How do you carry all your things, to various events?

Uncle Rod Higuchi

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for being such a small and portable instrument, I almost always see ukulele players with a lot of stuff with them.

At STRUM (Seattle's Totally-Relaxed Ukulele Musicians), we have more and more members bringing 'Costco'-type,
collapsable 4-wheel carts to carry their chairs (for outside gigs and events), music stands, songbooks, ukes
(some bring more than one, like a banjo uke :) ), food, drinks, etc.

So, with the discussions re: hard and soft cases and single or douple-straps on bags,
I thought we might delve into the world of "How do we carry around all of our Uke stuff?"

When I travel to HNL, for instance, I try to travel light with just a backpack or backpack and an overhead bag
(that's because I stay with family and already have some clothes and ukes there :) )

anyway, when I'm there, I try to carry everything in my backpack including a tabletop music stand
that doubles as my tablet stand as I generally carry both a hard copy music book and my travel tablet.
then there's a water bottle, fan (it is Hawaii after all), and assorted cables and things.

Soooo, what about you? How do you carry around your ukulele stuff for casual use and gigging?

Inquiring minds might want to know :)

keep uke'in',
 
I try to travel light, but sometimes that just doesn't work. So I found an old suitcase with rollers in the basement that everything fits in, and if I can't travel light, that's what I use.
 
For going to performing events (singarounds, open mics etc.) I carry a "man bag" with my bits and pieces in - harmonicas, harmonica rack, tuner, tablet with words on, etc. If I was going abroad, a lot of those would probably go in my suitcase.
 
I have double tenor bag. One side for Uke and the other side for whatever.
 
I make our Trunk Monkey carry it.
 
As an addendum to your other thread, with my bass uke and amp, I use one of the fold up shopping carts. I also fashioned an umbrella and load a flat fold stool when needed. I set up the cart with a music holder and uke hanger, just roll it on and off stage ready to go.

Cart single.jpg
 
I have a garden bag with several pockets and little compartments for tuners, melodica, and egg shaker type stuff. Fits my stand and uke music as well. If I need to walk a "fur piece", I will strap that bag onto a luggage roller/cart. I once ordered a fold out cart/holder type thing with a built in seat. I thought that would solve all my problems. It was not well made at all and won't even stand up if you have stuff in the big compartment.
 
This reminds me of a quote from Michael Cooney: "If it takes more than two trips to get your gear from the van to the stage, it ain't folk music."
 
Soooo, what about you? How do you carry around your ukulele stuff for casual use and gigging?

I addressed the stand itself in your post about stands... but yeah, for a small instrument there's certainly a lot of stuff to haul around!

I have a heavy duty stand with a bag that has a shoulder strap that is pretty easy to haul around, and fortunately there are already stands where I usually go to play, so much of the time I don't even need to bring the stand. But add to that the two ukuleles (low/hi G), each in cases which weigh more than the ukes themselves, and two overstuffed three-ring binders of music and - it's a back injury waiting to happen. I've thought about getting a "granny cart" but can't figure out how I'd get it upstairs in the elevator-less space where I play.

I've recently given in to archiving the less-played material onto an iPad and bringing that instead of one of the binders. It's fine for the casual strum but I'd never rely on it for performing (which I rarely do) or for my instrumental ensemble playing. I've got zero interest in accumulating the gadgetry for it - a dedicated stand, a Bluetooth page turner thingie - no thanks, because wouldn't that defeat the purpose of using it to travel light?? :)
 
I've got zero interest in accumulating the gadgetry for it - a dedicated stand, a Bluetooth page turner thingie - no thanks, because wouldn't that defeat the purpose of using it to travel light?? :)

I had never heard of such a thing! I went a-Googling...those could be revolutionary for me! (for piano music as well...)

If it keeps me from hauling around huge books, it would probably be worth it.
 
just like with everything else... different strokes for different folks :)

I have a lot of stuff on my tablets, but I still have to train myself in its use so I
can find what I need in a timely manner. That and make sure I don't run out of
battery power.

besides the dedicated tablet holders, has anyone creatively attached their tablet
to a standard music stand? I was thinking of velcro with the loops on the back of
the tablet and the hooks on the music stand. any other suggestions?

I have a Nexus 7 which is very reliable, but the 7" screen leaves much to be desired.
however, in a pinch, it can work... for one person :)

I took my Nexus 10 on vacation with me and it was much better when sharing with
other ukers :)
 
just like with everything else... different strokes for different folks :)

I have a lot of stuff on my tablets, but I still have to train myself in its use so I
can find what I need in a timely manner. That and make sure I don't run out of
battery power.

besides the dedicated tablet holders, has anyone creatively attached their tablet
to a standard music stand? I was thinking of velcro with the loops on the back of
the tablet and the hooks on the music stand. any other suggestions?

I have a Nexus 7 which is very reliable, but the 7" screen leaves much to be desired.
however, in a pinch, it can work... for one person :)

I took my Nexus 10 on vacation with me and it was much better when sharing with
other ukers :)

I have a 10" Galaxy Tab S now. I used to have a Galaxy Note 7, but ended up not using it much because the screen was too small.

I don't have a music stand, but I have a case that will hold it up in either portrait or landscape mode on a table, so I just use that. We carry an extra battery for charging our phones that will also work on the tablet. Not very expensive, but worth its weight in gold when you really need it.
 
I had never heard of such a thing! I went a-Googling...those could be revolutionary for me! (for piano music as well...)

If it keeps me from hauling around huge books, it would probably be worth it.
Check this out for foot petal page turning on your tablet http://www.airturn.com
To use one of these, you have to develop extra skills, learning just the right amount of pressure needed to advance the music. Or go with an app that scrolls your music, and set up the music with everything in a parchment scroll format, so that you don't have to jump around on the repeats.
I am nervous about using traditional music stands with tablets. That set-up can be top heavy, and easily toppled by the slightest bump from a passer by. I go with a dedicated tablet holder on a short mic stand, a tablet in my shoulder bag, and a soft case with shoulder strap (sometimes a double case using backpack straps).
–Lori
 
I prefer to learn my songs. That way I don't need to carry around large numbers of song sheets or a music stand. I do have most of them on a 8" Android tablet as a memory jogger, though.

However, I do take harmonicas with me and a harmonica rack and they weigh a bit and although I don't use a harmonica all that often, I do use one from time to time so choose to take them with me.
 
I have everything on my I-Pad Pro big tablet. I mean everything, books' songs (about) 800 in OnSong, and if I know we're doing certain songs I don't have I Take pictures and put them in iBooks to use. I do use a dedicated stand that I can use standing or sitting that I purchased from OnSong. It's just too heavy for most music stands and too costly to have fall. I use auto scroll which works great if you remember to turn it on. I've been using OnSong for a couple of years on the smaller iPad
 
besides the dedicated tablet holders, has anyone creatively attached their tablet
to a standard music stand? I was thinking of velcro with the loops on the back of
the tablet and the hooks on the music stand. any other suggestions?

I just rest mine on the music stand. No fancy attachments needed.
 
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