Using iPad as dedicated study device
I am some overwhelmed by all of the material presented in Level 1. So I am considering using a dedicated iPad for my harmonica study. It will be a huge advantage to have everything in one spot. I seem to spend more time looking for stuff than I do actually working on it.
If any of have ipad opinions and/or recommendations, pro or con, I would love to hear them. Also which models might be suitable, especially older models due to cost. I have an ipad 2, old and tired. There have been a ton of ipad models since the ipad 2.
Thanks for your consideration,
mtnhank
I have an iPad and a MacBook pro, but I don't use them for sheet music. I print everything out and put them sheets into a three-ring binder. I used to play in a big band and had a big binder of about 100 tunes.
I'm working on level 7. Keeping it and a few recent levels in a binder is manageable.
Thanks, for the input Eric, it is always apprecated.
Yes, I also, mostly, work from the printed page rather than onscreen, (I also have a macbook). I am more concerned with how to organize the materials. I am way up there in years now and not as sharp as I used to be. I am just starting the Level 1 Study and I am frustrated by all the materials covered.
I just had a thought as I was typing the above: I should write out the lesson plan in some sort of linear fashion; get it all on one page so I can see the whole picture. I think that will be very helpful. There is a lot to learn as I am getting started in Level 1.
Good to know you are making progress and that it is possible to make it to Level 7. Thanks again for taking the time answer my concerns.
Hank H.
Thanks for the thoughtful and helpful reply, mmarquez,
Yes, I think, after getting your input, I will use what I have, which is a Macbook Pro and an iPhone. I'll steer away from the ipad idea for now.
I like the idea of opening the parts of a lesson in separate tabs and then switching between the tabs. This is simple and quick and convenient; don't know why I didn't think of it. Thanks!!
I also make use of my iphone and use many of the apps that you mention. Not sure of the music speed changer, unless you mean the Amazing Slowdowner. I use Audacity for changing speed, pitch changes, looping, etc.
As I mentioned in my reply to Eric, my biggest problem is in organizing the materials. Level 1 has a lot packed into it: Harmonica techniques, learning to record, learning to navigate the site, and more. I had the idea to write out all of the Level one materials, expanded, in some sort of linear fashion, so that it is easier to view it. I find myself hopping around too much, getting lost.
I'm sure that in a couple of weeks things will clear up as I put it all into use. Thanks again for the help.
Hank H.
You're welcome, Hank. Another thing I do is print out the test requirements for each level. You can find that under the Levels of Achievement page.
Thanks again Eric.
Yeah, I downloaded and printed out the Level 1 test. David Barrett recommended in an intro video that we should print it out for referral as we go through the Level 1 material. Thanks.
Hank
mtnhank,
A tablet would not be my choice if I were going to limit myself to one device. I do use a tablet to watch David’s videos, YouTube, etc., and to use with Harp Ninja. My first choice and most used for studying harmonica is my laptop.
I primarily use Audacity to learn the study songs, etc. Audacity is a free program that has been around a long time and is not suitable for touch screen. With Audacity I load in the study song then add labels for each lick, melody, chorus, etc. in a song. I do this so I can quickly click on something I want played repeatedly to learn. This would be difficult, but not impossible, to do with a tablet.
I also add lots of notes to the sheet music David provides and these notes get changed and or added as I am learning the song, so I print out the music sheets many times during the process of learning the study songs. As a result, I find updating the music sheets easiest to do on my laptop. I would hate to do this with a tablet.
As a side note, I use Google drive to store all my study files including my Audacity files. This way no mater which device I am using I have access to any of the files.
Which ever way you go I wish you success in your learning harmonica.
Brian in Tennessee
i have an iPad that I use for some business applications. For bluesharmonica.com I use it for David's video lessons, MP3s and musician interviews, but I download and print all of the charts and keep them in a binder, similar to binders I use for theater band show materials (where I play plectrum banjo and other instruments, including occasional rudimentary harp), and for vocal charts that I can give to a pianist. I play in a trad jazz jam group where all of the other musicians use iRealPro on iPads for charts, so I surrendered and began using my iPad for that group (plectrum banjo again). But I have a ton of respect for some friends in a touring trad jazz band who humorously promote themselves as "The World's Only Remaining 100% iPad Free Jazz Band." I also have worked from time to time with a full-time professional bass player everyone calls "The Human iPad." He brings no charts or devices. Whether pop, jazz, blues, folk, or whatever, he just asks for the name of tune and the key, and it's all right there in his head. Bottom line: Whatever you find works best for you ... is what's best for you. Enjoy!
Thanks for the input, Brian.
I have received several replies and most have recommended using the laptop. So I am going in that direction. I have a MacBook and an iphone.
I also use Audacity, mostly up to now, for changing speed, pitch, looping. I havent tried labeling, not quite sure how to go about it, but it would be very useful. You must save the songs in Audacity in order to save the labels, right? I will try out the labels idea for sure. Also not sure of how to quickly open files in audacity. I import files each time which is kind of slow.
The idea of adding notes to the printed music is also a good idea; I will put it to use.
And I also use Google Drive but I am not real good at getting around in it; I do see the potential.
Thank you, Brian, for the good ideas, appreciated for sure.
Hank in California
Hank,
I’m not an Apple user so I can’t help much with Apple. I think there is enough similarities in the way Audacity works with Apple and Windows that I can give some directions. The below information is likely a lot more than you need, but I thought I would include it just incase it is helpful to someone else.
