Your methods for lyrics, charts, tab and notation

[drohm]

What methods or apps are you using for keeping track of your music charts when playing with a band? What do you do when you have a note-for-note solo you want to keep track of? Do you notate the music separate from you chord charts (e.g., OnSong, iReal, etc.) or just memorize, or do you use something that can do everything - lyrics, notes, chords? 

 

I have mostly been memorizing note-for-note stuff when needed and then using a basic chord chart for song structure. Wondering if there is anything more interesting out there. 

[Dave Bryce]

I’m still at the point where I can remember stuff.

 

dB

[Mighty Motif Max]

I still use paper. If there’s something specific I can’t use a lead sheet or chord chart for (like a certain solo on a tune that’s very rarely played) I’ll notate it. That said I tend to just write out a lead sheet myself if the song is complex enough. Solo gigs I have most stuff memorized but for band gigs I like paper around still. Doesn’t mean I always am reading it but it’s there if needed.

[HammondDave]

2 hours ago, Dave Bryce said:

I’m still at the point where I can remember stuff.

 

dB

I wish I could say the same...   I have PDF's loaded into my Korg Module that I can refer to.  Mostly cheat sheets with chords and arrangements. 

[mcgoo]

2 hours ago, Dave Bryce said:

I’m still at the point where I can remember stuff.

 

dB

 

Get to the point where you're playing in multiple bands with no cross over of song selection and doing a lot of fill in gigs where you're learning a boatload of material in a stupidly short amount of time and, well, the memory becomes a little less reliable (at least in my case). Get good at writing charts and get the discipline down of writing them for everything you learn and you'll get really good at reading them... And then you'll find yourself struggling even more to memorize. Lol, it's a viscous circle. 

 

I write charts in Sibelius. Mostly chord charts, only occasionally writing notation for a key phrase. I use Unrealbook to assemble them into setlists. They also send program changes to my rig to call up patches associated with the charts. 

[jejefunkyman]

Interesting topic 😉

My own way: I’m writing basic leadsheets with chords and arrangements which I then print and carry with me to the gigs. 
I mostly don’t look at them while playing, but at least use it to know which song comes next, and which sound(s) I have to use (also noted on the leadsheet).
When I have to reproduce note for note a solo, I just learn it by heart.

Otherwise, then I just improvise. 
This has worked for me so far. Let’s see what the future brings 😂

 

[octa]

ForScore user here, very useful app! Trying to use Nashville/Roman numeral system more lately, to understand song structure better, and you never know what key the singer likes. If it's jazzy, that system doesn't work too well due to frequent modulations. Scribbled down yesterday for upcoming George Jones tribute show: 

 

 

 

 

 

ADF0487A-C0BB-4FE2-824C-7813DD19EEDA.heic

[drohm]

18 hours ago, mcgoo said:

 

I write charts in Sibelius. Mostly chord charts, only occasionally writing notation for a key phrase. I use Unrealbook to assemble them into setlists. They also send program changes to my rig to call up patches associated with the charts. 

Very interesting. Thanks!

[MathOfInsects]

IrealPro for songs that are "out there." ForScore for everything else, which I use to host my own chart format.

OCD alert, buckle up.

 

My most frequent format is the first one attached, which contains lots of little idiosyncratic elements that I'm used to reading by now, and which, yes, is color-coded by part of the song, because OCD.


Sometimes I do the same but in something close to Nashville numbers.

For a full show, like the Pink Floyd show, where I'm hosting samples and doing five different things, I use a different format. These last two attachments show what that one looks like. These live on my laptop and I advance them with a footswitch. Any time the chart doesn't have chords, or doesn't show measures, it just means I know the tune and need other information more.

 

[Morrissey]

I dig this format.  Does the exclamation point represent a "hit"

 

3 minutes ago, MathOfInsects said:

 

[MathOfInsects]

1 minute ago, Morrissey said:

I dig this format.  Does the exclamation point represent a "hit"

 

 

Yes, that's a hit, and the three dots are a fermata/hold.

[Steve Force]

11 hours ago, MathOfInsects said:

IrealPro for songs that are "out there." ForScore for everything else, which I use to host my own chart format.

OCD alert, buckle up.

 

My most frequent format is the first one attached, which contains lots of little idiosyncratic elements that I'm used to reading by now, and which, yes, is color-coded by part of the song, because OCD.


Sometimes I do the same but in something close to Nashville numbers.

