Charts on iPad

Jim Kaznosky

Count me in.

Craig Bumgarner

Just an update on this, I tried iGigBook, good for lead charts but not as good for grilles because iGB does not support landscape view and grilles end up pretty small in portrait view. I'm using the Adobe Acrobat app to view pdf grilles. Works well, good navigation, supports landscape view.

I also use iRealB which works, and the transcribe thing is very handy, but not usually my first choice as I find it harder to read.

Course the best thing is to not use charts at all. This has always been a goal and I'm about 90% of the way there, that is only need charts for one in ten songs, but I guess there will always be a need for charts and it is nice to have them all together in one compact package. A couple weeks the guest singer wanted all the songs a 4th or 5th away from the standard key. iRB to the rescue.

CB

kevorkazito

I've been thinking about getting an iPad. So it sounds like a good tool to organize charts and other music pdfs?

I can live without it but I don't wanna be left behind, so to speak.

Jazzaferri

I got one...be patient if your not fussed about it...they arent all they re cracked up to be.....expensive way to carry a bunch of chord charts around....

I think the technology is going to change a bunch over the next year and I am not sure if apple is the way to go or if one of the other OS's will win out. I got mine a year and a bit ago and its OK but buggy as all get out and lots of things dont work with it.

kevorkazito

I believe that these conveniences are weakening other faculties in some respects. From an organisational standpoint I'm sure it does wonders for gigging GJers; I'm still in the woodshed. Luckily there's an IOS emulator for my Macbook so I think that's the way I'll go for now. What it can do sounds cool. Still, I like having coffee stained charts lying about and graffiti marked with notes.

klaatu

I've started playing with an app called forScore from http://www.forscoreapp.com. A bass player who sat in with us for a gig was using it. It doesn't have the ability to index books like iGigBook, it only handles individual scores, but my band uses either homegrown fake sheets built with Sibelius or grilles. iGigBook is handy for using things like the Django Fakebook at jams, but I find its implementation of many things to be clunky and cumbersome (for instance, you delete files through iTunes or by renaming them to blank names). The host interface is really bad, looks like an MS-DOS application.

forScore seems much cleaner and more robust and comes with a 26 page manual (igigbook documentation is sketchy, you have to tease a lot of info out of the forum). forScore has great integration with DropBox and lots of different functionality for sharing files and set lists. The method of building set lists is a lot simpler and more straightforward. I just bought an AirTurn BT105 Bluetooth page turner, which works very nicely with it (not so well with igigbook).

Also, it does work in landscape mode for your grilles, and they say they are working on a two-up page display. I think I'm going to continue to use igigbook for the books that I have indexed, but forScore is starting to look like a winner for gigging.

mikegnik

Thanks for adding your experience to this Ben. I have used ForScore for gigs playing piano solo and have wanted such a page turner since day 1 but never sprung for it. I hope you find this setup works well for you. I did find that ForScore wasn't the most stable app and would crash at will sometimes (on my gen 1 iPad), which always prompted me to print backups, which prompted me to make another binder, which in turn made me want to toss the ipad on ebay and forget the whole thing. It's great for jams but I found iBooks to be stable, but not as customizable.

ForScore has a lot of cool features by the way, half page turns, sharing options, can be linked to an audio file for quick reference to recordings, etc.

But, that was a while ago and perhaps it is more stable now. I wanted to love it, but just really, really liked it. Maybe you would be kind enough let us know how it all goes in the long term.

klaatu

I suspect your problem was some combination of iPad 1 and early release of forScore. They're up to Version 4 now, with 5 coming out soon, and I'm on an iPad 3. I haven't exercised it enough to know if there are any stability issues, but if there were at one time, I've got a feeling that they've worked hard on them.

pickitjohn

I haven't tried any of the above apps but I'm very happy with "Perform Pro" $1.99

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/perform ... 67319?mt=8

There is a free version but it will only accept 5 scores.

You can try the free version and toss it if it don't work

http://www.paragoni.com/sheet-music-sof ... -for-ipad/

Works great and has auto scroll.
Could use a better sort feature such as alphabetical. It also lets you do set list.

DESCRIPTION

A New And Exciting Way to Read Music
Perform Pro turns your iPad into a full-featured sheet music reader that offers a new and exciting way to read music without ever taking your hands off of your instrument. Free yourself from having to turn sheets page by page and focus on performing.

Stop Lugging Around Binders of Sheet Music
Stop lugging around binders of scores from place to place. Import and manage thousands of scores with ease. Then arrange scores into sets in the order that you intend perform them and tap Start.

Capture Your Performance
Capture your practice sessions or live performances with the built in audio recorder. Then share your songs via email or export them to your iTunes library on your Mac or PC.

Orchestras, Bands and Choirs
Perform is ideal for Orchestras, Bands, Choirs and individual musicians. Whether it's practice, auditions or concerts performing will never be the same.

Perform Pro
- Use "Auto Scroll" to smoothly scroll scores from page to page and score to score
- Use gestures to turn pages from left to right and from score to score
- Easily switch between "Auto Scroll" and "Page Turn" mode at anytime
- Use the visual or audio Metronome during practice sessions to improve your timing
- Perform in Full Screen

Score Manager
- Organize and manage unlimited scores
- Download free scores with built in browser and links to free sheet music resources
- Transfer scores from your Mac or PC through iTunes
- Import scores from email
- Create unlimited "Set Lists" or folders to easily organize your score library
- Use Set Lists to arrange all of your songs in the desired order for your performance
- Search for particular scores with the built in search tool
- Delete, rename and copy scores from one Set List to another

Audio Recorder
- Capture your performances live or during practice sessions
- Record multiple takes of your performances for comparison

Share Songs
- Export your recordings to your Mac or PC using iTunes
- Email your practice sessions to your instructor for feedback

Pick on

pickitjohn

Micky Dunne

Ok guys I need some help from the more technically gifted amongst us, I have a DVD with a few real books on PDF format. How do I get 'em on the iPad and organised?

Thanks in advance