{"id":10416,"date":"2016-09-25T03:36:16","date_gmt":"2016-09-25T07:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/harpcolumnmusic.com\/?p=10416"},"modified":"2016-09-25T03:41:39","modified_gmt":"2016-09-25T07:41:39","slug":"getting-music-onto-ipad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harpcolumn.com\/music\/getting-music-onto-ipad\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Music Onto Your iPad"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’ve been following our\u00a0blog, you already know all the reasons I love my iPad<\/a>. If you’re ready to take the plunge creating your own digital library, the first step is getting music onto your device. There are several ways this can be accomplished:<\/p>\n

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  1. Download a free score from a public domain source such as IMSLP<\/a> or the Brigham Young Harp Archives<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  2. Purchase a PDF from an online music source like Harp Column Music or another sheet music retailer.\u00a0(You didn’t really think we weren’t going to promote ourselves just a little bit here, did you?)<\/li>\n
  3. Scan music you already own.<\/li>\n
  4. Ask a friend to send you music they’ve already\u00a0scanned or purchased.\u00a0(WUT????)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The first two methods are easy, because you’ll start off with a digital PDF that you can easily open directly onto your tablet. The fourth method I’m\u00a0going to address in a separate post<\/a>. So\u00a0in this post,\u00a0I’m going to primarily talk about the third item on the list, which is arguably\u00a0the most tricky and\u00a0time consuming method:<\/p>\n

    Scanning<\/h3>\n

    Before you start scanning, take a minute to consider whether what you are doing is legal. Read this post<\/a>, which also addresses #4 on our list.<\/em><\/p>\n

    You\u00a0probably already have a large library of sheet music that you’ve accumulated\u00a0throughout the years, and you’ll undoubtedly want to transfer some or all of that collection to your tablet. Enter scanning. This word probably conjures\u00a0up images of a traditional flatbed scanner, where you painstakingly place your music on a photocopier-like device and wait for the machine’s bright light to pass by and “scan” your music. In fact, most photocopiers these days\u00a0are<\/em> scanners, too. If you have access to one of these machines, it will certainly give you the best end result, because you’ll have more control over centering your music and adjusting contrast the way you\u00a0would\u00a0with a copy.<\/p>\n

    However, traditional scanners can be\u00a0expensive and time consuming. And who wants to spend hours standing around their local Kinkos\u2013err Fed-Ex store? Wouldn’t it be easier if you could just take a picture of your music using your phone? Guess what\u2014you can! All you need is a scanner app for your smartphone, which turns your pictures into PDF documents that you can save and import to your iPad. The one I use is called\u00a0Turboscan<\/a>, and it’s available for both Apple and Android. (Side note: there are many scanners apps on the market and Turboscan\u00a0didn’t even make the cut on this list<\/a>\u00a0of the top five.\u00a0Most offer similar features, so feel free to choose whichever app\u00a0appeals to you.)<\/p>\n

    Before starting, I created a dedicated “Scores” folder in\u00a0my\u00a0Dropbox<\/a>. If you don’t already use\u00a0Dropbox, you might want to\u00a0check it out for\u00a0the purpose of storing (i.e. backing up\u2014more on that in a future blog.) and transferring music PDFs. It makes things a lot\u00a0easier. A free basic account gives you 2 GB of space. As a point of reference,\u00a0my “scores” folder currently contains about 600 items (many of which are large multi movement works) and uses about 1.5 GB of space. So if you only use\u00a0Dropbox for your music library, you’ll have a long way to go before you even need to start paying for it. Of course you can also use a storage service like iCloud or Google Drive, but I find Dropbox to the the easiest to integrate with the process I describe below. Once you’ve set up your Dropbox account, download the phone and iPad apps so you can transfer your scanned PDFs\u00a0to your iPad. (Of course, you could also save directly to your computer, but using a “cloud” storage option means you never have to connect directly to your computer, and your PDFs will be available from anywhere.)<\/p>\n

    “But wait!” you’re probably thinking. “My iPad has a camera, so can’t I just scan directly from there?” Yes, you absolutely can.\u00a0Just download your scanner app to your iPad and scan away. From the scanner app, you should be able to open your PDF directly in forScore and bypass the “save to Dropbox” step. However,\u00a0there are two reasons you might\u00a0not<\/em> want to do this:<\/p>\n

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    1. The iPad is bigger (especially the Pro) so you might find it more difficult to hold and manipulate to get a good photo scan.<\/li>\n
    2. You might not want to skip\u00a0the “save to Dropbox” step, because\u00a0then you won’t have a backup of your original PDF. If you’re\u00a0going to go through that step anyway, you might as well just use your phone, if you find it easier to hold.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Lastly, you may also be wondering why you can’t simply take a photo and use that to read your music. You could, but using a scanner app will turn your photo into line art that looks crisp and clear, like a real piece of music. See\u00a0my\u00a0example of a page from Boccherini’s Sonata for flute and harp.<\/p>\n

      \"The
      The picture on the left is a regular photo; the one on the right was saved in Turboscan’s black and white mode and darkened one degree to bring out the pencil markings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      Scanning tips and tricks<\/h3>\n

      Once you’ve got your workflow figured out, you’re ready to scan! Here’s how I do it using Turboscan: From the app on my phone, I select\u00a0the camera icon at the bottom, and take a picture of the first page. You can easily add more pages by clicking the plus sign before saving.\u00a0If you’re unhappy with any of the pages along the way, you can delete and re-take just that page without starting from scratch with the whole document. When you’re completely finished, click done and your PDF is saved to your phone. Click the pencil icon to name it, then click the upload arrow icon where you’ll see several options of what to do with your PDF. Choose “Open PDF in\u2026” then “save to Dropbox.” Once you’ve saved to Dropbox,\u00a0delete the file from your phone, since saving it\u00a0there will take up a lot of storage.<\/p>\n

      It does take a bit of trial and error to get the hang of getting a good photo\u00a0scan using your phone. If you’re not careful, the perspective of your image will be skewed or crooked.\u00a0Try the following:<\/p>\n