I tried to keep my newest piece of equipment under wraps until today’s blog post, but I couldn’t help but give my Facebook friends a sneak peek over the weekend. I’m just wayyy too excited about my new microphone stand mount for the iPad 2!
I wish I was one of those people who has all of their gig music completely memorized, but alas, I am not…especially when I’m playing a two or three-hour gig with ever-changing repertoire.
Now, instead of bringing a music stand and big binder full of lead sheets along with all my other equipment, I just stick my iPad 2 and the mount in my bag. I don’t even have to bring my own mic stand, because the mount clamps on to any standard one. Not to mention that I never have to worry about my pages blowing in the wind while playing outside.
Admittedly, there is a little bit of a time commitment involved in getting your music onto the iPad before using this setup. The two apps I use, GigBook and MusicReader, require that sheet music, lead sheets, or just lyrics be in PDF form. So while I did already have electronic versions of much of my music, I had to do quite a bit of scanning to complete my digital collection. But it was totally worth it, considering that now all of my music is at my fingertips.
Aside from the convenience of my new iPad mount, it also ups my cool factor immensely :) I played a gig over the weekend, and everyone (audience members and other musicians) wanted to get the full scoop on my little gadget.
iPad 2: $500 +.
Microphone stand mount: $99.
Making my life easier AND cooler: priceless.
Wow…
that is SO cool.
I do have one question…if you’re playing a gig and you have to make a note of something about a change in the music (something last minute) how do you do that? You can’t write on your music with a pencil…or can you?
Just wondering.
Susan: both of these apps give you the capability to annotate scores digitally. A pretty awesome and very useful feature when you’re mid-gig, for sure!
Hey Rachel,
Thank you so much for getting back to me with the info I needed. I thought your show was awesome and you are not only gorgeous but you have a voice of an angel. Your Husband is a very lucky man :) You have given me a lot of inspiration. I’m blown away at the content you have up and I love your sites. Also you were so pleasant to talk to in person. I would love to get together some time soon and talk with you about some of my aspirations. I think you and your knowledge could be a very valuable asset to me. I’m just so overwhelmed at how well you have all your ducks in a row. I will try to set up some kind of meeting with you in the near future or you could tell me when you have some available time to talk. If we could do it at your studio that would be great ( I saw some of the pics and I think it’s so amazing ) , so hopefully we can chat soon :)
Take care,
Joe Frew