iPad or iPad clone for ukulele pdf song sheets

Uncle Rod Higuchi

Uncle Rod Higuchi

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I'm about to take a plunge into the iPad-clone market to get a backlit (color) device, probably 7", to hold my ukulele pdf song sheets (as well as my ebooks). being able to surf the net at a wi-fi spot would be a plus, but I'm probably going to be using it as a portable and comprehensive, though thin and light, digital ukulele songbook.

Any thoughts UU Family members about this idea? Have some of you already tried this course of action? Positives and Negatives would be greatly appreciated.

One of our SUPA members brings his iPad to our song circle and seems to be able to keep up with everyone without having to lug around a couple of thick song books. It's in color, backlit, and very engaging.

I'll be waiting eagerly for any input.

Thanks, and keep uke'in',:)
 
We have been looking into android pads ourselves for reading etc... That is a great use for it.. another plus! I know some people like the 'e ink' technology better for reading,
We would really like e readers of some sort, we are running out of book room.. I look forward to hearing others opinions as well.
 
I have been considering the same thing, but I want something that can do more than just hold and display PDF song sheets. Mostly I want it to be able to allow me to input and/or edit backing tracks and play them back as my one man band. I posted a video link of Dave Beckingham a few days ago on an Ipad app called "IrealBook," that allows you to do that. The app also runs on Androids, but you have to make sure they are running at least version 2.2, and many of the inexpensive ones are running an outdated version of the Android OS. The Android version of IrealBook will not allow editing and some other features that the iPad version does.

Pippin started a good thread on using the Kindle for his magazine, and some in there discuss using it for a song sheet reader.

I think its important to make sure that whichever one you get to make sure the apps you want will run on it. By the way I understand even K-mart is selling a 2.2 Android 7" tablet now for $150, but there have been some problems with it. So... its kind of buyer beware right now.
 
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My song sheets are all on word documents or pdf files. I was considering this idea also to display the song sheets for gigs, but the 7" screen is just to small. The Music Pad Pro by Freehand Music is the right size and has all the bells and whistles, it's just too expensive. So I've just been waiting for the right thing to come along at the right price.

Bill
 
There is an iPhone app called My Songbook that might work for you. You have to 2x scale on an iPad but it's not a big issue. Input your lyrics manually with chord designations and the program converts to fake style. It had adjustable scrolling speed and shows mini chord diagrams if you want. Not bad at all for $1.99.
 
I use an I-Pad. I have the IRealBook App as well as my music in pdf format.
I like the some of the new Andoid pads, but the screen size is not the same.
I like the Android pads as most have USB/SD slots which would be very nice for arranging music sheets.
On the IPad I use "Dropbox" to move pdfs from my pc to IPad. Some of my music is in sheets and some books.
The books I use iBooks and iTunes to sync and read. For the PDF I use "Cloud Reader" a free app so I don't need an internet connection to read music sheets.

I even have "Ukulele Boot Camp" on my IPad ready to share with my pals.
 
My youngest son, who works in the IT department of a large corporation laughed when I mentioned this to him a few weeks ago. He said, "Dad, why don't you just use your laptop - far more power and you already have one." He's probably right, but I never seem to be able to keep my laptop batteries going for a long time.
 
Magoosan said:
My song sheets are all on word documents or pdf files. I was considering this idea also to display the song sheets for gigs, but the 7" screen is just to small. The Music Pad Pro by Freehand Music is the right size and has all the bells and whistles, it's just too expensive. So I've just been waiting for the right thing to come along at the right price.

Bill
Click to expand...

I have a Music Pad that I would gladly part with feel free to PM me and we can discuss details.
 
SweetWaterBlue said:
My youngest son, who works in the IT department of a large corporation laughed when I mentioned this to him a few weeks ago. He said, "Dad, why don't you just use your laptop - far more power and you already have one." He's probably right, but I never seem to be able to keep my laptop batteries going for a long time.
Click to expand...

Batteries and ease of use and portability are why I got the IPad.
 
I have an iPad and I love it dearly. The app I use for my uke song sheets is ForScore. I had contemplated getting IRealBook but I chose ForScore instead. Both allow you to input .pdfs and sync it to a track so you can play along with the actual song if it is in your iTunes library. What made the difference for me in choosing ForScore instead was that if you see any .pdf on the internet, or get sent it in an email, you can automatically load it into your ForScore library, so you don't have to download it into iTunes independently.

It is so much easier than dragging around my huge music notebook on trips, and I also find turning the pages is so much easier than with paper as well. A simple flick/swipe across the page and you are on the next page.

I highly recommend both the iPad and ForScore. :)
 
Thanks for all the input.

I'm hearing that 7" screens might be too small. If so, what size would you suggest? (8", 9", 10")

What price point would be comfortable for you to seriously consider getting one? ($100-$200, $200-$300, $300-$400, more?)

Netbooks are a bit bulkier, for my tastes, but they are in the same price range ($300 or so). Any thoughts about these?

Interesting comments. Thanks again, and keep them coming.

Don't forget to keep uke'in',
 
Check out http://www.youtube.com/user/ashens and all of his reviews of the android tablets. There is one in there he actually likes... But I can't remember which one it is!
 
Uncle Rod Higuchi said:
Thanks for all the input.

I'm hearing that 7" screens might be too small. If so, what size would you suggest? (8", 9", 10")

What price point would be comfortable for you to seriously consider getting one? ($100-$200, $200-$300, $300-$400, more?)

