Camping sheets and tabs

bnolsen

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 4, 2012
Messages
1,391
Reaction score
6
Location
Centennial, CO
So assuming every song can't be memorized how do people generally carry around sheets and tabs for on the go camping, going to parks, etc?
 
I actually use GoChords to create lyric/tab sheets, make PDFs from them and then move those to a Kindle. Nice and compact and infinitely expandable.
 
I use an iPad, but sometimes I just want hard copies. I have a few small notebooks with the plastic sheet protectors that have the three holes built in. I just print and put in the sheet protector and put in the notebook.
 
I use OnSong on my iPad for everything and have around 1000 songs in there!

Although, recently, I've been getting some daytime gigs where the iPad isn't usable, so I've started back writing them by hand in a Moleskine notebook. There's something about writing things by hand that makes y'feel good.
 
I use OnSong on my iPad for everything and have around 1000 songs in there!

Although, recently, I've been getting some daytime gigs where the iPad isn't usable, so I've started back writing them by hand in a Moleskine notebook. There's something about writing things by hand that makes y'feel good.

Have you tried going into settings and reversing the black/white for daylight use? I haven't tried it but I think you can do that and it might be more readable in daylight that way.

As for handwriting - you haven't seen my handwriting... :)

John
 
I actually use GoChords to create lyric/tab sheets, make PDFs from them and then move those to a Kindle. Nice and compact and infinitely expandable.

This looks like the best option so far. I have a couple of tablets but no way do I consider them portable or suitable for camping/backpacking use. Typical tablets just chew battery too fast.
 
I have not done it yet but...

I knew a guy who did a solo song and guitar act, and he kept every song he knew in a loose leaf binder.

Right now I've about 50 songs I've created chord and lyric sheets in MSWord and have been exporting them to PDFs. Online there are a number of PDF concatentators and I can upload them all and have one big PDF created. Then I take the big PDF and upload it to FEDEX and have it printed and bound into my own personal songbook.
 
Have you tried going into settings and reversing the black/white for daylight use? I haven't tried it but I think you can do that and it might be more readable in daylight that way.

As for handwriting - you haven't seen my handwriting... :)

John

SHHHH! I'm trying to get better at not needing these things! The daytime thing is a good excuse to get off the crutch of my iPad!
 
although I love the concept of digital song sheets (I have both a 7" and an 8.9" 'Nook') I still find myself creating 3-ring binder songbooks... just in case someone wants to play along with me, or so I can have a few copies of some favorite songs to share, etc.

The 'Nooks' are much easier to carry around, but the 8x11 song sheets have their own appeal, esp since, unlike the old Palm OS devices, IR sharing is NOT an option when it comes to sharing stuff :)

Also, sometimes when I do gigs/busking, I actually set up 2 music stands with identical song books, one facing me and the other facing passers-by, to encourage people to stop and sing-along! ukulele karaoke, anyone?

keep uke'in',
 
I use an iPad when I'm doing out and about, around town stuff (I currently have OnSong, unrealBook and ForScore--haven't settled on which app I like best).

But, when backpacking, I print out a list of two- and three-chord songs I like (just the title) on a piece of 8.5x11 paper (type can be pretty small so you can get a lot on there in three columns; you can even do double-sided if you want, but I've only been out on 14-day treks max, so one side of songs has been plenty for me). I fold that paper up and it rides along in the zipper area where I keep my maps. When I want to play I just refer to the sheet of paper and start out the song that I want to play or folks want to sing to. I choose a key that'll work for that song (it's usually C, F or G, I'm nothing for hard chords when I'm out relaxing in the woods) and then start playing. If it's just two chords, it's either one or the other so I just "listen" for the chord change (aka "when it sounds bad with the old chord"). Three chord songs work on the same principle, with just one more chord to listen for.

I know I could do this *without* the song titles and not use any paper, but I like having ready access to a bunch of titles which I might otherwise forget. There are "lists" of two- and three-chord songs in lots of places online. I also have a PDF which lists all the songs in Beloff's "Daily Ukulele" (yellow book version) sorted by the number of chords so it's a quick grab to see if any of those titles are ones you'd enjoy playing. http://ukuleletonya.com/files/Daily_Ukulele_chords_keys_yellow.pdf
 
So assuming every song can't be memorized how do people generally carry around sheets and tabs for on the go camping, going to parks, etc?

I tape a "set list" to the waist of my uke or guitar. It has the 1st couple of words of the song followed the 1st line of chords and maybe any change that may trip me up. Small font. Probably 15-20 songs on a sheet about the size of a business card.
 
I use an iPad, but sometimes I just want hard copies. I have a few small notebooks with the plastic sheet protectors that have the three holes built in. I just print and put in the sheet protector and put in the notebook.
I do the same. I have two three-ring binders full of songs. I need to start a third!
 
When you plan the menu for the camping trip, make a say 10 song set list. Some songs you know and some to learn, and some noodling time starters like blues/classical/bluegrass (pick your favourites) progressions and scales/boxes. Get the songs onto A5 sheets of paper or 5x3 index cards, and put the package inside a plastic ringlock sandwich bag. Also put some cardboard or plastic sheet inside the bag so you can lean it up against something as a music stand. You can get waterproof paper and index cards, or soak the A5 sheets in wax (after writing on them). Take some spare paper in case you come up with something good while noodling. Keep the package inside the uke, make sure it is suitable to be put inside the uke.
Maybe if it is a car based camping trip you can just use a ring binder, and take some books.
iPads and Kindles are great, but the batteries run out and you can spend you camping trip worrying about batteries instead of having fun. Maybe if you are going in a car, invest in a spare battery and inverter or a solar charger, and take them with you.

Currently car camping for me mostly consists of first tossing my huge pack filled with most of the gear into the back of the minivan and then filling up with more traditional car camping stuff. It seems like the index cards are very practical, something like that could even be tossed into a lock-lock with a stub of pencil (stolen from ikea). Wind protection might be an issue, but for a class I was taking a long time ago for flash cards I hole punched a bunch of index cards and put them ahh on a ring which has some advantages as well.

I'm not as worried about something like a kindle running out of batteries as I am in getting something cheap that's the right size and decently durable that won't break. I notice cowboom has some sony ereaders for pretty cheap...the fun of risking one of those, but it's nice to sometimes be technology free while camping.
 
I mostly go to Folk Music Sessions and Singarounds. I try to learn my songs but I also like a backup - a comfort blanket. I used to cart folders round, but I now have most of my songs on both my iPad and a smaller Android tablet. I mostly take the Android tablet as it is a nice compromise between readability and portability. For folk music tune sessions, I mostly don't take anything as there isn't time to get the dots out. In that case, I usually play harmonica which I play by ear. For our band, I mostly use paper.

For song lyrics and chords, I create them in Libre Office (comes with my Linux system but is free to download for Windows & Mac) on my PC and save as PDF in Dropbox. I can then pick them up in the iPad or Android tablet and save them in an App that doesn't rely on having wifi available. Dropbox is not much good for bulk transfers to other Apps, so in that case, I connect the tablet to the PC and drag and drop with a mouse.
 
Top Bottom