Ipad Music Readers

[Bill Cameron]

You moght not find the foot pedal a necessity--it only takes half a second to reach out and swipe to the next page, not like paper--and when youre at the performance stage, presumably youre using the music for reference and memory-jogging, not reading every note and word, right?

An 18", 6-lb tablet is called a laptop, btw. Part of the reason I like switching to ipad is that when properly set up in an ipad (ok, tablet)-holder attached to a mike stand, it is much less obtrusive on stage than a full sized book. Most of the audience wont even see it.

[Winfield]

I will be watching this thread for input as well. I'm looking to do the same thing. Thanks!

[Don Grieser]

I just use the free Adobe Reader app. I scan in the pages from the analog book to pdf and it lets you put them in folders. It might be nice to have the set list/organizational tools, but it's simple and I can find songs faster than the guy I play with who still uses the big binder.

[5bassman]

I've been using my iPad for several years in our churches praise band playing bass guitar. When Airturn came out with the Bluetooth pedals I purchased those (with the Boss pedals) and they are a lifesaver. I use the forScore app and have never had it crash or shut down with me. I just upgraded to a 9.7 IPad Pro with the Apple Pencil and it makes writing notes in my music so easy now. Now about 2/3rds of all the musicians in both bands use an iPad.

[Denman John]

I got a few iTunes cards for Christmas and downloaded Onsong and have been very pleased with it so far. I scanned a lot of tunes that I had in books into PDF formats and was using the program in no time. With PDF files you don't get all the features that Onsong is capable of, but for me it's perfect. Very easy to create "books", lists, and set lists. Everything in one place and no more switching between pages and books. I can easily see all the songs I have learned/played in one place and no more forgetting songs and where (which book) I had learned them. One of the real treats is that a friend that my son plays with has it and they can send each other tunes they are working on or wanting to learn. I would recommend this program if you are in the market.

[kennymac]

+1 for Onsong. I just started using it a few weeks ago as and I love it. I read above where someone said they never had to manually enter a song, well I did just because I wasn't happy with the version I found on line. It was easy as can be, pretty intuitive program once you spend a little time with it. I like that you can quite easily transpose key and it changes all the chords immediately. You can set a tempo and song time, then start the scroll when the song starts and it will keep up with you. So far so good.

[Dan Cohen]

Can Onsong or forScore move a piece from base clef to treble, etc? I can't picture it given that a PDF, to my mind, is just a static piece of "paper".

[5bassman]

Can Onsong or forScore move a piece from base clef to treble, etc? I can't picture it given that a PDF, to my mind, is just a static piece of "paper".

forScore can't. It just takes what you put in and you mark it up from there.

[Phil Vinyard]

Just got my new iPad Pro a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd show you the difference. The iPad Pro is on the left, a 8.5x11 sheet of music is in the middle, and my old iPad is on the right. Quite a difference in size! Much easier to read, especially on a regular music stand. But basically it's an iPad, just a chunk bigger.

The thing I'm happiest about is I switched from unrealBook to OnSong. I've been loyal to unrealBook for many years, and their support has been great. But OnSong does everything that unrealBook does, only much better. It's easier to use to organize pdf scanned music into books and set lists, and links right in with DropBox. Much more powerful, much better user interface.

Like unrealBook, it also links with AirTurn pedals for page turns and allows you to send music to others via e-mail.

The part I really like is it lets you put in charts (lyrics with chords above) very easily and precisely. Plus you can have it transpose the charts on the fly. This is extremely helpful with a bluegrass gospel group I play with--keys change all the time and now I can do it quickly and accurately using the app. It also lets you put on "sticky notes" on the pages where you can quickly put instructions, etc. It cost around $20 but was well worth it.

Glad to answer questions about the iPad or OnSong.

[Winfield]

Thanks for the update Phil. I think I'm going to pull the trigger and get one an iPad Pro. Any other insights you'd like to share would be greatly appreciated.

[5bassman]

I updated to the iPad Pro 9.7 for Christmas. I debated getting the 12" which would be great for reading my music. But after thinking about all the other ways I use it and reading reviews I went with the 9.7. The larger one would be great for reading music but much too large for carrying around and lap use. I'm 53 and need reading glasses and the smaller one is perfect for reading music. I also use a iPad holder that has an articulating arm that I mount on a Mike stand and can get it at a better reading angle. These articles helped me decide.

http://www.cio.com/article/3058715/i...ad-pro-97.html

http://www.imore.com/why-im-getting-...d-129-inch-one

[mandroid]

Can a Windows Surface Pro be used for the same function?

[Phil Vinyard]

Can a Windows Surface Pro be used for the same function?

I have a Surface Pro that I wanted to use instead of upgrading my iPad, but I couldn't find anything remotely close to unrealBook or my new favorite, OnSong. If anybody has found something, speak up!

[Pete Braccio]

Some other options, for some other formats are:

Tunebook for ABC formatted tune files. You find a lot of Irish Trad music is this file type

TEFview or TEFpad (Pro) for TEF files which you will find here and on mandozine.com

[Roger Adams]

I use DeepDish GigBook on my iPad, and a PageFlip Firefly.