Notes on stage?

hollywoodrox

Danny1969 said:

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.  

I like your Stella strat as well 

hollywoodrox

My eyes are terrible too lol 

Danny1969 said:

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 

Keefy

For the most part I prefer to learn music and/or lyrics by heart, although there are times when it’s appropriate to use dots onstage (e.g. big band). Sometimes, particularly where there are a lot of similar numbers in the same genre, I make a prompt sheet of screen grabs showing the first few bars of each number in musical notation.

flying_pie

I put any notes on the set list but it's usually gear related. If I needed a lyrics prompt then I'd just use a few words as cues. Besides nobody notices or cares if you get the odd lyric wrong and seeing if anyone notices that you're just making up the lyrics is fun.

One thing I use to remember lyrics is to have some associated choreography- not elaborate dancing but general moves - be it look at drummer or to audience stage left or an FX change - as cues. If you keep them the same in rehearsal and performance then it helps reinforce your muscle memory 

ESBlonde

My repertoire is currently approaching 400 songs (in various bands/projects). I’ve no hope of learning everything. Interestingly I can recall many songs I learned back in my younger days, but I’ve become terrible at remembering set lists or lyrics. So it’s a music stand and paper for me (too many incidents of lighting or sunshine making screens unusable). Also having whatever on the floor, out of reach, is far too inflexible for most of my situations. Find what works for you and don’t judge others.

stickyfiddle

ESBlonde said:

Find what works for you and don’t judge others.

I think this is great guidance in general! 

I did iPad on stand for this gig in the end because the other singers did too so I figured it wouldn’t be too weird. But I didn't like swiping a screen mid-song and between songs so def need foot control so have got a Hotone 4-button switch that can send MIDI via Bluetooth and hence control SongbookPro easily. 

We all agree we’d like to get rid of that barrier between us and the crowd, so I’m going to build a couple of lyric wedges that can hold a tablet, stow the foot switch for travel, charge the tablet and pass power through so I still only need 1x socket on stage for this and my pedals. 

I’ll probably mock up with a cardboard box first to get the dimensions and angles right, then go to wood. I have a bunch of MDF in my storage but I have a feeling it might be annoying heavy and ply might be better. I can do those sums once I have the cardboard version sorted. 

I also wonder about a fold-up version but I’m trying not to get ahead of myself… 

Danny1969

The worse thing I find about iPads on stands, as an FOH engineer,  is a lot of singers have them to the side of the microphone stand. This means when they read the lyrics they aren't on axis with the mic anymore and the level drops. This makes getting a consistent  level and EQ tone  harder. It's really annoying 

I defo wouldn't use MDF for the fake monitor. 9mm structure hardwood, it's about £20 for an 8 x 4 sheet here. You can fit stuff in it so it's not completely waste space inside. 

Roland

ESBlonde said:  Find what works for you and don’t judge others.

This is a pretty good video on the subject. It goes through different scenarios, and makes the point that people generally argue for their personal use case, forgetting that there are other types of music/band/venue/performance.

https://youtu.be/ft309ZbqXho

stickyfiddle

Roland said:

ESBlonde said:  Find what works for you and don’t judge others.

This is a pretty good video on the subject. It goes through different scenarios, and makes the point that people generally argue for their personal use case, forgetting that there are other types of music/band/venue/performance.

https://youtu.be/ft309ZbqXho

Good vid. 

I don't love his thing on backing tracks, partly because duo+backing is 98% of the "live music" market here and they're almost all shit. 

But the real takeaway is "be a great band and connect with the people watching" - there are certainly plenty who can't do it without charts, and certainly many who manage it with them. 

I'm still making my monitor box to get the charts out of way of seeing the band but I also know I can deliver whether there's an iPad on stage or not.

shufflebeat

Danny1969 said:

The worse thing I find about iPads on stands, as an FOH engineer,  is a lot of singers have them to the side of the microphone stand. This means when they read the lyrics they aren't on axis with the mic anymore and the level drops. This makes getting a consistent  level and EQ tone  harder. It's really annoying 

If you have a Beyerdynamic-type mic stand with a square section at the boom fulcrum the Hercules iPad clamp attaches quite solidly and places the screen in front of the singer and slightly end-on so it’s not quite as visible to the audience as otherwise might be.

Also works for other stands but not quite so elegantly.

TheBigDipper

Roland said:

ESBlonde said:  Find what works for you and don’t judge others.

This is a pretty good video on the subject. It goes through different scenarios, and makes the point that people generally argue for their personal use case, forgetting that there are other types of music/band/venue/performance.

https://youtu.be/ft309ZbqXho

Thanks for posting this. 

