as a book, the copying is a pain. bb

[bratsche]

You can buy Adobe, but if you are on Mac, just start print, and there's an option to save as a pdf.

I'm on a PC, and hoped for free, as I'm broke, but your idea prompted me to look at the many options under "print" - which I would have never thought of! Foxit Reader has an option for printing to a .pdf file, and I tried it, with success! So, thanks for the "hint"!
:)
bratsche

[Fred Young]

Charlie, all the suggestions are spot on. I do however prefer a thin laptop pc, 8 meg of ram, one trig bite of hard drive, Bluetooth, and all the goodies. I'm 68, eyes not so great, have some health issues, and shakes. I handle the laptop great, But the ipod, ipad and kindles are touch screen mostly, and if I try to touch, my darn hand will touch it somewhere and then off I on a goose chase I go. And I prefer the larger screen for the ole peepers. fred

[CharlieKnuth]

Thank you for your posts. This is most helpful.

--charlie

[GDAE]

Bullzip PDF printer is a free download that works well to allow you to print to a pdf.

[AndyC]

Upon a recommendation I have chosen mobilesheets

2nd vote for Mobilesheets. It supports a lot of great features, including mass import from a folder of PDFs or JPEGs. I use it on a Nexus 10 but I really wanted a Tab 12 for it. TAS to go with my MAS?

If anyone wants to go the whole hog and start digitising their printed music collection, Scan Tailor is a free and well featured option with a bit of a steep learning curve. I digitised four books I had purchased that weren't available electronically, and having a catalogue at my fingertips is so handy. I made this based off digital photos I took, as the book was comb bound.

http://scantailor.org/

[bmm5255]

Another vote for Mobilesheets. Great program! I run it on a Samsung Galaxay note 2014. And PDF Creator is free, and will run on about any pc.

Good luck.

[mandroid]

I recall reading of one with a foot pedal to 'change the Page' without taking a hand off the playing.

[johnbaxter]

If you get an iPad, I recommend Deepdish GigBook. I really like that I can add a multipage songbook, and then select specific songs that will be isolated as individual song sheets. Here's the link: http://deepdishdesigns.com/gigbook.html

I have a app list at:http://www.mandotunes.com/media/musicapps/index.html

[Manfred Hacker]

I recall reading of one with a foot pedal to 'change the Page' without taking a hand off the playing.
Just read my post above :)

[craigpoff]

I joined Scribd, which also has an iPad App, sort of a Netflix for books, you can access their massive library, downloading (for keeps) things that you want. There are numerous, even endless, sheet music there (and I have even copped full Opera Scores), including a load of Ukulele, piano and Mandolin Methods, and sheet music. Well worth the $9 or so per month subscription price. Its like 200+ publications you can carry with you....don't even need to be on line, if you've downloaded it.

You can try the service free for a few weeks, I think, so see for yourself.

Craig
Beaufort, SC

PS....most of my Mandolin tunes I store in my personal songbook at Chordie.com, as they include tabs for Mandolin, Uke or Guitar (plus other instrument, but those are all I play!)



Thanks,

--charlie[/QUOTE]

[Dobes2TBK]

I am sure that the real books are available as PDFs or ebooks.

I recently got a Kindle primarily for books (less weight to tote, added benefit of not lugging my laptop for internet connections when I travel. And no, my phone "hain' gone tru eleben' grade."). Then I discovered it could carry my knit/crochet patterns. Now I hear it can hold sheet music for my mando/dulcimer herd?

Oh, Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!

Connie


ps. Beware using "sheet music" as your search entry on Amazon. You're likely to get more than you expected.

[MLT]

I agree with Dan concerning ForeScore. I have been using it for several years and upgrades. One thing Dan didn't mention (which he may not use) is the ability to add mark-ups or edits. I use this program for all my sheets including our orchestra performance music. I also highly recommend wireless foot pedals as well as a music stand style holder for the iPad, both of these items will make the experience better.

[multidon]

MLT, it's Don not Dan. But call me whatever, just don't call me late for supper!

Yes, that is a great feature. It's called Annotate and you can hand write notes to yourself just like you would on paper, only with a virtual pencil, then save it that way. You can reverse that with a virtual eraser. And there is a virtual highlighter if you want something to pop out at you. My wife, a bass player, highlights the chords.

You can also crop, meaning if you have a lot of extraneous border on your scan you can enlarge the music so that there is no excess fat, so to speak.

A very versatile program. I haven't even used all the features yet. As I said before, the best 9.99 you'll spend if you already have a iPad.

[CharlieKnuth]

Thank you all for your insights. This is most helpful.

[imoir]

Try FoxIt. Free PDF Reader / Creator for Windows.

