Do You Use a Tablet, Rather than Books?

Rllink said:

As long as I'm here this morning, I use MobileSheets pro on my Kindle, but I also have the ultimate guitar app installed.

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Thanks for that.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ultimateguitar.tabs&hl=en_US

HI All,
I have over 800 songs with chords and lyrics, most are now in Mic / word and as many PDFs in Tablature.
I am definitely not computer tech minded. I have reached a point with my music where i would prefer not to have to hunt through one of the 3 large filling cabinet drawers to locate a Tab or song but more importantly, i have reached that age whereby my now failing eyes are now not as good as they once were and now i need two A4 pages with a font size of 16+ for me to be able to read comfortably (even with glasses). It becomes very frustrating and i am sure there are many others with similar problems. So i have decided i would like to go down the route of a computerised music library.
Something portable/light and not too bulky would be the ideal and i only require my music (nothing more) so it hasn’t got to be an “all singing and dancing” system,
My question is simple really, can anyone tell me do all laptops / Tablets have similar features and can the font size be increased and the song/Tab be made to auto scroll at an adjustable speed to suit.
Its nice to read from just one page but that is now no longer possible for me.
I read the post from “Rllink” and do like the idea of the kindle as i know the font can be increased to a very large size but does it have the facility to scroll? Or can it be used with a page turner?
I know that many of these issues on the forum have been already dealt with but would very much appreciate any quick replies from some of you who may have experienced similar concerns and it would be very much appreciated if you might be able to share an opinion and point me in the right direction.
Thanks in advance.....

BanjoB, I think it would be the app (application) that allows you to scroll, not the device (Kindle/Fire tablet, or another one). I also recommend MobileSheets; it does allow scrolling, as well as various organizational options, and more. You even can buy a pedal to control the scrolling that way. The MobileSheets product support is truly the best I've ever experienced. (Apparently it's a one-person operation.) I use a Fire tablet, which seems to be as inexpensive as they come. Unfortunately, you just missed a one-third off on the 10-inch Fire tablet, so it's now back up to $150 from the $100 sale price. But I'd pay more than that for the tablet and app just to have everything on the tablet.

My GF bought me a small Android table (I think 8") a few years ago. I have loaded it with a bunch of music apps that also allow sharing through cloud with my phone. My favourite apps are OpenSong (free), SmartChord, and FakebookPro. The first two can easily handle transposing keys and show chords for various instruments. You can import songs from internet sources, edit them, and organize them into set lists, and time the scrolling. FakebookPro is great for importing pdfs, and has has some transposing functions for their internal large number of musical books - it's an incredible resource. All that said, in practice I find using the tablet a hassle to find songs, zoom in, scroll etc. I rather haul my binders where I can flip quickly through and then have my song in front of me without need for further interaction.

Banjo Byham said:

Something portable/light and not too bulky would be the ideal and i only require my music (nothing more) so it hasn’t got to be an “all singing and dancing” system,
My question is simple really, can anyone tell me do all laptops / Tablets have similar features and can the font size be increased and the song/Tab be made to auto scroll at an adjustable speed to suit.

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You can use the smaller $75 8" Amazon Fire HD tablet, or the larger 10 for $150 - both go on sale. They come with 16GB or 32GB of memory, but you can put a microSD card in the side and get all the storage you need. I have over 1,000 songs now, and there's room for plenty more. MobileSheetsPro costs about $13, and it's great for keeping track of music. You can put songs into Setlists (books), but I find it easier letting the program sort them all alphabetically. I don't have to remember which book a song is in. I think I can answer Yes to your questions.

I used to bring a suitcase on wheels with 25 lb of music. The Kindle is much better.

https://www.amazon.com/Fire-HD-10/dp/B07K1RZWMC/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=fire+hd&qid=1575473588&sr=8-1

I tried all methods of accessing my music without the use of a page turner. For me, the scrolling features are always cumbersome. But with enough effort I could get the job done in some manner or another. Eventually I broke down and bought an AirTurn BT-200/S2. It is about the size of a Philadelphia cream cheese box and is rechargable. I don't always "need" it, but it is so handy that I often wonder why I went to so much trouble to work around it before.

Wow, great response, i am so grateful that you guys have come back so quickly. Luv the idea of the fireHD but i live in Spain and it appears that the 10" is not yet available and Amazon UK will not post to spain (well not this product) That said i am aware that any PC brought in Spain will have Default settings in Spanish and they just cant be changed... The language can be changed as can much of the systems operation but it will still show the default setting when starting up, would be far happier and more at home with a "Full English"... Would have no problem buying it but they wont post here.....
Very thankful for all the input from you all and i do take on board all of the comments. "Rllink"....... The AirTurn BT-200/S2 sounds like an awesome bit of kit. Like "Jerryc41" says i have all my music in Alphabetical order and i find its the easiest way (but not in a filing cabinet)..."Merlin666 and Davey" have suggested some great looking apps that i will try.. I will let you know what choices i make and keep you posted...Thanks for all your help.

