Digital or By Hand?

I've really gotten into using my iPad with my Ukulele music. I mostly keep lead sheets of varying complexity. And, I have them all digitally stored as annotated pdf files in an app called forscore. I'm still very happy with that arrangement. But, lately I've been reminiscing about the old days when my stuff was on paper, kept in a ring binder. There's something cold and impersonal about the iPad. Whereas the paper and ink with pencil notations seems warm and intimate. I miss it. So, I've been thinking about reestablishing a paper set of my lead sheets. Probably just my favorite ones. Right now I'm just toying with the idea. It would be a lot of work, and I'm very lazy. But, I might just do it. Is anyone else here going through the same thing? Or, am I the only one?

After about a yard of paper files and over a dozen ring binders, I started using my Nook reader by uploading PDFs, built a holder out of an old picture frame attached to a foldable music stand. Still working after 10 years.

When I first started playing uke July of 2013 and joined Cali Rose and The CC Strummers, I put all her song sheets on paper in a 3 ring binder. Within about 3 months, it was getting so thick, I decided to go digital, which I had already done for everything else, calendar, notes, etc. Since I've been using Macintosh computers since 1986, it wasn't a big deal for me to go there. After some trial and error on lower cost Android and Windows tablets, I decided not to be so cheap and bought an iPad Pro 12.9" with an Apple Pencil using forScore. It runs circles around Android and Windows. Not only do I use it for sheets, I also record on it with forScore during our rehearsals directly with the sheet, extremely convenient. I also send members of the group play lists directly from forScore.

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This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
8 tenor cutaway ukes, 4 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 38)

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

Both. Various of my ukulele and banjo songbooks are in paper format, and other songbooks and sheets are in digital form on my iPad. I grew up with computers (got the first one in 1984 when I was a teenager), so the digital world has always been part of my life, but in more recent years I've actually gone back to "analogues" and low-tech approaches in some areas. For example, I keep notes and to-do lists on paper (I've found it helps with retention) and still do enjoy reading paper books, although for space, downsizing and environmental reasons I do most of my reading on an e-ink device (can't really read books comfortably on the iPad, let alone on a phone).

Anyway, I try to cut down on "stuff", so I plan to digitize my songbooks and sheets eventually. Rather than scanning them in, I'll probably do it by hand in MuseScore, since I want to increase my familiarity with that software. It's a good opportunity. I do keep backups of documents and other media on external drives and in the cloud, so longevity of the material isn't a concern. A broken pipe taught me a few years ago that paper isn't necessarily a reliable long-term solution.

Sounds like Kohanmike and I are doing exactly the same thing. On that large iPad, using the pencil, editing is a cinch! I do have a question for Kohanmike, so look for a PM from me.

Got it George.

I have all my digital files backed up, both locally and remote so I can always access them, even with power outages because I have not only a battery UPS, but two battery/inverters that will power my devices for hours. By moving 100% digital, I made sure to cover myself at all times.

ubulele said:

And I never have to worry about the vagaries of software/online evolution rendering paper copies obsolete or unreadable. I've been bitten by that far too often to leave important things subject to the wisdom of the short-sighted public or the greed of corporations.

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Open formats offer some protection here. For many years now, all my digital documents have been in well-documented, open and free standards, so that even if (when) a program stops working, the data is still usable in another program or can be easily converted (if necessary I can do the programming myself for that too, but it's never been necessary). I don't use any propriety formats when it comes to storing data.