My process with Audacity is this as follows:
I open Audacity. I then take the download jam track and drag and drop it into Audacity. You can also use import under files menu as well. I then drag and drop the audio file with David playing harmonica to the jam track into Audacity. David has done an excellent job at making sure these files are in sync. When you click the play button in Audacity you will hear both tracks playing in sync. You can then mute the track you don’t need at this time. Next, I zoom in a little so I can approximately identify the notes as they play. I will highlight a section of audio that represents a chorus. I press ctrl+B to add a Section Label for that chorus (I think Apple uses Command key+B.) I will do the same for difficult licks within a chorus. I will then drag the edges of the label to get them to match up with the music where I need them. Now when I want to just listen/practice a section of music I just click the label and Audacity will highlight that section. Hold shift key while pressing play will cause Audacity to continually repeat the highlighted section. If you don’t highlight a section of music when you press Ctrl+B, a Single Point Label will be created at the location of the play cursor. A single point label may be a better option for labeling choruses. I do the same thing for the Solo Harmonica study files and label each example. This makes it easy for me to select the example I want to practice.
To keep the labels and changes I will then save the Audacity file where I can find it. To do this I use the “Save Project”/”Save Project As” found under the File menu. After the first time I save the Audacity project I then use the “Save Project”/”Save Project” to update the saved files whenever I make a change or add new labels. Note: this creates an Audacity project file that can only be opened with Audacity. The next time I want to practice the study song I double click on the saved project file to open it in Audacity. I believe this will work the same way on Apple. If double clicking on the Audacity project file you saved does not open it in Audacity, then run Audacity and open the project by using “Open” found under the File menu
Other helpful tips with audacity. Use the Play-at-Speed button to slow down the music when needed, unfortunately this will change the pitch, but as long as I don’t slow down lower than about 15% I find this helpful and quick. If I need to slow down more, I copy the section of music to a new track and use the Change Tempo function under the Effects menu (select a Negative percentage to slow the music down.) This accomplishes the same thing as the Amazing Slow Downer software does.
Google drive is what I use, I don’t think you need it. I believe Apple has online drive space if you have an iCloud account. There are other online storage services as well. Google drive is just what I chose to use. You also don’t need to use online storage if you are only using one device for your harmonica studies.
Word of caution when using Google Drive or any online storage with Audacity. Audacity creates lots of file and saves them in a folder with the same name as the file name. Every time you edit Audacity may add another file. After a short while Audacity creates lots of files. Make sure you know how to tell when your online storage is done syncing before you shut down the computer or close the lid.
In the Equipment section of BluesHarmonica.com there is a great tutorial on how to use Audacity to play the jam track and record you playing at the same time. This has some pitfalls, but if you take the time to tune Audacity for your computer this feature works great. With Windows to export my recorded audio to an .mp3 it required some additional software to be installed. I don’t know if this is the same for Apple.
I’ve been using Audacity for almost 20 years to edit audio files. It wasn’t until this year that I started learning harmonica that I learned of Audacity’s power as a learning tool.
If you have any more questions about Audacity I will be glad to try to answer.
Brian in Tennessee
Brian, I just now today got a look at your audacity primer. Wow, thanks for this. I will put this to use for sure. I have used Audacity enough to understand much of what you are showing us here. I will get back to you when I understand more, or when I have questions.
I am starting at Level 1 even tho I am not a beginner, but then again I am not a true intermediate player, just someone who needs to learn a lot of things I missed or skipped over along the way. And I'm not in much of a hurry.
Hank
My two cents on things I would consider.
I use my laptop extensively, but having the printout can't be beaten by any digital means (for reading the music sheet). I use a laptop because it's easier to switch between tabs (David's video, the music sheet PDF, YouTube recordings or backing tracks, a tab with the backing track David provides, the forum, etc.). I think using a tablet for that would not work so well, tablets and phones are not so good at fast multi tasking. That said, having that ability also means you can get distracted and leave the lesson to jam with James Cotton on YouTube, which is fun but will slow you down on lessons.
Tablets have the benefit that their screen allows for reading quite well, and my laptop is convertible to a tablet. Still I found printing the materials is better. Easier to hold wherever you need it (you can fold paper), you can add annotations etc. I am also annoyed when the screen locks, or it dims etc (all of that is configurable, of course, but I didn't change it because I use my laptop for other stuff, it would happen if it was a dedicated device as you suggest).
For watching videos, I also found a laptop better than a tablet: having a physical keyboard allows for easier rewind/forward, raising or lowering the volume or muting it, stopping the video, than having to tap on the screen (even with Android double tap gesture I find the keyboard better). Tablets are smaller than a laptop, which is a benefit if you're limited on space (I practice inside my car to avoid annoying neighbors or family), but I usually just use my laptop as a laptop, not as a tablet.
I also use some phone apps which are handy: music speed changer, some audio recorder, a digital metronome, harmonica tuner (for training bends), done digital keyboard if transcribing some stuff etc. Most of those have a laptop counterpart but I usually use them together and running the video on the laptop is better than doing so on the phone.
I'd probably start with the tablet you have and see whether or works for you better than other options or not. Then you can consider if the investment on something newer is worth it or not. Unless this is all just an excuse to get a new gadget. In that case, please just proceed =-)