Netbooks are a bit bulkier, for my tastes, but they are in the same price range ($300 or so). Any thoughts about these?

Interesting comments. Thanks again, and keep them coming.

Don't forget to keep uke'in',
Click to expand...

If you want a well built and programed Android Tablet. I could recomend the Archos 101 Tablet
 
There's a great app called "Onsong" for the iPad, which gives you the option of reading PDF and Word files, as well as importing from websites, auto-scrolling, transposing, editing within the app, exporting, connecting to a projector... pretty much does everything! A guy at my uke group suggested it to me and I've been using it ever since. http://www.onsongapp.com/
 
SweetWaterBlue said:
My youngest son, who works in the IT department of a large corporation laughed when I mentioned this to him a few weeks ago. He said, "Dad, why don't you just use your laptop - far more power and you already have one." He's probably right, but I never seem to be able to keep my laptop batteries going for a long time.
Click to expand...

One word: Layout. A tablet's usability for reading in either portrait or landscape mode is just better than a laptop. Sure a laptop can do it, but it's just not natural (i.e. it doesn't have the same physical feel and construct of a book when reading)

Back to the original question: One problem I have with the ipad is that it's not really usable in direct sunlight, which limits what you can do with outside playing to virtually nothing. So with that in mind I'd recommend a standard e-ink based reader, or, keep your eyes out for a Pixel Qi based tablet such as the Notion Ink Adam. I've had my eye on the Adam for a while, apart from being able to use it outside it has an HDMI output, meaning that I can cheaply and easily hook it up to a big screen at our weekly uke group meetups and put songsheets up... a task currently performed by my aging netbook... However the Adam has only just been released, so as I do with anything Apple releases, I'm waiting to see what the first-hardware-revision fallout is like.

You can follow it here: http://www.slashgear.com/tags/notion-ink/
 
whetu said:
One word: Layout. A tablet's usability for reading in either portrait or landscape mode is just better than a laptop. Sure a laptop can do it, but it's just not natural (i.e. it doesn't have the same physical feel and construct of a book when reading)
Click to expand...

Quicik update. Since my original post in this thread, I have broken out the old Kindle 1st Generation we had languishing in a drawer. I've been reformatting songs in MS Word using a 4"x6" page size suggested in the other thread mentioned above and converting them with MobiCreator. Seems to work well and can be read most anywhere.
 
SweetWaterBlue said:
Quicik update. Since my original post in this thread, I have broken out the old Kindle 1st Generation we had languishing in a drawer. I've been reformatting songs in MS Word using a 4"x6" page size suggested in the other thread mentioned above and converting them with MobiCreator. Seems to work well and can be read most anywhere.
Click to expand...

Do you have to pay to put then on, or can you do it via USB? I have been thinking about getting an ereader.. this might push me over the top....
 
fitncrafty said:
Do you have to pay to put then on, or can you do it via USB? I have been thinking about getting an ereader.. this might push me over the top....
Click to expand...

MobiCreator (free) creates the files you need, then I just transfer it with my USB cable as if it were a flash drive or any other storage device (drag and drop). At least that is the way it works on the old Kindle.

MobiCreator is very easy to use. Basically, you just drop your file to be converted (Word, PDF, etc) on Mobi's icon and it opens a dialog window. A few clicks and its converted. It creates files for lots of different readers at the same time. I only need the .prc file so that is the one I transfer. You can also do this in batch mode, I think.
 
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Thanks everyone! Here's an update.

I recently purchased a 9.7" Android 2.1 Tablet and I'm using it as an ereader and ukulele song sheet reader.

I was able to get a couple of my performance songbooks scanned into pdf format. They were originally in 2 large files so I had to cut and paste them into a Word doc then save them (each song individually) as a separate pdf document. In this way I could create Alpha folders within the 2 categories (Hawaiian pdfs and Oldtime pdfs) in order to access the songs more quickly. Swiping through a long (long) document is tedious and time-consuming vs selecting an Alpha folder and having all the songs which begin with a particular letter presented in a smaller group from which to make a selection.

There's hope that my particular Android Tablet with OS 2.1 may be upgradable to 2.2 shortly. I hope so as I've heard that such an upgrade could significantly increase the speed of the unit.

Anyway, that's my update. Thanks again for all of your thoughtful and instructive input.

Keep uke'in',

PS The unit (SmartQ R10) is about the same size as an iPad and is supposed to have the 'same' kind of screen, although it does not, at this point, support 'pinching' and 'spreading' to decrease and increase font size.
 
I downloaded "OnSong" for my iPad. I have most of my music in pdf format and stored on the cloud in "Dropbox" (free 2.5 gigs).
When my iPad is connected to the i-net I can open a pdf and save it to the iPad in either "Cloud Reader" (also free) or "iBooks" or "OnSong"
The really cool thing about OnSong is it set up for music and has an auto scroll feature. If you fomat your pages narrow but long you can use a larger font.
"Guitar Pro 6" just introduced an iPad version, but it scrambled all my GP5 & 6 files. Their tech suport never answers e-mails so I can't recommend it.

What I like about Android tablets is they support usb & sd cards. To me I would like if I could load a set on a card frm my pc and then use it on the pad and not have to sort through my whole collection.
I probably have 2500 hundred songs on my iPad, most of which I have no idea how to play them.
 
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