TIP: When scanning charts for .pdf conversion and use onstage, take the time to figure out how to INDEX and find them quickly onstage beforehand.

I started a text file that lists all my songs in alphabetical order by songtitle and keep that open but minimized on the desktop. When someone calls a song, I have but a few seconds to bop over to that file, hit ctrl-F and type in the beginning of the songname. When the Find (Search) action locates the song, I have a reference there to the page number in the actual .pdf file.

After awhile, one loooong .pdf file was too cumbersome, so I've broken it up into separate files and again, have entered which one of those separate files in my text "INDEX" file along with the page number.

So I have something like this in the Index now:

Songtitle - A113

Where the "A" indicates the .pdf file (named the same, as in "A - Realbook1" and the 113 identifies the actual .pdf file page where that song is located. Note that this is going to be different from the actual page number in the RealBook unless you've spent the time to edit things to fit. I don't. But knowing the actual .pdf page number is what you want in order to be able to type that in rapidly within the .pdf file and "get there" before the rest of the band starts the song.

Don't know how that might work with an iPad, I use the laptop for this.

For guitar player, the laptop can be opened up flat and placed on a sturdy music stand, held there by a couple black bungee cords. This still allows access to the qwerty keyboard and touchpad for doing all of the above.

Whatever you do, it is wise to still lug the paper books along to the first few gigs just in case, until you have a good shakedown run with your computer setup that actually works for you.


--Mac

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