I’ve had a Samsung 12.2 (less expensive than Ipad) for 2+ years. Page is almost the size of a normal sheet of music. Good for elderly eyes. I use MobileSheets to scan in the music. It is good in full sun as well as lack of good lighting. Highly recommend it (or similar) as I was carrying 5, 2″ binders to weekly restaurant gig as well as other background music gigs. Fantastic for organized set lists also. I couldn’t live without it! However, I am cautious and don’t want to depend on electronics totally so do carry the binders and a music stand in the car. I have a tablet stand for the tablet.
Have tried several pedals to change pages but find they all seem to have problems so just tap a finger.

I started out with a 10″ Samsung tablet, but for me the page was too small to read.

I bought an iPad Pro 12.9″ and it’s great! I use ForeScore and highly recommend it. The image on the screen is the same size as a sheet of paper (the ForeScore software makes it easy to crop the blank margins off of the music). Get the Apple Pencil so that you can mark up your music with notes, fingering, pedal info, etc. Now I have all my music on the tablet. I don’t play in the outdoor sun, so no comments on that.

To scan the music, I use a cheap ($75) HP combo printer/scanner connected to my desktop computer. The printer has a document feeder so that I can scan multiple pages at a time. Any scanner should allow you to scan multiple pages to a pdf file (I use the “Preview” software that comes standard on any Mac computer). Then send it to your tablet and import into ForeScore. You can also use the tablet’s camera to take photos of the music directly with the ForeScore app. I’ve done that a few times when I was at a rehearsal and someone brought new music. However, the contrast of the photo was not as good as when scanned on a printer/scanner.

I’ve tried pedals for page turns, but I’ve got enough pedals on the harp. Instead I do a quick tap to the screen with my little finger and that works very well. ForeScore allows you to add “buttons” on the screen for repeats, D.S., etc.

ForeScore makes it easy to have multiple “Libraries” of music, put any number of tags to find music with searches, and have as many playlists as you like organized into groups. Yes, it takes some time. Rather than scan everything at once, I scan songs as I need them and after a while I had most of the songs I use regularly on the tablet.

I would encourage you to look at the ForeScore web site and read up on it. Yes, an Apple iPad costs more but I think that the 12.9″ size is the only way to go for music. The ability to mark up your music with the Apple Pencil is most important to me.

Debora, the music is stored on forScore on the iPad, so you can be on airplane mode and still access any music on the app while you are playing. You do not need to be online to use forScore.
I bought an iPad Pro without 4G to make it more affordable; I use it strictly as a music reader, no games, email, etc., although it can do all those things. I scan each piece as a separate pdf (however many pages that includes) onto my desktop at home using a scanner/printer/copier and store each pdf on Dropbox, then download it from there onto the iPad while at home where I have wifi. You can also buy pdf downloads and load directly into forScore on your iPad if you wish; you do need to be online to do that.
It’s similar to you don’t have to be online to read a book you’ve already downloaded.

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by catherine-rogers.

Regarding scanning music: The apps do not give you as sharp an image as using a scanner. One of the better scanning apps is Tiny Scanner.

In addition, it is critical to have a cloud service connected as a back up. I hired a tech to make sure I did this correctly. If your iPad gets damaged, stolen or you change devices, your music and, just as importantly, your edits are safe. I pay $2.99 a month for iCloud storage for my iPad Pro. Dropbox is helpful but it is not cloud storage. Plus, it costs $9.99 a month.

Bill, I have my music on my computer as well as tablet. But what happens if your computer crashes, disappears or is destroyed. You need a back up for your computer, too. I not only have iCloud but I try to remember to back up on an external hard drive, too. However I only do the hard drive every couple months whereas cloud storage is constant. I have peace of mind with iCloud. And, I do know the cloud storage works because I transferred from an iPad Air to iPad Pro.

Kim — Yes, of course backup is needed on the desktops too (and cell phones). My desktop is a Mac, and the provided TimeMachine software automatically does a backup every hour to a separate hard disk or network storage. No doubt there are similar apps on Windows. Cloud backup is OK too if you trust the Cloud.

Deborah — The ForeScore app is $14.99 on the Apple App Store. No “pro” version, just the regular version. The link for the technology tips is in Kim’s reply (5 replies up from this entry).