anyone still using sheet music

[voxo]

anyone still using sheet music or the Ipad now rules..scrolling is fiddly..device might fail any time..and i feel more comfortable with sheet music..can fit 20 bars on to an A4..with tab...of course the main problem is it flying off the music stand...no problem ... peg them down

[BBGuitar]

Not an ipad but a Samsung with a page flip pedal.

It has been 6 months since I started using it but so far, no issues.

Paper back up is still nearby.

[mr. beaumont]

I like paper.

[RJVB]

Yep, paper scores. A big enough tablet is too expensive and fragile to my taste.

[AllanAllen]

Paper for rehearsed things, iReal on my phone for tunes I don’t know at the jam. I like the participants to get something musical out of me when I’m up there.

[Betz]

Paper does not have a zoom function . . .

[dconeill]

Paper does not have a zoom function . . .

Nor does it have battery depletion, potential screen cracking, high cost-of-entry, or compatibility issues.

[rpjazzguitar]

I have hundreds of charts on paper. Six copies of my book.

I've been scanning them a few at a time so I can send out charts in advance of gigs. Some of my sidemen use the pdfs on their tablets, which I don't like for reasons I'll get to. Some insist on using their own copies instead of my book. Most print the charts, but may skip a chart they think they have in the current version. One doesn't have a printer, so I provide them. At least I know he has the right chart.

I usually cap gig charts at 4 pages of paper. Sometimes the roadmaps are tricky. The segnos aren't always on page 1. I understand that with enough work I could unfold everything on the tablets and avoid desperate searches for the segnos. But, I just don't have the stomach for it.

A good friend/bandleader has rewritten a huge number of charts to cut them to one or two pages. Bought multiple tablets which he can control from his tablet. Hands out the tablets at his gigs. One obvious advantage is that it's easy to update a chart and provide the update to all. But, if you don't hand out the tablets and use the master-controller feature, sooner or later, the sidemen are going to have different charts. And, if he sends out charts in advance for sidemen to prepare, there's a chance that when they get to the gig it won't be the same chart. I suspect he doesn't do that, and his sidemen can read whatever he puts on their tablets.

So, I liked it better when everybody used my six books. Back then, I was able to make sure that everybody had the same exact chart.

In the modern world that's not as easy.

Just now, I spent an hour or so preparing for a 3 hour gig with 27 charts. I already had 26 of them, but I had to make sure I had the latest version. The band posts their charts on line, fortunately with a creation date for each chart. I had to go through them all checking to make sure I had the latest chart. Then I had to transfer my pencil markings to the new ones. I still can't swear I have the right chart in every case.

My preference would be for the bandleader to drive over and leave a folder with copies of the correct charts with revision dates so I can figure things out for the next gig. But, for various reasons, that isn't going to happen.

[BBGuitar]

Yep, paper scores. A big enough tablet is too expensive and fragile to my taste.

My tablet was $50 with my wife getting a new phone. Large enough to be only a little smaller than paper.

Mine has around 200 big band charts, 900 other tunes and cheat sheets, About a dozen fake and real books on the aux SD card.

It has my entire music collection in one small package. Complete backups on a couple other sticks.

Paper backups are nearby.

[Bop Head]

Doesn't prevent potential electrical or data loss issues, but damage ones:

K&M 19791 Tablet PC-Holder – Thomann United States

[Christian Miller]

But how will I consign all of my compositions to the flames in a moment of self-doubt and loathing if they aren’t on paper?

[Woody Sound]

Paper for me.

[garybaldy]

Yes. Love the concertina type with about 8 pages!

[Jimmy blue note]

I use paper. From the sketching of compositions to the internalization of a song form, I'm always re-working the way I see a piece or concept of the music. Aside from the notes themselves, I'm thinking of structures beneath and above the written notes: Edges and bodies of tonal areas, nice passages of voice lead chords or sequences, creating written notes for forms within a piece that give a hit of dynamics but aren't as committal as something in the score itself... all these are in the play between the pen (written) and the pencil (annotations).

There's a very tactile relationship I have with music that's on paper. It's easy to space music in unconventional blocks and non linear scans, for instance the first 2 systems of ATTYA might be written in two separate blocks rather than one linear continuum of 8 bars. I solo differently if I scan a paper that's closer to my mental concept.

