As soon as the iPad came out two years ago, I knew I wanted one. The trouble was, I wasn’t working enough at specific gigs to warrant going out and buying one.
Times changed, I got a few new gigs, and the next thing I knew my Soular and “Lyrics” binders were overflowing. I’ve been printing up my own charts and lyric sheets for years, and I’d even developed a system to go through my binders and remove charts/lyrics I no longer need/use.
When I heard that an iPad 2 was being released, I knew I had to get one, and I’m so glad I did.
Since the beginning of April, I’ve been using my iPad almost exclusively for every gig I do. I know I’m going to sound like an Apple commercial but I cannot stress how much easier and better this has made my performing life.
First, I went through all the songs Soular performs and created a PDF of every chart I haven’t yet memorized. There have also been others handed to me over time, so I scanned and input those ones into my files too. Then, I went to my Lyrics directory that I’ve been painstakingly working on for years and uploaded every single lyric sheet to the iPad. Finally, I went through all my “fake books” and added them too.
The main program I use for reading lyrics is called “Dropbox”. Essentially, it’s a “cloud”-type online storage system that allows easy access to reading PDF and Word documents on the iPad (among others). I transferred all of my lyric sheets to Dropbox and assumed everything would be great. Unfortunately, on my first gig using Dropbox, I noticed that it wasn’t loading my lyric sheets because I wasn’t connected to the Internet. I didn’t buy the 3G model). I then discovered that only the titles of the word documents I’d transferred over were visible. However, once the files have been viewed ON the iPad, they’re considered copied.
SO. Here’s my advice to you: If you want a cheap way of looking at lyrics on your iPad, download Dropbox. Then, transfer all of your word documents of lyrics onto it. Now, this is very important if you don’t have 3G: go through EVERY SINGLE DOCUMENT you’ve uploaded. It’s a lot of clicking, but once you’ve gone through it, everything will have been downloaded to your iPad and will be ready for viewing.
You might notice that when reading word documents in Dropbox, the formatting of the page may have changed. Here’s another step that will take a lot of time in preparation, but you’ll be glad you did when you get to performance: go through all of your lyric sheets and re-size all of the margins, headers, footers, and lyrics. The iPad already has borders, so there’s no reason to have margins on your virtual page. Feel free to delete the song titles in the header if you want to, too, as they’re usually in the title of the file.
For gigs in which songs are called at random, I find Dropbox to be a fantastic app. However, when I’m playing in a band in which there is a set list of songs (and I need lyrics or sheet music), I suggest you use “Forscore”.
“Forscore” is probably the best sheet reading app out there. Basically it’s a PDF reader that allows you to upload a vast library of songs and/or books, which then sorts it alphabetically for ease of finding. It also has an option to search for scores by keyword, by composer (something you need to enter) or simply by recent activity. It will also allow you to re-name, draw, type, write on and otherwise annotate your scores.
For that reason, I’d recommend going one step further and turning every lyric sheet (aka word document) into a PDF, as Forscore does not read Word documents. It’s easy to do, and it takes roughly the same amount of time as it does to physically print something (when you factor in time to print, hole-punching, inserting into the binder, etc.). It’s a pain to do your entire catalogue initially but once it’s complete you’ll be thankful you did.
The main drawback to using an iPad to read sheet music is that you can only see one page at a time. However, Forscore also allows you to create “one touch links”, allowing you to easily to repeat sections, D.S. al Coda, and navigate through several pages of music at the touch of a virtual button. Granted, this means you’ll have to go through your scores beforehand to map out where all the repeats are, but once you’ve done it, it’s there for good. Also – if you’ve set it up properly – when you repeat back to a section, a flashing orange circle will indicate to where you start so you don’t have to search around frantically while playing.
Another interesting feature of Forscore: Suppose you’ve scanned a bunch of pages from a book that uses 8×10 sheets, but your scanner still used the original size of 8.5×11. Using two fingers, Forscore also allows you to re-size and crop individual pages.
Those two programs should be enough to get any musician through a gig in which they need to read music and/or lyrics. The only other app I could suggest is using Safari to search for lyrics when you’re connected to the Internet.
Here’s a quick story: about a month ago, I was on a gig where I was accompanying a bunch of novice singers. They’d only ever done karaoke, so when they showed up to sing, they just assumed I either knew the pieces they wanted to perform or already had the sheet music. In most cases, I did not. I managed to tether my iPad to my iPhone, find pdf copies of lead sheet-type charts online, download them to my iPad, and then rehearse them with the singers. My musicality and ability to pick things up were definitely challenged that day, but the iPad made getting to that point much easier!
For the type of work I do, I find that Dropbox and Forscore are the best apps to use on the iPad. I’m sure there are dozens of other great apps (GarageBand, iMovie, etc), but I can only speak about the ones I have and use. Of course, being a professional musician also often entails a significant amount of down time. That’s when it’s handy to have a book with you that you can read on the iPad (I suggest Goodreader or Kobo). Or play a game! Or do some work. (Office² HD is great!)
The iPad is a tool, and it allows me to do my work easier and better than ever before. Now that I’ve increased the size of the library I travel with a hundredfold, as well as having a connection to the worldwide web, I find myself that much more prepared for everything that gets asked of me when performing live.