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If there is a shortage of electricity onstage we have bigger things to worry about than not being able to read the charts: keyboards, electric guitar, and electric bass, plus full PA with ~4 monitor mixes all gotta plug into something.
Originally Posted by kris
At least an iPad battery should last for a 3 hour gig without needing to recharge.
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06-09-2026 08:35 AM
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I was at job meeting one time and an old lady said she was concerned about all the youngsters plugging in their phones and wasting company resources. My boss said "I'll send them the bill"
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Captain Pedantic wants to point out that a "large" symphony orchestra is typically two or three times larger than "30" players. Originally Posted by kris
Interestingly, I've been out to hear the Arizona Symphonic Winds in concert a couple times this month...they're probably a 40 or 50-piece ensemble...and I noted that the first chair player in every section was reading off of paper charts, but that every other player was reading off of electronic tablets. (Conductor was also on paper.)
The Classical [sic] music world has clearly already embraced tablets; I attended a chamber music concert in NYC back in April. Three different trios, and nobody had paper! All iPads.
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btw I got my iPad two days ago, bought/downloaded the forScore app, scanned and loaded all my charts for the showband. Now just trying to get familiar enough with the app that calling up the desired song on demand is intuitive. So far so good. I have a week until our next gig, and I'll need to play with it a bit before then, but I'm confident it will work out and be much more convenient than paper.
I'll let you know if it isn't!
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A lot of it is honestly exposure to lots and lots of music. Most music is quite generic. You learn to recognise and ‘pre hear’ the chunks. The human mind is an amazing thing. Originally Posted by Oscar67
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These old eyes had their cataracts removed and new implants inserted 3 years ago. Originally Posted by GuyBoden
It's a "New Pair of Eyes" I need not an iPad, because these old eyes are getting very faulty.
It is like getting a new pair of eyes. The fixed focus of the implants takes some getting used to but is way better than what I had before.
I can read the tablet at music stand length without glasses, sharper vision I have never had.
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I am a few years out from cataract surgery, according to my ophthalmologist- basically right on schedule for a 66-year-old guy. I have never been without corrective lenses since about third grade when my parents figured out I couldn't see anything more than 4 feet away. I'm actually looking forward to the idea of being able to see distance clearly without glasses, although I will need reading glasses to be sure. Although they do make bifocal lens implants, apparently.
One person I know had his lens implants gauged to be able to read sheet music without glasses, and then wears glasses for distance and up-close correction. Apparently that's a rather unusual choice.
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I made the switch to reading from an IPad this year, and really like it so far.
I prefer reading from paper (assuming that the stage is well lit), but the struggle of browsing through several 100 arrangements to sort the sheet music for a setlist wasn't worth it any longer.
Now I only need to carry the ipad instead of a dedicated bag full of paper.
As a guitarist I'd say a footswitch for turning pages is a necessity. I put one on the pedalboard I'll use anyway and added a USB plug to it, so I always have a charger for the tablet within reach.
So far I'm really happy with that setup.
Paul
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My ophthalmologist gave me the same song and dance for years. I went to a different one and got it done. Originally Posted by Cunamara
I also had my implants gauged for the music stand. Before my implants I had 3x glasses for closeup work but not any more.
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Yes, all were geniuses – or then there was less songs to learn? Originally Posted by kris
If we talk about jazz, in ’20s there was no swing, no Ellington classics, in the ’30s there was no bebop chord changes, no Miles Davis tunes and so on.
And maybe they had more gigs to learn all the needed tunes. Experience makes the master!
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I've been using an iPad with a footswitch for a couple of years now.
I like it. I have multiple real books and lots of my band charts on it.
I'm using it in 3 bands now ... and my church gig provides an iPad of its own.
One of my bands is a big band, and they hand out traditional paper charts. Those charts would be very difficult to memorize, especially since we're all unpaid volunteers in that band.
Our last concert I stuck with paper since all of the charts fit on my stand, and I was too lazy to scan them in. If any of the concert charts get too big for my stand, I'll scan them all in, LOL.