For a full show, like the Pink Floyd show, where I'm hosting samples and doing five different things, I use a different format. These last two attachments show what that one looks like. These live on my laptop and I advance them with a footswitch. Any time the chart doesn't have chords, or doesn't show measures, it just means I know the tune and need other information more.

 

Man, what a great, highly informative post! 👍

[Dave Number Four]

Musescore for writing, ForScore for reading. Chords plus notable riffs, bvox notes, etc. Sample below. 

 

I am impressed the the clarity and brevity of MOI's format, though.

[drawback]

My band gig cheat sheets were identical to Math’s “Live & Love” — back in the 80s I started writing them on recipe cards, each song taped together accordion-style (usually fit inconspicuously on a keyboard control panel). Later I got into doing them in Adobe InDesign and printing them out. Lyrics would usually be first verse & chorus under the chords, then just lyrics or the first line of a verse, written separately.

 

Interestingly, I developed the same typographic cues, ie exclamations, slash, dash, dots, tilde.

[Outkaster]

I don't use charts.  If I do it's a cheat sheet but 99.5% of the time I remember everything.  It also looks more professional on stage.  Charts are a crutch for a lot of musicians and when I see people with IPads on stage it's a large turn off.  If it's horn players I can almost understand because of the nature of the instruments they play.

[Stokely]

I play (relatively) simple rock music so any kind of chart is only needed while learning the songs.  I generally grab the chords from Ultimate Guitar, if the song is there (almost always is!) and bring into a Google doc for formatting and editing.   I've tried to get various bands into the modern age, sharing these docs, but few musicians want to be bothered.  But in any case, I bring them to practices and they provide a reference for me and for anyone.  I add notes like "drum fill 2 bars before going back to chorus" and the like for anything I think might throw us off.  I used to print these but these days I just have Google drive on my ipad.

At gigs I have a few lyrics as a crutch--as much as I'd like to rely on my not-so-rock-solid-for lyrics memory--and for this I've been using Songbook Pro on my ipad.

My ipad is part of my rig in various ways--B-3X for organs, mixing apps for controlling various mixers when given permission by the sound companies, and Songbook pro.   It's not really visible in my two-keyboard rig, it's velcroed to a convenient open space on the top of my MODX.  I'd probably be using a phone instead if B-3X ran on a phone.  All I need for lyrics is the beginning of each line, maybe even just the first couple words of a verse to get me jump started when my brain malfunctions, so the small screen would be ok.

[DJkeys]

I need to entertain the audience when playing live, so I memorize everything, chord changes, lyrics, arrangements. 

 

-dj

[MathOfInsects]

Sorry, I should add: Those samples above are "my charts for me," like when I'm doing a session for someone, or a hired gun gig perhaps of someone's original music. When it's MY music, charted for others to read, it's "a la mode," as below.

[jerrythek]

I'm much the same... and with so many tunes to learn for various gigs that get played and then forgotten for months at a time, I prefer to have a chart to go back to. By the time you create a chart the tune is likely memorized for the near term... it's the months/years later that I appreciate doing the work.

 

 

On 4/26/2022 at 10:25 PM, mcgoo said:

 

Get to the point where you're playing in multiple bands with no cross over of song selection and doing a lot of fill in gigs where you're learning a boatload of material in a stupidly short amount of time and, well, the memory becomes a little less reliable (at least in my case). Get good at writing charts and get the discipline down of writing them for everything you learn and you'll get really good at reading them... And then you'll find yourself struggling even more to memorize. Lol, it's a viscous circle. 

 

I write charts in Sibelius. Mostly chord charts, only occasionally writing notation for a key phrase. I use Unrealbook to assemble them into setlists. They also send program changes to my rig to call up patches associated with the charts. 

 

 

 

[Montunoman 2]

4 hours ago, Outkaster said:

I don't use charts.  If I do it's a cheat sheet but 99.5% of the time I remember everything.  It also looks more professional on stage.  Charts are a crutch for a lot of musicians and when I see people with IPads on stage it's a large turn off.  If it's horn players I can almost understand because of the nature of the instruments they play.

 

Keyboardist have to play horn parts , as well as a bunch of other  stuff too Why do only horn players get  a pass to use charts but not keyboardists ? 

[kaptainkeys]

For live, I have used the free Windows application LivePrompter on occasion.  The editing is a little rudimentary, but it works for me when all I need is chords and lyrics, but I am considering switching to conventional charts on a cheap android tablet and a page turner pedal as the songs I am playing (and they keyboard setups for them) begin to become more complicated.

