Notes on stage?

stickyfiddle

What’s the modern solution? 

I’m singing a lot with my new band and know most of the material v well but there are a few songs where I’d like a few prompts  just to make sure I don’t fuck up horrendously 

I’m desperate to not have an iPad on a stand or a music stand between me and the crowd, but wondering if there is any good solution that anyone else is using beside the obvious “several pieces of paper on the stage”? 

I’m keen not to spend $1k on a pro level teleprompter..!

Danny1969

See what looks like a little monitor between the big monitors, this is just an empty box made to the dimensions of an ipad Pro and the iPad sits in there and the page is scrolled with a BT pedal 

stickyfiddle

Nice. I was actually just thinking that could work. 

I don’t have a big iPad but the box would be easy enough to knock together and paint up. 

My gig is Saturday so I doubt I’ll have time before that, but for next time… 

BillDL

What guitars are you both playing there @Danny1969?

Danny1969

BillDL said:

What guitars are you both playing there @Danny1969?

I can't tell if I'm playing a Strat or Tele Bill, the other guys playing a Gibson or Gretch I think ? 

I actually don't know much about models of guitar. 

Danny1969

stickyfiddle said:

Nice. I was actually just thinking that could work. 

I don’t have a big iPad but the box would be easy enough to knock together and paint up. 

My gig is Saturday so I doubt I’ll have time before that, but for next time… 

Yeah, you don't need a current model so an old iPad will do. The BT pedal can start and stop the page scrolling, that's generally how we used it. 

Edit : 

Photo showing front. The singer made this one, I would have put a power supply in it and a DI box so it could do double service playing music in intervals 
Put an IEC socket on the back to run the iPad and 2 XRL's for the stereo out audio and it will look exactly like a stage monitor from the audiences perspective 

stickyfiddle

That is honestly brilliant. I'd had a vague thought about an ipad and/or a box at my feet but putting IEC and audio in it is well would be genius.

I've already told my lead singer and she wants one! I can see a project coming on. I wonder if anyone already makes one commercially? Is this an etsy thing? 

Bloody ipads and phones on mic stands are an absolute scourge imo! 

stickyfiddle

@BillDL No idea re Danny's but the other guy's looks like a 2-colour Gretsch Anniversary model - something like this

Hollow Body :: G6118T Players Edition Anniversary™ Hollow Body with String-Thru Bigsby®, Rosewood Fingerboard, Two-Tone Copper Metallic/Sahara Metallic 

Snags

I hate iPad on the mic stand too, but have reluctantly accepted it as a necessity on occasion. If you angle it right then it can be done pretty discretely, and as long as you're not staring down at it the whole time it doesn't have to detract from performance.

Obviously the fake monitor is more discrete, if you have floor space. That's not a luxury we often have!

ElectricXII

Nice solution @Danny1969. ;I wish our singer would ditch his stand and iPad. He's been singing our material for years and still relies on prompts.  I think it's a bit of a safety blanket which he's unwilling to let go. The rest of us can play the songs without aids, and the iPad in full view looks unprofessional IMO. I see loads of singers doing this these days, and it's often laziness. The instrument players in a band have to put in at least as much effort to learn songs, and some singers just don't.

I'm not trying to criticise you though @stickyfiddle. As a guitarist/bassist you've got plenty other stuff going on besides singing.  

Danny1969

stickyfiddle said:

@BillDL No idea re Danny's but the other guy's looks like a 2-colour Gretsch Anniversary model - something like this

Hollow Body :: G6118T Players Edition Anniversary™ Hollow Body with String-Thru Bigsby®, Rosewood Fingerboard, Two-Tone Copper Metallic/Sahara Metallic 

I see now I'm playing my partscaster Strat ... which has a fake fender neck on it and (allegedly) EMG pickups from the late seventies, before they made active ones.  

stickyfiddle

ElectricXII said:

Nice solution @Danny1969. ;I wish our singer would ditch his stand and iPad. He's been singing our material for years and still relies on prompts.  I think it's a bit of a safety blanket which he's unwilling to let go. The rest of us can play the songs without aids, and the iPad in full view looks unprofessional IMO. I see loads of singers doing this these days, and it's often laziness. The instrument players in a band have to put in at least as much effort to learn songs, and some singers just don't.

I'm not trying to criticise you though @stickyfiddle. As a guitarist/bassist you've got plenty other stuff going on besides singing.  

Honestly I totally agree. Lyrics can be an absolute bastard because they’re not usually just repeating pattern, but at least trying to get enough in your head to only need a couple of prompts should be the aim. 

We all plan to get fully off book asap, we just don’t want to screw up the first show. And in any case we all know how to perform decently so I trust it’s not going to get between us and the audience any more than is strictly necessary 

shufflebeat

Also consider making a folding stand which can look like a small monitor. I’ve seen a few come through the venue I work at, some are three-part jobbies that open up like a dart-board box and the doors swing behind to make the supporting sides, others have been “up and over”, much like an iPad keyboard case but made of wood.

BahHumbug

I'm rubbish at playing/singing from sheets - I just can't focus on written notes, I lose my place halfway through the song etc.  I mostly prefer to memorise everything, and I'm pretty good at that.  But sometimes there's a singing line I always stumble over, or a sequence of boring chords I struggle to remember.  

My solution is that I take the time to reduce the crib sheets down to just the bits I need...and then make the text nice and big.  So I end up with sheets which might just have a couple of lines of lyric in them.  Just enough to get me through.  And easy to read even in poor lighting.

thecolourbox

I think I'd struggle to read an ipad from that distance without squinting TBH, so all power to those whose eyesight isn't rubbish

BillDL

Thanks @Danny1969 and @stickyfiddle.  I was most curious about the semi-hollow with the gold? sides, but the headstock of the "Strat" looks tiny in the photo and I couldn't see if it was a 4+2 Musicman or perhaps a Tele headstock.

Danny1969

thecolourbox said:

I think I'd struggle to read an ipad from that distance without squinting TBH, so all power to those whose eyesight isn't rubbish

You can make the text as big as you want, it scrolls so you don't need the whole lyrics on one page 

Stratavarious

I put very concise notes on the printed set list.. usually only need a clue word to recall a lyric line.. or a sequence of chords for an odd bridge section.  

Often I only need the briefest reminder, reading an iPad and finding where you were if you have been looking at the audience for a while can throw you if it’s dense content.  I have a. iPad on stage but it’s doing the IEM mix.

My song specific notes on an iPad could be made big on a pdf.  You’d only need fo advance pages between songs if it was on the floor.  You only need chords for one verse chorus and bridge and a few lyric line starts.

Tempting to build a similar box myself. Would help with less often played repertoire that often goes out of mind a few seconds before I’m meant to play! 

ScreamingDave

I just have an A4 printed set list with the first line of each song under the song title. Once I have the first line I’m usually OK, and if I repeat a verse, no one will notice!  I also note if I’m changing guitar or using a capo

darius

I try to memorise everything but yeah some songs just don’t stick. I too detest the music stand approach. 

For those it’s an A4 sheet, a sharpie, first word of every line in big writing. The prompt sheet is on the floor in line of site under the guitar neck so I'm only ever looking in the same direction as I would to glance at the neck. And usually only need a couple of gigs to not need that cheat sheet anymore. 

If it’s a wedding band where you might need a massive repertoire then the iPad in a monitor looks like a great version of a teleprompter. 

stickyfiddle

Cheers @darius that’s exactly where I am. Plenty of notes for this one but won’t need them much I reckon