I did have a gig where we were setting up outside in the early afternoon sun. My iPad let me know it was too hot, so I turned it off and covered it up.
If it's too hot for the iPad, it's probably too hot for the musicians, too. And too hot for you other equipment ... instruments, PA, mixing board, keyboards, etc.
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Yeah. I was doing a pit gig recently, and the trumpet and bone players sitting next to each other both had their parts on their ipads. They spent more time futzing with them and talking about them than paying attention.
Last edited by Woody Sound; 06-12-2026 at 12:57 PM.
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For paper in the wind, I've got a heavy stand with slideable wings, so it's wide enough for 4 pages. I got two pieces of plexiglass cut to the right size at a hardware store. I think they're a little bigger than a standard page. I could have gone with one big sheet, but it's easier to pack two half-sheets. And, I clamp the plastic to the stand with binder clips. It works. I'd guess that the extended wings look like a sailboat's rigging from the point of view of the wind, but, so far, nothing has capsized. Originally Posted by Bob_Ross
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I have been using an iPad (ForScore) and a foot switch for a few years. For me, the catalyst was a full evening New Year's gig where we were responsible for having to play any of 200+ tunes (many of which I didn't know well, and some keys were changed to accommodate our vocalist) on a moment's notice. My notebook was heavy and somewhat hard to navigate, and occasionally turning pages during tunes wasn't fun. The iPad has been a big improvement, and I keep it low and off to the side since I don't always use it. This might be overkill, but I always make sure to load anything in advance that I might possibly need (in other words, avoid internet dependency) and bring a charger.
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^^^That's similar to what I used when I played in a cruise ship band 35 years ago, and while it does prevent the charts from getting blown away in the wind and from folding around the too-small stand if you don't have the extendable wings (I had a 2nd sheet of plexiglass behind all the paper, so two plexi sheets total), the shortcoming was still one of the shortcomings I'm currently hoping to avoid: you can't execute fast transitions from one tune to the next. Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
Currently I have to unclip the two giant transparent clothespins holding the paper down, pull off the top chart, put it somewhere safe, re-attach the giant transparent clothespins...lather, rinse, repeat. (And that all presumes that I've already organized the charts in the correct order so that the next tune is ready to go right behind the one we just finished playing.)
On the cruise ship it was the same, except instead of giant transparent clothespins it was that top oversized sheet of plexiglass.
With the iPad, there's none of that fucking around between songs. Tap the screen once to bring up the controls, tap it again to return to the library, find the song, tap the title, done. With my showband, since I usually know the setlist in advance of the gig, it'll be even quicker: tap the screen (or step on a footswitch) once as soon as a song ends, boom, done.
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Another iPad advantage (with ForScore and an Apple Pencil) is being able to quickly annotate charts in rehearsals to capture arrangement notes. The notes can easily be changed, cleaned up, sent to others, or deleted later without putting wear and tear on the charts. Especially useful for situations where an arrangement will only be used once or for a limited number of times, or where multiple arrangements will be used for the same tune.
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When everything goes right with the Ipad, it's great.
But, here's the list of bad things that I have seen myself or heard about from a reliable source.
1. Hitting the wrong button on a page turn and ending up on a blank screen with no idea whether to go back or forward to get to the chart you're playing.
2. Sending out a setlist with charts in pdf form and then, somehow, having my own copy changed. I just screwed that up on a gig and I don't know how it happened. My guess is that I thought I was changing some other setlist.
3. Device shuts down because of heat.
4. Screen washes out in bright sun.
5. Ipad falls off the stand onto a hard surface. Of course this shouldn't happen, but I've seen it.
6. Airdrop fails for reasons that aren't clear. Band members go into Summer Computer Camp nerd mode and forget about music. This can happen even when nothing is wrong. Somebody asks how to do something on the Ipad and life stops.
7. Because I have nearly 5000 charts on my Ipad (don't ask) and it's hard to click on the letter of the alphabet precisely enough, it can take me longer than it should to bring up a chart.
8. Ipad darkens or turns off because somebody didn't click the right button on display-time-out. And, turning it back on requires going through security.
