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Posted By: rbsoulman searching for computerized music stand... - 02/24/11 06:05 PM
Howdy.

I am a musician/event producer and educator based out of Whitehorse, YT in northern Canada. I spend a lot of time in schools (across the country) using music as a tool to teach curriculum to students. Not just music but social studies, math, home ec, geography, anything goes.

one of the more popular programs i've developed is a songwriting program.
– the class suggests various topics that they’d like to write about
- the class collectively edit the topics/ideas into a manageable number.
- the class starts putting the ideas into lyric form.
– I help the kids feel out what kind of musical genre – (rap, rock, R&B, country, etc) will best suit their lyrics.
- Accompanying the kids on guitar, I coach the kids through some rehearsals of their new song and then record it on a digital recorder and then downloaded onto the classroom computer.

This is a very successful program. I have come back to schools a year later and kids can sing me back their song. Which means they learnt the curriculum topic.

HERE'S MY PROBLEM:
At this point i have three 2" binders full of lyrics. I'm tired of carrying them around! Often a student will ask for a song they're written or heard on a previous visit and i can't always accommodate them.

There must be some sort of "computerized" music stand out there? Something i can input everything into and pull up the tunes i want. It needs to be bigger than a laptop or ipad - i need to be able to see the entire lyric in "18 point" font - old eyes.

Can anybody point me in the right direction?

many thanks.
RB
Laptop with a good sized hard drive and an external projector?
My eLocity tablet has an hdmi port. It could go to a monitor OR one of those new 300$ small projectors, Best Buy sells them here.

With a 16 GB mem card in the tablet there is ample room for lots of scanned stuff.

And you can keep stuff on a usb pen drive and as soon as you plug it in it works. It also has audio out as in headphone jack.
RB:

I will assume that you have all those songs as some sort of text files,
since you mention that you like them in "18 pt" font.

My suggestion would be to use a Tablet PC.
Not an "iPAD"-like tablet, but a full size one such as this.

http://store.shopfujitsu.com/ca/EcomCA/buildseriesbean.do?series=T900

It has a 13.3" (diagonal) screen that you can fold flat.
That's roughly equivalent to a letter-size sheet of paper.
You could use it in portrait mode and merely open any of
the songs, then fold the tablet flat and stand it on a regular music stand.

Good luck!
LLOYD S
Posted By: MarioD Re: searching for computerized music stand... - 02/24/11 08:04 PM
There are computer music stands out there, just google computer music stand, however they are smaller than a good size laptop and you say it must be bigger than that. So I’m going to assume that your binders are ok and are 8.5”x11”. I’m also going to assume that the classroom computers have a printer attached to them.

I would get a laptop computer and either MS Office pro ($$$) or Open Office (free). I would use the database and input all of my songs; using a database will allow you to easily find a song. I would also buy USB thumb drive. When the student asks for a song you can bring it up on the computer, copy it to the USB drive then transfer the drive to the classroom computer for printing.

I hope this helps.
Howdy folks.
good suggestions all, but not "fast" enough.
I need to be able to walk in and GO!

i am working in classes for limited amounts of time and need quick escape and set up time.
Less is more. both in terms of packing freight and any possible distractions or breakdowns in the classroom.
I try to keep my "freight" to a minimum as well.

And yes, it is just the lyrics i need. as long as i have the words in front of me, everything else comes back for a visit...

I will try the google search suggestion.

thanks for all the input.
i'll let you know how it works out.

be well.
RB
www.airturn.com

http://blip.tv/file/1501794

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siWJuJPGeeI
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