I did a little gig-ette on Saturday. A four act showcase at my local pub. 25 minute sets.

I played acoustic (as a one-off) to support someone who I've seen many times singing to backing tracks. He's an untrained amateur singer who just likes singing. I didn't know his repertoire off by heart, and wasn't planning on learning it, so I sat to one side, could maintain eye-contact with him (no-one was looking at me) and read the charts using my iPad (SongBook Pro, if you're interested). We'd had a couple of run throughs to agree on arrangements, etc. He sang better and loved it. He isn't good at using backing tracks and I could work with him as the music ebbed and flowed. He had the lyrics memorised.

The next act was a piano-playing singer. He used an iPad for backing tracks on some numbers. Home-recorded drums and guitar for specific numbers. He didn't use it for charts or lyrics, just to provide extra music as-and-when. His performance wasn't affected by using the backing tracks, but they were a bit odd sometimes... It didn't distract for the audience. 

Next was a very good singer who used professionally-produced backing tracks for her performance. She was using an iPad for lyric prompts. She was excellent and clearly practiced at singing over a fixed backing. She'd learned how the backing went and where the musical points were and sang accordingly. Great interpretation of the songs and some interesting, unusual  arrangements. Definitely not Karaoke, and everyone loved it.

Last, a singer songwriter playing guitar. He used an iPad for lyrics and charts, plus a Ditto+ looper with a couple of pre-recorded loops as extra backing for certain parts - he liked playing a recorded backing for points in songs where he played solos. He seemed distracted by reading the Pad all the time and lost the audience despite being pretty good at delivering the music.

It takes all sorts and we really shouldn't judge. It's only ever about personal choices and the challenges they bring to your performance.

stickyfiddle

Ok, so anyone using SBP, are you auto scrolling or using a switch to scroll up/down? 

TheBigDipper

stickyfiddle said:

Ok, so anyone using SBP, are you auto scrolling or using a switch to scroll up/down? 

You probably guessed already, but I'm using a MIDI pedal to page up/down. For me, autoscrolling isn't worth the effort.

stickyfiddle

TheBigDipper said:

stickyfiddle said:

Ok, so anyone using SBP, are you auto scrolling or using a switch to scroll up/down? 

You probably guessed already, but I'm using a MIDI pedal to page up/down. For me, autoscrolling isn't worth the effort.

Ta. I'm pretty sure this is where I'll stay too, but might play with both options. I've set it up for up/down for now and will see how I get on

stickyfiddle

A prototype is born… 

I want to use this for at least one rehearsal before I do much else - get a feel for the shape & angle depending on where it’ll be vs my pedals and mic stand etc. 

Long term I want to build a proper one with an IEC in so I can power the iPad and foot switch if I need to, as well as either folding up for storage, or not folding up but storing the foot switch and related other gubbins 

Keefy

stickyfiddle said:

A prototype is born… 

I want to use this for at least one rehearsal before I do much else - get a feel for the shape & angle depending on where it’ll be vs my pedals and mic stand etc. 

Long term I want to build a proper one with an IEC in so I can power the iPad and foot switch if I need to, as well as either folding up for storage, or not folding up but storing the foot switch and related other gubbins 

I'd suggest the final version should incorporate a perspex cover to protect the iPad from things that might fall on it - guitars, mic stands, pissed-up punters etc.

stickyfiddle

Keefy said:

stickyfiddle said:

A prototype is born… 

I want to use this for at least one rehearsal before I do much else - get a feel for the shape & angle depending on where it’ll be vs my pedals and mic stand etc. 

Long term I want to build a proper one with an IEC in so I can power the iPad and foot switch if I need to, as well as either folding up for storage, or not folding up but storing the foot switch and related other gubbins 

I'd suggest the final version should incorporate a perspex cover to protect the iPad from things that might fall on it - guitars, mic stands, pissed-up punters etc.

That is absolutely not a bad idea!! 

For this current band we’re expecting to be in bigger venues with a proper stages so lower risk, but there’s no such thing as zero risk! 

ScreamingDave

Apparently Ronnie Wood creates fantastic big colourful set lists for Stones gigs which they put on an easel at the side of the stage

Blueingreen

I use this to turn pages on an iPad.  Works very well and a couple of other band members have one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B1B2QSW1?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1

hollywoodrox

stickyfiddle said:

A prototype is born… 

I want to use this for at least one rehearsal before I do much else - get a feel for the shape & angle depending on where it’ll be vs my pedals and mic stand etc. 

Long term I want to build a proper one with an IEC in so I can power the iPad and foot switch if I need to, as well as either folding up for storage, or not folding up but storing the foot switch and related other gubbins 

That’s so cool , love the cat too