Thinking about getting a pad

[Kenn2018]

Paper song sheets can be scanned using the PDF feature of combo printers at offices, libraries, print shops.

Can scan the book using the bulk feeder, or scan each sheet to its own PDF.

Some song software can separate a bundle of songs into individual songs.

Are there tablet protector cases similar to cell phone cases?

Cheers.

Yes, I have an iPad Pro 9.7 inch tablet that I've had for several years.

At first, I had an inexpensive case that had a keyboard & a loop for my stylus. It wasn't very secure, with only plastic corners to hold it in place. My 1-1/2 year old iPad Pro slipped out of the case and landed on a tile bathroom floor breaking the glass screen on the iPad.

I took it to a local Apple seller (No Apple Stores within 100 miles.) and they said they couldn't repair it. Without Apple Plan, they could send it to Apple and Apple would charge me an outrageous amount to fix it. If I had the Apple Protection Plan, I didn't, Apple would still charge me, at the minimum, for shipping both ways. Instead he sent me to a nearby game store that replaced the glass and pushed out the corner dent for $110!

I then bought a relatively expensive Otterbox Symmetry Hybrid Case* on Amazon. I went that route because I had one for my iPhone and it was amazing. The Otterbox case has served me well. The folding cover is getting a bit worn, but has protected my iPad on several long trips, in my music bag and from several falls for almost 5 years. Zero damage.

Make sure you know the correct size and model of your iPad to order the right case for it.

*Otterbox no longer makes the Symmetry Series cases, but have other models for the various iPad sizes and models.

 

[snowdenn]

Just because you clearly don't have enough people chiming in with their opinions...

I've used electronic devices, iPads, androids, etc., and I'm about as much of a tech geek as one can be without actually being able to program or take apart and fix hardware. So having everything on a device seems like a no-brainer, and I do have an extensive digital library of music. That said, I much prefer paper for music sheets. And music/song books as well. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe habit.

 

[perep]

Got the x/size for my eyesight, easier to read with few inches more

 

[cdkrugjr]

I’ve several hundred songs on this tablet.

I used to carry them in 3-4 binders. No brainer for me

 

[thaidye39]

When I read the title of this thread, I expected, "I'm thinking of getting a pad of my own. I'm currently living in my parents' basement."

I thought similarly - either a pad of your own OR there was some sort of fancy arm bezel pad thing okay .

for the record, I love iPads. I recently bought a MacBook Air and am considering selling to buy an iPad!

 

[bilbo56]

Thanks to this thread I moved all my songbooks to my 10" Fire. Works great!

 

[ampeep]

Our steel guitar player doesn't use any music - he just asks what key the song is, then plays fills & leads flawlessly. He had mentioned that I shouldn't use tablet & just play.

Prior to joining uke groups, my friends never used written music. I now have a harder time playing by ear.

 

[bbkobabe]

Our steel guitar player doesn't use any music - he just asks what key the song is, then plays fills & leads flawlessly. He had mentioned that I shouldn't use tablet & just play.

Prior to joining uke groups, my friends never used written music. I now have a harder time playing by ear.

Funny comment... Just play? Wow!

I have been super fortunate to be able to play with two really awesome local professional musicians... just lucky I guess, because they are both WAY out of my league... and both use and endorse paper sheets on a music stand. As a matter of form.

One of them just bought an wind-proof stand after a gust blew all three of our stands away at a gig last May. This new one is like a rock fixed to the earth, and with an integrated page holding system!

The other of my esteemed partners maintains that it is right and proper for a stand to be there, even if you don't need it. Old school? No, symphony orchestra trained. Marching band, jazz bands... even marching bands have those tiny music stands afixed to their instruments... I think they use 3 X 5 cards for their charts...

Hmmmmm... I'm still undecided... with just one more week until the next local Club Jam...

To photocopy? Or not to photocopy? That is the question...

 

[ampeep]

Funny comment... Just play? Wow!

I have been super fortunate to be able to play with two really awesome local professional musicians... just lucky I guess, because they are both WAY out of my league... and both use and endorse paper sheets on a music stand. As a matter of form.

One of them just bought an wind-proof stand after a gust blew all three of our stands away at a gig last May. This new one is like a rock fixed to the earth, and with an integrated page holding system!

The other of my esteemed partners maintains that it is right and proper for a stand to be there, even if you don't need it. Old school? No, symphony orchestra trained. Marching band, jazz bands... even marching bands have those tiny music stands afixed to their instruments... I think they use 3 X 5 cards for their charts...

Hmmmmm... I'm still undecided... with just one more week until the next local Club Jam...

To photocopy? Or not to photocopy? That is the question...

It's great that you have a chance to play with professional musicians. Have fun at your next jam.

 

[Festussian]

Thanks to this thread I moved all my songbooks to my 10" Fire. Works great!

I have some stuff on my Fire, but I can't search for a song title within a songbook. There is *no way* I can remember which song is is which songbook (document). Have you figured out how??

Judy

 

[Knows Picker]

Update:

I got nothing. I was going through my latest binder, just to sort it a bit and maybe combine with an older one. Just picking out the pepper from the fly sh*t.

Got to playing through the older binder that is mostly from about 10 years ago.

Memories!!

 

[bilbo56]

I have some stuff on my Fire, but I can't search for a song title within a songbook. There is *no way* I can remember which song is is which songbook (document). Have you figured out how??

Judy

I use an app called PDF Pro reader. It will search through a song book, but not the whole Fire tablet. Now you have me
looking for a better solution.

