Tablet to Organize
Found in: About Business, Equipment, Technology
Rebecca H., Canada
I’m looking to make the switch from my big binders full of my SM materials to something digital. I’m hoping to find a fairly large tablet that would allow me to have all the materials as PDFs and that would have a pen I could use to write on the documents as needed. I’m wondering if anyone uses something like this already or has any suggestions? I don’t really need an iPad, something that would be exclusively for this purpose would be ideal! Thank you!
Mark M., New York
FWIW my daughter recently decided she wanted an iPad and Apple Pencil for college note-taking. She was okay getting something other than the very latest models. I researched both other options as well as new-vs-used options for iPad & Apple Pencil. Ended up seeing that there weren’t really especially amazing alternatives for significantly cheaper, and ended up feeling that a new iPad with the 2-year AppleCare plan was worth the expense compared to saving not much money on a used model with less coverage and that could need replacement sooner. Went with a new-but-not-newest iPad model that was compatible with the pencil version 1, not the latest version 2. I suspect you can find cheaper out there, but you might be surprised that the savings might not be as much as you’d hope.
Rebecca H., Canada
Mark M. thanks for that info Mark! I feel like we have so many devices in the house already but nothing quite like what I want! I’m finding it hard to give up the paper copies but they need reprinting and I’d rather save the paper!
Mark M., New York
Rebecca Harding My daughter actually calculated how much pens and notebooks would cost over her four years of college to make the case that it was not too bad to spend the extra to get her the iPad & Apple Pencil now!
Ian B., California
I ended up getting the 10.9in Ipad Air WiFi only and sprung for 256g storage (more than enough really). You don’t NEED Apple Pencil but it has been handy combined with ForScore. That is the only app I use now for ALL SM documents. The key though is organizing it well so that you can call up what you need quickly when you need it.
ForScore also works really well as a white board, especially with Apple Pencil (although you can use your finger too).
I get by just fine with the 10.9in screen but I can see why some prefer the larger display. I just didn’t feel like the cost was worth it. Whichever tablet you use, I think ForScore is still the app to beat for music and PDFs organization. Newzik is a more recent app on the market that also wields quite well but I didn’t find it as flexible for organizing documents without music notation. ForScore does both and it integrates with several online sheet music stores, including Musicnotes.com – my #1 go to for lead sheets 👍
Robin T., Australia
I use a 12.9” iPad Pro and the Books app with each level stored in a collection. I use the latest iPad mini to display the relevant reference book during a lesson too. As a side note I use the excellent ForScore app to display my own music and arrangements and the equally good Henle app for quality classical repertoire.
Rebecca H., Canada
Robin T. my partner has the 12.9 iPad Pro and loves it! I’d love to “borrow” it from him (haha!) but he also teaches music online and uses it at the same time… I guess I might have to look into investing in another one… 😁
Joanne D., Australia
Robin T. that’s a good idea – was wondering how to do it – you really need 2 devices so you can have the lyrics next to the clues etc
Ian B., California
Robin T. More devices means more stuff for the students’ eyes to look at (and more for me to manage). Especially in online lessons, I try to just focus their attention on the keys as much as possible so one device is plenty. If I want to display stuff side by side, that’s pretty easy to set up in ForScore
Gabrielle B., Iowa
This is all depending on whether you want apps or not…but if you aren’t looking to use other apps, I purchased a Remarkable and it is a game changer. I can cast it to my computer and also includes sheet music templates so that I can show intervals on display. It has an e reader display and realistic pens, and can pull up PDFs from the cloud. Again, all depends on what you’re looking for but if you’re looking to not get glared out by screens all the time, totally worth it.
Ian B., California
Gabrielle B. Nice Outside box thinking! Yes. Remarkable tablets are amazing for anything writing. Didn’t know about casting ability or sheet music template, so that’s awesome. Did you create the template or was that something already provided?
Gabrielle B., Iowa
Ian B. already provided! They have tons of templates, can convert to text and email which is great for todo lists, and the presentation mode turns the pen into a laser pointer essentially on the screen. It’s seriously so nice. They have Google drive and drop box integrations too!
Original discussion started January 19, 2022
