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Thread: Kindle as Music Reader?

  1. Kindle as Music Reader?

    The amazon Kindle and other readers seem to have decent pdf support. I was wondering if anyone had tried using one as a music reader and if so, what did you think?

    I have a decent amount of music in electronic formats and a lot of music is sold electronically. The portability, easy page turns, and ability to organize your music seem appealing (I have a LOT on my stand right now, and a lot more in binders, folders, milk crates, and book shelves--often difficult to lay my hands on certain things).

    The kindle seems pretty friendly in all sorts of lighting situations.

    The screen size might be a problem, though perhaps that could be mitigated by moving the stand closer--ooh, or a lyre!

    I know some bands and chamber groups use laptops instead of sheet music. Just wondering if anyone's tried a reader..


  2. #2

    Kindle as Music Reader?

    I think the Kindle screen would be waaaaaaay to small for me. But here is an interesting product, made to do exactly what you want:

    http://www.musicreader.net/

    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
    Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
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  3. #3

    Kindle as Music Reader?

    I occasionally use my laptop as a music reader, but never for sight reading or learning new music.

    The biggest problem I've come across is multi-pate spreads: you can't read ahead on a two-page spread as you approach the end of a page, as you can with printed music; you have to wait for the page to flip. (Scrolling in real time doesn't work for me, because you don't have visual anchor points for your eye that assist with keeping track of where one is in the music.)

  4. Kindle as Music Reader?

    Here's another product out there--pretty expensive.

    freehand

    I notice it's on clearance--I wonder if the kindle/nook people will try to tap this market. On amazon's site, the kindle page shows an example of sheet music on the screen.


  5. Kindle as Music Reader?

    I went to a concert a while back and the Guitarist used a laptop to read his music. I asked one ofhis students afterwards and this guitarist enters all of his music in sibelius and then arranges the pages as he sees appropriate and then he flips his pages using a foot switch. The laptop was on the floor several feet in front of him and I assume that the music was probably displayed with a larger size than usual.

    This seems like a cheaper solution than the freehand, considering many people own laptops and a laptop can replace a home computer and server two functions.

  6. Kindle as Music Reader?

    I've got a Kindle, and while I've never tried to read music off of it, I'd imagine the page turns would be a challenge. Page turns require an actual squeeze of a button, not a finger swipe. Maybe an iPad; my director swears by it.


  7. #7

    Kindle as Music Reader?

    I had the freehand musicpad pro for years. I sold it on ebay about a month ago because I can see the writing on the wall that the less expensive tablets like kindle and ipad are going to make it totally obsolete. I didn't mind having only one page at a time because with the footpedal page turner you could flip it really quickly at the end of the page and not miss anything. The things I hated about the musicpad are that the resolution and sharpness of the screen were really poor and that the battery didn't last too long. My battery went dead unexpectedly on a gig once and I had to scramble to find paper music! Also, I often get music in PDF format via email and it was a HUGE pain to transfer that PAGE BY PAGE in to the proprietary freehand format.

    I'm thinking about an ipad to replace it. There are some apps especially for music reading (let you mark things up, etc) and the crispness and brightness of the ipad screen and especially battery life totally blow away the musicpad pro. You can get a bluetooth page turner footpedal gizmo and I think I could improvise an attachment for a manhasset stand base... perhaps buy freehand's and epoxy it to an ipad case or something...

    --
    Barry

  8. Kindle as Music Reader?

    Here's an image of the Borromeo String Quartet with some slick laptop music stands that they use in performance. Perhaps they'll trade those in for iPads in a year or two.

    http://www.borromeoquartet.org/viewe...461&type=photo


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