When I'm using paper, the music has a much more plastic and graphic element to it. That works well with my musical concept. I can't imagine finding that elegant utility in an electronic medium. But that doesn't mean I won't embrace it if it ever comes along.

As an aside, if you ever get to visit the Morgan Library in New York, JP Morgan was a collector of manuscripts of all kinds, first drafts, hand written scores of literature, poetry and music. They are meticulously preserved and displayed on a rotating basis.
If you look at scores of Mozart, or Puccini, or Beethoven, it's like being in a room with them as this music comes into being. Neat flowing elegant melodies of Mozart vs the thunderstorms of edits and even questionably intelligable splatterings of Beethoven with forceful scratched out edits. There's a story in the way one writes to and reads from paper. It's definitely a part of the way I play it.

[Dave70]

+1 for paper.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

…of course the main problem is it flying off the music stand...no problem ... peg them down

The main problems in small clubs with dark stages or performance areas are the lacks of room, a stand sufficiently wide and supportive enough to hold a multipage score, and enough light to read it. A tablet overcomes all of them.

Paper is great - but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

[pamosmusic]

I always prefer paper over screens. Same with books.

I just like writing stuff on paper. And I try to minimize screens in the room when I’m practicing, so I like to have notes and exercises and things written out on paper.

But for a gig, the practical considerations come first. Either it’s a jazz gig and I’m going to the gig hoping I don’t have to look at music at all, so the iPad just makes more sense. Or it’s a classical gig and I’m reading for three hours straight and it’s just too much paper to haul around. So iPad, it is.

[cmajor9]

Another +1 for paper. Electronic solutions have their uses, but paper & pencil is still good technology, and requires no power source to use over and over.

[deacon Mark]

I just love to look at sheet music. My old eyes and white piece of paper and black notes and staff. Looking on any computer screen or pad is not the same. Please give me a paper chart.

[lawnmice]

Another +1 for paper. Electronic solutions have their uses, but paper & pencil is still good technology, and requires no power source to use over and over.

100%. When I’m writing original ideas or transcribing little things on the go I’ll just use a regular lined notebook, writing tab using a line on the page per string and it leaves lots of room for notes/adjustments

It’s so much less distracting from the music for me writing by hand

[drbhrb]

This would be a very niche product, but it would be great to have a sheet music sized e ink tablet with backlighting for musicians. Like a large kindle paperwhite.

[RJVB]

This would be a very niche product, but it would be great to have a sheet music sized e ink tablet with backlighting for musicians. Like a large kindle paperwhite.

Didn't this come up once (or twice) already, with all kinds of reactions how "e-ink" isn't really suitable (too slow?) ? Or maybe that was on a different forum.

I do remember seeing a more-or-less general-purpose tablet using such a screen, and how it was not so general-purpose after all. If memory serves me well e-ink displays are really designed to not need back lighting , and that could well mean that it's very tricky to add a decent, uniform backlight module.
Maybe o-led would be more suitable?

The "sheet music sized" concept reminds me of the chamber music performers I've known who would cut and paste their scores to come up with something where they had to turn pages as little as possible, and only in appropriate places. Imagine something 3 or 4 A4 sheets wide, taped together and with little flap-outs where necessary... (I tried to find a picture, couldn't of course).

[Kirk Garrett]

Wherever applicable, I always prefer to keep on hand the physical or analog version of whatever digital function the phone or tablet provides. This includes books, maps, a compass, a calculator, guitar tuner, flashlight, etc.

I use the smart device as a backup to whatever the thing is.

Exception would be a camera. I’ve given that up for now….which I may prove to regret.

[RJVB]

I always prefer to keep on hand the physical or analog version of whatever digital function the phone or tablet provides. This includes ... a calculator, guitar tuner

You have an analog or mechanical calculator (slide rule or abacus), and a strobe tuner?

[Kirk Garrett]

You have an analog or mechanical calculator (slide rule or abacus), and a strobe tuner?

Note the other word I used alongside analog. “Physical.” A physical object with a dedicated function that isn’t a smart device. Not always necessarily analog.