The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
  1. #1

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    Greetings.
    Is there and app that will allow me to import PDFs to my iPad, say from my Real Books on Kindle, and scribble notes on top of the sheet music? If Imy group decides that we're going to vamp over the last four measures of a piece, for instance, I'd like to jot a "vamp 4x" note on my music. The Kindle app is great (much better than lugging ten pounds of physical Real Books around), but this inability to annotate is a real drawback.
    Many thanks,
    Kevin

  2.  

    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    PDFExpert lets you mark up a pdf from the keyboard or Apple Pencil, along with highlighting and other tools.

  4. #3

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    Try Piascore…. It’s an iPad app designed specifically for music. Lots of ways to catalog, tag and library pdfs as well as notations on the pdfs.
    There are many other features like a metronome, performance modes, gestures, it’s a musicians tool not a generic editor. Been using it gee near 8-9 years both jazz and classical and it’s great!
    Enjoy!
    jk

  5. #4

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    I don't know how to get PDFs out of Kindle.

    In iReal Pro (and other apps) on the iPad (or iPhone), you can share a PDF to Files (I would suggest saving it to the Documents folder). Then open Files, navigate to the Documents folder, and double-click on your newly-created PDF file.

    You can annotate a PDF directly on the iPad with the built-in tools.

    When you open a PDF, in the upper right corner you'll see a magnifying glass, a pen tip in a circle, and the symbol for sharing the document.

    Click on the pen tip in the circle, and you will get some choices for annotating: a selection of pen types, a ruler, and different colors. On the left you have options for undo and redo.

    If you click on the plus sign, you'll get an option for text (among others). If you select it, and then double-tap on the text field, you'll be able to type in information; you can also drag the text field to where you want it.

  6. #5
    Playing with some of these apps last night, I'm beginning to think that Kindle is a big part of the problem. I suspect the data are not in PDF format and, no doubt for reasons of trademark protection, there doesn't seem to be a way to export the music, anyway. An obvious work-around would be to take screen shots of the pieces I'm working on, save them as PDFs, and go from there.
    It's surprising, but I would have thought there'd be a simple way simply to scribble over whatever's on the iPad screen, but apparently not.
    Kevin

  7. #6

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    i use Forscore on ipad

    you can notate and share music pdf’s with your band organise setlists etc

    its for musicians ....
    It has got a small learning curve but
    you’re up and running in an hour or two

    i was recommended it by a friend who is
    a pro jazz sax player ....
    he said ‘get forscore it’s what we all use’

    it costs about £20 from the app store

  8. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by kevinal
    Playing with some of these apps last night, I'm beginning to think that Kindle is a big part of the problem. I suspect the data are not in PDF format and, no doubt for reasons of trademark protection, there doesn't seem to be a way to export the music, anyway. An obvious work-around would be to take screen shots of the pieces I'm working on, save them as PDFs, and go from there.
    It's surprising, but I would have thought there'd be a simple way simply to scribble over whatever's on the iPad screen, but apparently not.
    Kevin
    Well you can, I did it several times, but it's a bit contorted: export the file using the native Kindle format, then remove the trademark protections (drm and the like) I can't describe how here due to the forum rules, there are tools on the Internet for that, and only then convert to pdf using other free Internet software .
    Wouldn't do all of that for a small score, but I did it for pretty big music books, like "the music way" I really wanted to read and annotate (using Ipad pencil)

    I'll check forScore ...

  9. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by kevinal
    Greetings.
    Is there and app that will allow me to import PDFs to my iPad, say from my Real Books on Kindle, and scribble notes on top of the sheet music? If Imy group decides that we're going to vamp over the last four measures of a piece, for instance, I'd like to jot a "vamp 4x" note on my music. The Kindle app is great (much better than lugging ten pounds of physical Real Books around), but this inability to annotate is a real drawback.
    Many thanks,
    Kevin

  10. #9

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    I haven't used my Kindle Fire HD for this since I broke down and got an iPad. But as I recall, the Kindle "library" will take pdfs without issue. I used to email files to my kindle email address so they'd go into the library and I could access them while on vacation.

    I just downloaded Piascore to try, and it's really good. I have a Logitech pen for my iPad that works great at half the cost of an Apple Pen. Piascore even lets you "erase" what was in the original pdf by covering the area with digital white-out. But the effect is the same as erasing, and you can reverse it by running the eraser tool right over the whited out area. Every file you open in Piascore is saved in a folder in the app - the originals are not altered at all. To get files into Piascore, you have to open them in a browser and click the Piascore icon in the "upload / export" menu to enter them. Once you do, there's a working copy in that folder.

    I think you have to buy up to the paid tier to be able to export pdfs directly. But even in the free tier, you can do a screen capture and then use the internal iOS function to export or email it as a pdf by long-tapping the thumbnail in the file folder. This does not work from the photo library - the files have to be in a folder in the file system. I made one called image2pdf, and it's quick and easy to edit and export score sheets once you set up the above.

    Try the free tier and I think you'll like it. I'm going to buy up and use it to prepare the playbooks for our weekly sets backing vocalists.