9. You're playing a 4 page chart you've never played before and there's a DS. You click back to page 1, but the DS isn't there. It's somewhere on page 2 or 3. I know that it's possible to set a button to take you to it, but you have to have time to do that.
All that said, when it works, it's great.
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There are large screen eBook readers, not cheap though - they read pdfs.
https://www.amazon.com/large-screen-ebook-reader
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Yes, books and iPads are a bottleneck between tunes. Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
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So, after diving into the deep end of digital sheet music less than two weeks ago, I had my first gig with the iPad running forScore last night. Originally Posted by Bob_Ross
I gotta say, it was an overwhelming success! Not 100% perfect -- there was one moment when I executed a Page Back command while I was trying to execute a Page Forward command, so that kinda sucked...but that's user error. There were also a few instances where I realized that, due to the way the original paper charts were paginated, I would have been better served by programming Half-Page Turns rather than Full-Page Turns (or vice-versa ...I changed back & forth a few times during our three sets, trying to figure out which would be more effective). I think ultimately my solution will be to re-paginate -- or possibly even re-write -- two or three charts from our ~40-song library so that they can be more easily navigated with simpler page turns.
But man, not having to shuffle two- and three-page paper charts on the bandstand -- in an outdoor venue, mind you -- was a godsend! I had the next tune up and ready to play before the last note of the proceeding piece had died out.
The kicker was, during a set break the bandleader -- who is now one of only two musicians in this 9-piece ensemble still using paper -- came up to me and set "Keep an eye on temperatures; if that iPad overheats, you're gonna be SOL." And just as he says that, a big gust of wind kicks up and scatters every single one of his charts across the stage (and beyond)!
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I have played many outdoor gigs with an iPad on hot days, sometimes in direct sunlight. Never had a problem with the iPad overheating. When positioned with a little care, the sunlight wasn't a problem either, although if someone invented a "visor" to shade it on a stand that might be a worthwhile purchase.
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I just used the ipad for the first time on a couple of Balboa swing dancing gigs. We had around 50 tunes almost all arrangements, and man, I will never go back to paper! It was so smooth and effortless to navigate the tunes and between them, I would be screwed and held the whole band if I brought the folder. The only problem I don't have many gigs like that where I have to read charts, but I hope there will be more. I don't know but suddenly sight reading is actually kind of fun.
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I like the Ipad from the point of view of the audience looking at the band. It's relatively unobtrusive.
I like airdrop and I liked it better before they introduced the code thing. I still haven't figured out why airdrop sometimes fails even when the person is in my contacts. Do I need their AppleID?
I find it easy to make a mistake with the page turns. Worst case is suddenly you're looking at a blank page and you don't know which way to turn to get back to where you were.
Some players unroll the charts. Cutting and pasting to eliminate repeats and make all page turns forward. In which case, it may be better to use a single button page turner. Some use the "button" feature, if that's what it's called. You click with a finger and it takes you to a spot, like the segno, which you programmed in earlier.
One leader I know carries Ipads for everybody, and limits charts to two pages. He's redone a bunch of my longer charts and found ways to get most to 2 pages,or sometimes a coda on page 3.
One thing that would make it more useful, which I haven't figured out yet, is to get full indexing of the various fakebooks. I believe that there's a way to do that -- if anybody knows, please post!Last edited by rpjazzguitar; 07-02-2026 at 10:41 PM.
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They have to “allow” any Airdrops to be received on that device. Contacts is another choice. Several security variations. But if the same two devices vary at different times, something else is likely wrong. Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
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I went to an early performance of Pat Metheny's "The Way Up" concert, in which the first half was the new album, the second half was a selection of his past favorites. I was interested that the ensemble all had charts, and for the first part, they were clearly using them. For the second part, I didn't think they looked at the charts much. Pat himself didn't use charts that I recall for that gig. Originally Posted by Cunamara
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I think the music was relatively new at that point Originally Posted by lawson-stone
I don’t think you’d be playing in Metheny’s band if you hadn’t learned at least the well known favourites? Mind you he has a big repertoire.
Presumably if you are Metheny the onus is on you to know your own tunes haha.
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