[Gary Flye]

I went the route of an iPad (32 GB) and am using the OnSong app. It takes PDFs, but what I like the most is the ability to take text files of lyrics, add chords in any key, then OnSong can instantly transpose to any other key. I have a tripod for the iPad that I take to jams. It is great to be rid of the notebooks and paper sheet music!

[Steve Lavelle]

I keep waiting for a tablet or e-reader that has a screen the same size as a sheet of 8.5 X 11" sheet of paper. Sony Digital Paper (https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/show-digitalpaper/resource.solutions.bbsccms-assets-show-digitalpaper-digitalpaper.shtml?PID=I:digitalpaper:digitalpaper ) is the right size but waaaay too expensive for it's limited functionality. I see that there are 12+"diagonal tablets coming onto the market (HP and a rummored Apple product) but the aspect ratios are set up for viewing movies (1.7 aspect ratio) vs paper (1.3) so all my lyrics are too wide to get a full page on screen without it getting too small for my old, tired eyes. I have Hundreds of single sheet song pages with chords down the left margin and lyrics to the right that I wilc eventually convert and scan (for thereally old pre digital sheets) as pdfs when the right product comes along.

[John Garcia]

I do use an iPad for my music. I use iBooks (comes with the iPad) to organize the pdf files of sheet music. It's a simple program, but you can make subfolders if you like.

I use a program called GoodNotes to add anything I want to my pdf files and re-save as pdf. Like this:

129450

I also recommend the GigEasy to attach your iPad to a microphone stand. They're a little spendy, but they are solidly built. They have a metal mount, and attach to the top of a microphone stand. Here's a link, and they're on sale right now! I like a nice heavy mic stand that doesn't get knocked about. The GigEasy also rotates easily to accomodate vertical or horizontal format.

https://thegigeasy.com/product/mic-stand-mount-ipad/

Best of luck to you

[albeham]

third vote for mobile sheets I use mobile sheets on my samsung galaxy for tablet for church music and any other sheet music I have pulled off the internet works great worth every penny.

Al

[j. condino]

I gig with a fellow who uses irealbook on his Kindle and it rocks, especially in dark settings where I have trouble reading a regular fakebook. Bass players can tape the thing right to the upper bout of their instrument.

'Gotta be careful of the digital technology sometimes: I have a good friend who plays in a very successful, Grammy nominated band, who was using his Iphone on a gig a while back for some charts he did not know very well. One of his buddies in the audience caught what he was doing and called him in the middle of the song- and completely derailed his performance when the iphone dropped the chart to show the incoming call!

j.
www.condino.com

[Manfred Hacker]

I keep waiting for a tablet or e-reader that has a screen the same size as a sheet of 8.5 X 11" sheet of paper. Sony Digital Paper (https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/show-digitalpaper/resource.solutions.bbsccms-assets-show-digitalpaper-digitalpaper.shtml?PID=I:digitalpaper:digitalpaper ) is the right size but waaaay too expensive for it's limited functionality. I see that there are 12+"diagonal tablets coming onto the market (HP and a rummored Apple product) but the aspect ratios are set up for viewing movies (1.7 aspect ratio) vs paper (1.3) so all my lyrics are too wide to get a full page on screen without it getting too small for my old, tired eyes. I have Hundreds of single sheet song pages with chords down the left margin and lyrics to the right that I wilc eventually convert and scan (for thereally old pre digital sheets) as pdfs when the right product comes along.
On my Samsung 12.2 with mobile sheets I see the music in almost real size, because mobilisheets lets me zoom in so that I don't have the margins that you have on a scanned letter sized page or page from a book. Plus, it memorizes the zoom level for each page so I don't have to do it again when I open that page again.

[ATT_Turan]

I keep waiting for a tablet or e-reader that has a screen the same size as a sheet of 8.5 X 11" sheet of paper. Sony Digital Paper (https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/show-digitalpaper/resource.solutions.bbsccms-assets-show-digitalpaper-digitalpaper.shtml?PID=I:digitalpaper:digitalpaper ) is the right size but waaaay too expensive for it's limited functionality. I see that there are 12+"diagonal tablets coming onto the market (HP and a rummored Apple product) but the aspect ratios are set up for viewing movies (1.7 aspect ratio) vs paper (1.3) so all my lyrics are too wide to get a full page on screen without it getting too small for my old, tired eyes. I have Hundreds of single sheet song pages with chords down the left margin and lyrics to the right that I wilc eventually convert and scan (for thereally old pre digital sheets) as pdfs when the right product comes along.

The iPad Pro isn't rumored, it's been out for several months. It displays a sheet of paper at full size - any difference because of screen ratio would be a fraction of a font point.

