Tablet and software for scores

[Old Grumpy]

Any suggestions for low to medium budget tablet suitable for displaying a music score. Also what is the best software for display?

[richardfinegold]

Personally I want the biggest screen size possible if I am trying to play a score on it. That rules out the cheaper varieties. If you can do with a smaller screen than I need you will have more choices

[ostuni]

If by 'display' you mean for score-following while listening (something I do a lot with scores downloaded from IMSLP), then a standard-sized tablet is fine. I use an iPad (not the cheapest choice, but ease of use and syncing with my phone are high priorities for me). And on an iPad, copying the downloaded score into Books makes it easy to read, turn pages, and have my score library indexed.

Books also allow for rudimentary editing/mark-up - something I've frequently done with scores from CPDL for choir workshops. Professional singers and instrumentalists nearly always go for a larger tablet (the iPad Pro seems to be the industry standard), running ForScore, which has more sophisticated mark-up & viewing options, but at a higher cost, of course.

[Old Grumpy]

Thanks. I would mainly use it for amateur choir singing. The option to mark the score would be useful. The software I was considering is ForScore which seems to be available at a cost of £15 (presumably per annum). The size of tablet (probably Windows or Android) I was considering has a 12" screen.

This is all on the basis of Internet searches. I have no personal experience of their use - hence my enquiry.

[Anastasius]

Whenever I'm not sure of something techy, I might buy a cheap secondhand one just to get the feel of what it can offer.

[Dave2002]

Thanks. I would mainly use it for amateur choir singing. The option to mark the score would be useful. The software I was considering is ForScore which seems to be available at a cost of £15 (presumably per annum). The size of tablet (probably Windows or Android) I was considering has a 12" screen.

This is all on the basis of Internet searches. I have no personal experience of their use - hence my enquiry.

I would highly recommend the largest iPad Pro. It’s expensive - but IMO far better than Android “alternatives. I assume you are not wanting any thing bigger than about 13 inches.

if you were/are a conductor I might suggest one of the artists’ tablets, which can be a lot larger and suitable for a full conductor’s score, but they are hardly portable. The large iPad Pros are very versatile, but still portable enough, and indeed that’s what I’m using now to type this. It can be coupled with score software and a foot pedal. I have a foot pedal which works. I think many pros use ForScore, thought it’s not the only music software which works with tablets.

[oliver sudden]

The software I was considering is ForScore which seems to be available at a cost of £15 (presumably per annum).

I think that’s a one-off price unless you go for the pro subscription version. That’s certainly about what I paid for it, several years ago now. (Perhaps they’ve changed the deal since then…such things happen.) I’m a professional musician and have to do quite a lot of marking-up since I work in new music, and I’ve never been seriously tempted to go for the pro options except out of a feeling that this software is worth supporting!