Tips & Insights from the Music Room Video Lesson: Choosing a Tablet for Sheet Music

Hello and welcome. Today we're going to talk about choosing a tablet for sheet music.

I know it's not easy because there are so many different options, you know, tablets, Android tablets, iPads, different sizes, screens, I mean, it's overwhelming. So I'll try to analyze the situation and give you good tips to do the right choice for you. So let's dive right in.

Choosing a tablet for sheet music is not easy. There are so many different models, brands and features that you can easily get lost.

They go from the super-premium iPad Pro with Apple Pencil to the cheapest Android tablets available on Amazon.

So here are the points to consider in order of importance.

Certainly the larger the tablet, the better, but of course that comes with a price.

And a large tablet is not always needed, mostly if you plan using it for reading single stuff sheet music, such as music for a solo instrument or just voice.

But if you play the piano or even more, you play the piano while accompanying other people, you may find yourself mostly reading from three-stave music, which on a small screen may appear a bit constrained.

Here comes the top of the line Apple iPad Pro 13 inches, which offers a big screen that can easily accommodate three to five stave scores.

I don't have the latest iPad Pro, but even the first generation I'm showing here offers a screen that is large enough that it will not leave you disappointed.

On the Android side instead, you can find tablets with even larger screens up to 15 .6 inches. They are huge. But on the Android platform, you might be a little bit software constrained.

And that's why I think the second most important point to consider is the platform to choose.

Well, you know, there are mainly two different platforms for tablets.

We have Apple iOS on one side and Android on the other side.

Both platforms share the most popular apps for buying sheet music. You know, MuseCore, MusicNotes, Virtual Sheet Music.

But if we want to focus on apps that allow you to create your own library of sheet music by importing your own files, organizing them, annotating them, and so on, the situation is quite different between the two.

iOS has probably the most vast offering of sheet music related apps out there. Many of them are really well made.

I'm talking about apps like Fourscore or MuseCore. And there are many others, but those are the most compelling ones, in my opinion. Of course, you can also find our own app for iOS, which includes great features as well.

On the Android side, your options are somewhat more limited.

The best app out there is Mobile Sheets, even though you can find our own app as well.

In other words, as a musician myself, I would choose Apple iOS platform if I had to choose the best mobile platform for sheet music.

Well, as you can easily imagine, the more advanced features a tablet has, the more expensive it becomes. But I can tell you, if you plan to use a tablet mostly for sheet music, you don't need a tablet that is too powerful, at least not at the moment.

Futuristic features like a neural engine chip, the latest iPad models offer, are currently not needed for us musicians dealing with sheet music.

Even those few applications that include AI -based features don't currently use the hardware on the tablet itself, but a remote backend system independent from the tablet you use.

But of course, the best hardware may give you the best experience, such as performance and responsiveness.

And if you plan storing a ton of music together with music videos of some sort, well, storage may become something to look into.

Maybe you can get away with just 64 gigabytes of storage, but I would recommend having at least 128 gigabytes, which may help to extend the life of your tablet before you run out of space.

So in my opinion, the size of the screen matters more than inside tablet's hardware, such as GPUs, neural engines, and so on.

But of course, if you are looking for the fastest tablet on the market, those features may also be points to consider.

The fact is, larger screen tablets often belong to the top -of -the-line devices, so chances are that if you pick the large screen tablet, you'll end up having even the best hardware features underneath.

Connectivity is another element to consider, mainly if you are often a musician on the go.

If you are looking for a tablet that can connect to the internet anytime from anywhere, you need a tablet with cellular connectivity.

And of course, that comes with a premium price, usually one -fifth or one -fourth more pricey. But if you are like me, using your tablet mostly from home, a simple Wi -Fi connection is probably the best way to keep your price down.

And so what about the pencils? Well, if you plan to use an electronic pencil mostly to annotate sheet music with a compatible app, you don't actually need a super pro and sensitive pencil like Apple's Pencil Second Generation, which currently sells for $129.

You can perfectly use the cheaper Apple USB -C Pencil for $79 on iOS or any other compatible pencil. You can find on Amazon for around $20 or even less for both iOS and Android.

So what's my final recommendation? Well, if you have a large budget, I would definitely go with an iPad Pro 13 inches.

That's the best of the best, of course. But if you have a smaller budget, a simple iPad works very well anyway.

And the latest iPad 10th generation is very powerful and fast, and also Apple Pencil compatible.

On the Android side, if you have a large budget, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra 14 .6 inches is another good choice. But if you have a limited budget, even the cheap Xiaomi Pad 6 or the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite offer great features and performance for around $300.

They are all pencil-compatible.

And as far as I know, the Galaxy Tab has a better pencil management, which gives you a more precise control.

But as I said, if you use it just for annotations on sheet music, you don't need a super pro pencil that may be more useful to a visual artist than a musician.

Well, okay, so what do you think? What's your favorite one? Well, that's a tough one.

My own favorite will be probably the iPad Pro, but quite expensive, isn't it? All right, so let me know if you have any more suggestions, ideas on this topic by posting in the comments below. Or as usual, get in touch with me by sending an email to tipsandinsights at virtualsheetmusic.com. I love to get in touch with you. So, I am done for today and I'll see you in the next one.

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Apple iPad Pro:
https://www.apple.com/ipad-pro/

Apple iPad 10th Generation:
https://www.apple.com/ipad-10.9/

Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra:
https://www.samsung.com/us/tablets/galaxy-tab-s9/

Xiaomi Pad 6:
https://www.amazon.com/Xiaomi-Version-8840mAh-Bluetooth-Speakers/dp/B0C9JXYHDV?th=1

Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite:
https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-Android-Included-Speakers-SM-P610NZBAXAR/dp/B086Z3S3MY

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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