Tablet Computer for Charts

Bill Plemmons · Post by **Bill Plemmons** » 2 Jul 2014 12:17 pm

Would appreciate comments and recommendations on using a tablet computer to store and retrieve music charts. Carrying a bag of heavy, bulky notebooks to every gig is a chore. I'm looking at the Samsung Note 12.2 and the Apple Air Pad. Thanks Bill

Dennis Russell · Post by **Dennis Russell** » 2 Jul 2014 2:03 pm

For the past several years I have been using an iPad with the irealb app. I probably have over 500 chord charts for the various bands that I play in.
For lyric sheets or lead sheets in .pdf format I use good reader or set list maker.
My aching back has been thanking me for going tablet, and I don't plan on going back to big notebooks ever again.

Kekoa Blanchet · Post by **Kekoa Blanchet** » 29 Jul 2014 9:54 am

I've been using an iPad with the ForScore app to manage sheet music. I like it a lot, but I'd like it better if the screen was larger. That 9.7" screen on the iPad isn't nearly as easy to read as a real sheet of paper. I don't know anything about the Samsung Note 12.2, or what sheet music apps are available for it (you can use any .pdf reader, of course, but the sheet music apps have some features that are useful for a musician), but that 12.2" screen sounds pretty nice.

Kekoa Blanchet · Post by **Kekoa Blanchet** » 29 Jul 2014 10:09 am

I should point out that real paper sheet music still has some advantages:

Your binders will never have a dead battery in the middle of a gig.

A binder will never have a software crash, with you on stage trying to reboot the system while the audience watches.

If you drop a piece of sheet music on the stage, it won't shatter like the screen on your iPad will, leaving you without any sheet music for the rest of the show.

In an outdoor gig, if it starts raining, your paper copies of sheet music will get soft and wrinkly, but they won't fail permanently, costing you $800 to replace.

In that same outdoor gig, if it's sunny you won't be able to read the screen on the iPad -- not a problem with paper!

After the gig is over, musicians from the audience will come up to talk, but you'll be talking about iPads and sheet music software rather than guitars and music.

On the other hand, that backlit screen sure is nice on a dark stage, and it's a lot easier to find a song on an iPad than leafing through a crate full of binders, and it's great not having to lug around all those books!

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 30 Jul 2014 6:42 am

I've been using an Apple iPad with iRealPro, which used to be called iRealB. All the cool kids are using a similar setup, although one of us has an Android device (same software available for Mac, iOS and Android).