[Paul Hird]

All of you that have mentioned Mobilesheets, are you referring to the free edition or the pro edition?

[Manfred Hacker]

I have used Mobile Sheets Pro for more than a year now. A new version came some time last year and it works just great on my Samsung tablet 12.2. It now lets you use two pages side by side, which works great when I turn my tablet to landscape. The pages are still highly readable on my 12.2 display. You can import pdf files or shoot a jpg foto with your tablet and import it right into the software.
It is also possible to make notes right on the screen with your fingers, e.g. add chords, highlight certain passages etc.)
I also like the option of organizing my content (more than 400 pages) into setlists, collections (fiddle, jam, Irish, mando solo, Christmas etc.).

[Jess L.]

... wanting to purchase a tablet (Android or IPad) with the express purpose of uploading sheet music that I have in books and sitting around in notebooks. ...

I wanted to thank you :mandosmiley: for starting this thread, I'd been wondering the same thing, also thanks to everyone who replied, :mandosmiley: lots of useful info there.

So I finally bought a tablet & got MobileSheetsPro, it seems great. With only a couple of minor annoyances...

So far my only little hiccup with MobileSheetsPro is the "Set lists" which intermittently show songs as blank grey pages, usually a setlist's first/last songs but sometimes also occurs with random songs in the middle of the setlist. I don't know what causes that, maybe because I create PDFs that are non-standard *length* (not letter size 8.5x11), who knows. In my case I've decided to not worry about it, for the time being anyway, as I can get by without functional setlists for now. But if I were using it at a gig or something, the setlist feature would be important. My tablet is brand-new & has latest OS & all updates, if that matters. This issue seems to affect only *some* users so it might not be common, not sure.

One other note about MobileSheetsPro: I found a workaround for the stark white backgrounds. No, it's *not* the night mode which I don't like that very much either (high contrast of *any* sort doesn't work for me). And my freebie music-notation app (MuseScore 2) does *not* allow exporting a colored background, even though the MuseScore *screen-display* can be set to whatever color you want, but that doesn't help with PDF backgrounds. (I haven't yet tried exporting PNG files, don't want the increased filesize.) So the workaround I use, is to go ahead and have the music-notation app export regular white PDFs, & then I use a separate PDF *editor* (Foxit "PhantomPDF", a lil pricey but more affordable than other editor brands I saw) to add a lightly-tinted colored background. My old eyes need all the help they can get, so the lightly-tinted backgrounds are immensely helpful. I would hope that someday that option would be added to MobileSheetsPro so that people didn't have to use such workarounds.

Anyway it's awesome to finally have a useful way of doing sheetmusic without having to use a wheelbarrow or packmule to carry all the big heavy printed books.

Doing the conversions from print to digital will take me awhile though... :whistling: I'm *not* just going to scan the pages, because I like to make formatting adjustments for easier reading, and I want all my digital sheet music files to have a similar 'look' for easier reading. For instance, many of our hymnal songs were originally printed with measures split across two lines, :disbelief: that's unacceptable to me, or - even more annoying - they don't put any time signature at all & then have unmarked measures of 6/4 mixed in with the 4/4 :disbelief: :( ... so I make necessary corrections when inputting the notes into MuseScore. That way, the resulting PDF has normal more-predictable note spacing etc so it's easier to read.

So, thanks again to everyone :mandosmiley: for this thread, I'm having a blast playing around with this new software & taming my sheet music collection. :)

[JeffD]

So, thanks again to everyone :mandosmiley: for this thread, I'm having a blast playing around with this new software & taming my sheet music collection. :)

I think this is my next step. I have been hesitant, but it might just be time to jump in.

[DavidKOS]

Hi Charlie,
I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab 12.2 with the main purpose of organizing my sheet music. I also looked at an iPad, but much prefer the larger display on the Samsung.


I have used Mobile Sheets Pro for more than a year now. A new version came some time last year and it works just great on my Samsung tablet 12.2. It now lets you use two pages side by side, which works great when I turn my tablet to landscape. The pages are still highly readable on my 12.2 display..

I took the good advice and got MobileSheets Pro - but when I was in the big city I went to a Best Buy and found the largest pad I could.

Samsung Galaxy view -

http://www.samsung.com/us/explore/galaxy-view-features-and-specs/

18.4 inch diagonal view! A bit expensive but exactly what I wanted.

I added an SD card for more memory and have setlists for all sorts of gigs leaded in. So far I've used it on about 10 gigs and it works great.

https://cnet1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2015/11/05/991f9281-03a4-49db-9f75-66817375e07a/thumbnail/770x433/7366b66a2d74564cb9f0bd862bc7cb57/samsung-galaxy-view-4607-002.jpg

Gives you an idea of the size.

[Jess L.]