 

[TimWilson]

It's funny, but I'd been trying to separate my computer and my ukulele as far from each other as I can. Reducing screen time, reducing potential distractions, trying to live a more analog life, all that stuff. So I was printing PDFs, making notes, etc., and just found it harder and harder to organize. I'm not good enough at alphabetical order to do that myself. LOL

So I've just started using a laptop that converts to a tablet (it has a wraparound hinge kinda thing), and finding that it really helps A LOT. (If I had a standalone pad, I'd have just used that, but I don't, and this works great.) I'm now taking a little time every day to standardize some naming conventions among PDFs I've downloaded from various sources or made myself along the way, so that I can find stuff I'm searching for. I'm also digging that, with a quick pinch, I can zoom in as far as I need to in order to comfortably see what I need to see from a distance.

I'm in! So thanks to all of you who pointed out the potential of this!

The other thing I added was a proper music stand. It works fine for the sheets I've already printed, and is plenty sturdy enough to hold the laptop, too. It's still on sale for $24-27 depending on color. (I went with white.) The little knobby-looking thing in the photo below is for using the stand part on a tabletop, and that also works great.

I was thinking about mentioning this on a separate thread about stands because I think it's terrific, but I haven't found one. Maybe I'll start one, but I'm including the mention of it here because I probably wouldn't have bothered if I hadn't gone down this tablet/pad route, which I am absolutely loving. I feel like the last week or so has been the most productive and progress-y of my uke journey so far, and I feel like getting my strap, stand, and pad act together has been a big part of that. I feel like maybe none of this should matter, but in practice (in both senses of the word), it really does!

 

[MagdaD]

I am actually using the smaller iPad Air and it's working fine for me. I have bad eyesight and it seems to be easier to read music on the iPad than sheet music. I use the forScore app and a Donner foot pedal for page turning. I also have a fairly inexpensive iPad stand that folds up nicely. It's so much easier to carry everything I need now in 1 backpack. I also like the forScore app for keeping all my music in handy playlists for the different groups I play with. I can also annotate the music and it includes a metronome. I won't use paper anymore.

 

[Festussian]

I use an app called PDF Pro reader. It will search through a song book, but not the whole Fire tablet. Now you have me
looking for a better solution.

In looking for a pdf reader, I found that I can load MS Office on my Fire tablet. I keep all the music in one folder (Bilbo56, this might help you) and Office is now my default app for opening pdf files, which avoids the Kindle Reader app, which lets you do *nothing*.

So far, Office has worked well. It opens pdfs quickly, especially if they have been opened before.
I'm now gonna give my 3" binder of paper music to my friend's daughter who is learning uke on a cheapie uke I gave her (So proud!)

J

 

[Festussian]

It's funny, but I'd been trying to separate my computer and my ukulele as far from each other as I can. Reducing screen time, reducing potential distractions, trying to live a more analog life, all that stuff. So I was printing PDFs, making notes, etc., and just found it harder and harder to organize. I'm not good enough at alphabetical order to do that myself. LOL

So I've just started using a laptop that converts to a tablet (it has a wraparound hinge kinda thing), and finding that it really helps A LOT. (If I had a standalone pad, I'd have just used that, but I don't, and this works great.) I'm now taking a little time every day to standardize some naming conventions among PDFs I've downloaded from various sources or made myself along the way, so that I can find stuff I'm searching for. I'm also digging that, with a quick pinch, I can zoom in as far as I need to in order to comfortably see what I need to see from a distance.

I'm in! So thanks to all of you who pointed out the potential of this!

The other thing I added was a proper music stand. It works fine for the sheets I've already printed, and is plenty sturdy enough to hold the laptop, too. It's still on sale for $24-27 depending on color. (I went with white.) The little knobby-looking thing in the photo below is for using the stand part on a tabletop, and that also works great.

I was thinking about mentioning this on a separate thread about stands because I think it's terrific, but I haven't found one. Maybe I'll start one, but I'm including the mention of it here because I probably wouldn't have bothered if I hadn't gone down this tablet/pad route, which I am absolutely loving. I feel like the last week or so has been the most productive and progress-y of my uke journey so far, and I feel like getting my strap, stand, and pad act together has been a big part of that. I feel like maybe none of this should matter, but in practice (in both senses of the word), it really does!

That's a nice looking stand and I like that it comes with a case. You could probably slip a tablet in there and it's all together!

 

[bilbo56]

In looking for a pdf reader, I found that I can load MS Office on my Fire tablet. I keep all the music in one folder (Bilbo56, this might help you) and Office is now my default app for opening pdf files, which avoids the Kindle Reader app, which lets you do *nothing*.

So far, Office has worked well. It opens pdfs quickly, especially if they have been opened before.
I'm now gonna give my 3" binder of paper music to my friend's daughter who is learning uke on a cheapie uke I gave her (So proud!)

J

Where did you download that? I can't find it in the Amazon app store.

 

[TimWilson]

That's a nice looking stand and I like that it comes with a case. You could probably slip a tablet in there and it's all together!

D'oh! I hadn't even thought of that! I just tried it earlier today, though, and it works great! Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Bibs]

For those looking for an android and/or Windows [and IOS in the future] alternative, check out MobileSheets by Zubersoft.
No connection, just a satisfied user.

 

[TimWilson]

For those looking for an android and/or Windows [and IOS in the future] alternative, check out MobileSheets by Zubersoft.
No connection, just a satisfied user.

Very interesting! I hadn't seen that before! I love when software companies post manuals (as Zubersoft has done here), and that thing does a LOT! Out of curiosity, what part of the feature set are you leaning into most? I'm okay with saving and organizing files and using the Acrobat Reader to display them, but I'm intrigued by the ability to connect devices to turn the pages, for example.

Would love to hear more about how you're using it!