Since I first started reading this thread earlier in the year (thanks Jerry) I decided to load all my ukulele song files onto a 9.7 iPad. I use the forScore app and find it suits my needs. What I really like is you can arrange songs into Setlists, for example Favourites, Practice, Christmas, etc.
I still have all the original files stored on a PC laptop where they were first downloaded and then transfer them to the iPad using iTunes.

Mike

I use the large iPad Pro and the forScore app. Right now I have 384 items on it. It takes pdf files, so I can download pdf's ready to go, or make my own using Text Edit or Pages. Many websites, such as doctoruke, will convert and save the files for you direct to forScore. And, I can use a scanner app on my iPad or iPhone to scan in pdf's from printed pages of music. forScore has a great editing function, and I mark up a lot of my scores. It will also load an audio file and index it to your score so you can quickly refresh your memory about the tune. I've used forScore for several months now, and I only have one complaint. The saving function is a bit clunky. It can be done, but it could be better automated.

12” iPad Pro and forScore

As a technophile I feel like I should be in favor of using a tablet and saving trees, but I just hate trying to read tabs on a small screen, particularly if they are multiple pages. Trying to scroll ahead without missing a beat is difficult, and in a multi page view it is too small for me to read. That said, I DO frequently use a 32" computer monitor to display tab PDFS in a 2 page view and tap a foot pedal scroll down if it is more than 2 pages.... or at least I did until my foot pedal broke. I really need to rebuild that pedal at some point. It was pretty handy.

I have used my ipad for writing up tabs, but I find I prefer the convenience of a keyboard using Guitar Pro 7 on my workstation or laptop (which is really pretty overkill for the simple little tabs I am doing).

Absolutely....iPad 7 and Onsong.

Being a geek, I've gone through a variety of tablets and apps and finally settled on an iPad Pro 12.9" (70year old eyes) and forScore, although I found that MobileSheets Pro is a better, but it's only available on Android and Windows 10 tablets. The developer says it will be on the iPad at some time, but it hasn't happened yet, and it doesn't record, which I do all the time with forScore.

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This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 13 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 37)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers

Our small local group all use android tablets or iPads. With the exception of one member who still lugs his two hundred and ten page printed folder around with him! The majority of us find the tablet fits inside the ukulele case easily and is far less bother than a paper folder/ring-binder.

E-ink readers are another option, in some ways better than normal tablets as they use so little power and are easy on the eyes. Have a look at this website to get an idea of what's available. Many use the Android operating system and can run much Android software.

Not always the cheapest option, but worth looking into.

VegasGeorge said:

I use the large iPad Pro and the forScore app. Right now I have 384 items on it. It takes pdf files, so I can download pdf's ready to go, or make my own using Text Edit or Pages.

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Since getting the Kindle, I found a super easy way to convert files to PDFs. Simply go to Print and select PDF as the output. Easy peasy.

I have all my uke books on the tablet (and the PC), many as samples, gives perspective what uke is about.

When it comes to the playing, I prefer to work on one (Beatles) piece at a time, the text with chords on paper print. So I don't have any problem with paper piles (yet? ). The tablet is very useful for example when comparing piano chords, sound and all, with the uke chords, my old piano experience coming to life and supporting understanding and experience.

Joyful Uke said:

I didn't know that Kindles could read PDFs. I'm definitely not high tech.

I don't spend a lot of $ printing things out, but with that too, I suppose there is a lot of variation in money spent. Maybe part of the difference is that I don't play outside my house, vs. those of you who go to uke groups and/or perform. Some of you, I'm sure, need to carry around large amounts of music.

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You are right, Kindle itself is not particularly PDF friendly. But the MobileSheets app is. I don't think MobileSheets will do anything but PDFs. In fact, if someone sends me a PDF and I want to view it on my Kindle I do it in the MobileSheets app. I even have a folder in it for non music PDFs.

12” iPad Pro with ForScore as per a UUer’s recommendation from thread a year or so ago. Genius scan for scanning and saving to Dropbox.

I have an Lenovo tablet 10 inch with Mobile Sheets Pro which I like. I have one question. I am not techie. I have several song books on PDF and when I add them to Mobile Sheets Pro they go in as one file. How do you split them all out so they get arranged in alphabetical order as single songs rather than 50 in one Book in one file? There must be an easy way rather than printing out each song, scanning to my computor and saving. Then moving to my tablet .I very much appreciate not lugging around 50 pounds of books.
Thanks for any suggestions.