I took the good advice and got MobileSheets Pro - but when I was in the big city I went to a Best Buy and found the largest pad I could.

Samsung Galaxy view -

http://www.samsung.com/us/explore/galaxy-view-features-and-specs/

18.4 inch diagonal view! A bit expensive but exactly what I wanted.

I added an SD card for more memory and have setlists for all sorts of gigs leaded in. So far I've used it on about 10 gigs and it works great.

https://cnet1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2015/11/05/991f9281-03a4-49db-9f75-66817375e07a/thumbnail/770x433/7366b66a2d74564cb9f0bd862bc7cb57/samsung-galaxy-view-4607-002.jpg

Gives you an idea of the size.

Wow, that's big! :mandosmiley: it's even bigger than my PC screen! :)) Nice! :mandosmiley: :grin: :)

My tablet has a much smaller screen, although it does have a good crisp display with 1920x1200 resolution.

I would guess that, for most people, my small-ish tablet is probably on the borderline of suitability, certainly wouldn't want one any smaller that mine, but the high resolution makes it usable for the music I've got (songs and fiddle tunes). I have the Lenovo Tab 2 A10-70f, I think it's the same one as at this PcMag review (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2495800,00.asp) and Cnet's lukewarm review (http://www.cnet.com/products/lenovo-tab-2-a10-70/) and more reviews at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-10-Inch-Tablet-Navy-Blue/dp/B00TR05L9Y). I bought mine at a local store where they had some different functional demo models in various brands, glad I did because some of the other low-cost small screen brands had really grainy/pixelated low-res screens. The Lenovo seems a lot better for reading fine detail.

It's my first-ever tablet, and my first impression was "it's just like a humongous giant phone!" :)) (except it doesn't do phone calls or text-messages) but it has the same Android OS (now it does anyway, I updated the tablet as it came with an older version) and the same touchscreen stuff with the taps and swipes and whatnot, so there's not really any learning curve for people who are already accustomed to Android smartphones.

P.S.: Some of the Lenovo reviewers ascribe near-mythical ;) battery life, I have not seen that with mine, it's a battery hog, certainly not 10 hours by any stretch. Depending on what you're doing with it, of course, if the wi-fi is turned on it gobbles the battery faster. Although the MobileSheetsPro app seems to not use much power, so that's good, compared to other stuff (games etc)... logically enough.

Edited to add:
One other significant difference I noticed between phone and tablet, is that my *phone* (a Samsung) has an automatic screen-brightness setting to automatically adapt to different light levels, a nice feature that I really like, it dims in dark environments and gets brighter out in the sun so it can be easily read. But my budget Lenovo tablet has *no* such feature, you have to manually set the screen brightness with a slider dealie, easy to access with one swipe but... it's not automatic like my phone is. I don't know if higher-end tablets come with that feature or not, I had just mistakenly assumed that all smart touch-thingies did but apparently not. Actually on the tablet it's not particularly crucial like on the phone anyway, due to different usage environments... I fretted over it initially but it turns out that I haven't really been too bothered by the 'missing' feature. But it might be something to investigate if one is considering buying a tablet of some sort. I guess used indoors with non-changing ambient lighting, it isn't a big deal. But at a gig or something... dunno...

[Mark Seale]

We use ForeScore in all of our configurations. As stated above, the charts get created in Finale and then print to PDF. Those are added to a running list of tunes that used to take up two large 3 ring binders. One of the best features is creating a setlist that can be e-mailed out to band members that includes the annotated chart, since they are also ForeScore users. This is huge as it isn't uncommon to play the same tune with different arrangements in different groups. We also have a bluetooth connected page turner that helps with the multi-page charts.

[LillianBelle]

The guitar player in the house uses SetList Helper running on PC, Android phone and Android tablet, which is more useful for chords and lyrics than sheet music or tabs - but you can attach other files (pdf, mp3, youtube clips) to the song as well. Also for setting up a band song set, as it is easy to share files. He likes the autoscroll feature as well, you just set tempo and it scrolls lyrics.

[Pete Braccio]

On an iPad, I use Tunebook most often. You import tunes in the ABC file format (from the early days of the internet) and it displays the standard notation and can play it back as midi. Since it's all text based, I've got thousands of tunes available and they take up very little space. You can also edit or enter tunes using the built in editor, but you'll need to get the hang of ABC.

There are also the TEF View and TEFPad apps. I've got them loaded with everything from mandolins.com.

Finally, if you are into Irish Trad, get TunePal. Not only will it record a bit of a tune that is being played, digitize it, upload it, compare it against several song databases, and then download several possible tune names for that tune (and their probabilities of being correct), but it will also allow you to search those same databases by tune name and download the sheet music to your device.