[Outkaster]

7 hours ago, Montunoman 2 said:

 

Keyboardist have to play horn parts , as well as a bunch of other  stuff too Why do only horn players get  a pass to use charts but not keyboardists ? 

 

 

Because it's kind of understood.  The soul band I play with has a band leader that doesn't want even the horn players using them but I don't care.  But the guitarist reads everything and when I asked why they said it's because "he has his hands in multiple bands"  Really?  I play in three groups now in three different styles of music.  I think people need to develop instincts in some cases.  If you really need charts then use them but my feeling is your putting a barrier between you and audience.

[Jim Alfredson]

On 4/27/2022 at 4:21 PM, MathOfInsects said:

ForScore for everything else, which I use to host my own chart format.
 

 

 

 

This is done in forScore? Can it do lyrics as well? Are you designing this in another program and just hosting it in forScore?

[MathOfInsects]

6 minutes ago, Jim Alfredson said:

 

This is done in forScore? Can it do lyrics as well?

No, ForScore is basically just a highly versatile PDF reader. I make this myself.

[Jim Alfredson]

1 minute ago, MathOfInsects said:

No, ForScore is basically a very versatile PDF reader. I make this myself.

That makes sense. Thank you.

[HammondDave]

Yeah…. You can do the same in Korg Module by creating the PDF in MS Office then importing it into the reader.  Love this format!  Good work!

[Tom Williams]

I do my set lists as a spreadsheet per set, with columns for Title, Key (because I play intervallicly, I tend to be key agnostic, but my bandmates are pretty specific), Reminder of who solos (ibid), and then patch numbers for each keyboard.  I generally bring 2-3 keyboards to a gig.

 

I have pretty normal presbyopia, a bit far-sighted, so all lead sheets have to be in 24 point or larger font. 

 

When I'm learning a song, I write Lyric and chord charts per my college music theory lessons, very similar to Nashville numbers.  I use Times Roman font for words, and Bold Helvetica (Arial) Roman numerals above it for chords.

 

When I need reminding of particular riffs or "famous" lead lines that mustn't vary, I either use arabic numerals for simple melodic lines, or I write it out fully in Finale.

 

Currently, all of that goes to paper, enclosed in plastic and sequenced in a 3 ring notebook.   I would Soooo love to move it to a screen, but ain't yet gotten around to it.  I'm just not sure the improvement over paper would justify the expenditure.

 

MOI's use of color is interesting.  I may add that to my tool set.

[MathOfInsects]

3 hours ago, Jim Alfredson said:

That makes sense. Thank you.

Here's what I do for lyrics in that format. By the way, the notes for what is played on which board don't always mean it's that board's sounds. They talk to each other in different ways depending on the tune. 

 

 

[erik_nie]

I tried different apps but wrote my own apps because it just didn't fit my requirements.

I wanted to have: single click between songs and overview, no scrolling, backup in icloud, setlist and playing backing tracks.
The app runs in pythonista and looks like this:

 

Main screen with songs. this is a folder in iCloud. it is easy to maintain in my Macbook. I can also use subfolders to store old material.

Is also shows the time and battery status. It is possible to use jpg or txt files. txt files are shown as large as possible. the songs are shown in one page to avoid scrolling.

 

 

In this case a jpg is shown with some score and chord info. 

When  clicking in the center of the screen the main screen shows, in the right area it will move to the next song, left to the previous.

 

 

 

There is also an option to create a .set file with parts of the name of songs in a set like this:

 

Relight
WeAre
SoExi
Inferno
Abba
AnyPlace

 

the matching song is searched for the chords folder and a set is created like this (looks ugly, i found no option to center multi-line buttons):

 

 

 

 

in this case a mix of 3 sets. when a song is selected, the jpg or txt is shown. including the progress and next song. In this case a queen medley with 2 parts. searching for queen gave two results: queen1 and queen2. In this song there is a backingtrack. It plays the backing on the left channel and the click on the right channel.
If a .wav file is located with the same name as a .txt of .jpg file the play/stop option is added.

 

 

This works very fast and super reliable. 
I still sometime check if other apps can work this fast, but it always takes more clicks and scrolling.

 

 

[stoken6]

@erik_nie can you enlighten us: what do "s", "is" and "es" after a note-letter mean (on your Bohemian Rhapsody chart)?

 

Cheers, Mike.