How To Use An iPad For Leading Worship

One of the biggest changes that I’ve made onstage is using my iPad for carrying and reading all my charts. I love that it holds hundreds of songs, has great lighting for the stage, is small and portable, has a great built-in metronome, has a smaller footprint onstage and that I can use a hands-free foot-switch to turn my pages. Here is how to make it work for you:

1. Buy an iPad

There are numerous tablets on the market but the iPad is still #1.  And because of it’s market dominance it get’s the best support for products and apps. 

If a new one is out of your price range… pick up a used one on Kijiji. But make sure you buy an iPad 6th generation or newer. I run two iPad’s on stage, an iPad Air for tracks, clicks and pads and iPad (6th generation) for charts.

2. Convert all your documents (music, notes, etc) into .pdf documents

This is quite simple: When you’re printing your documents from your Apple computer, simply choose the PDF option in the lower right corner of your print page.

For multiple options on the platform your using, check out this WikiHow article: 5 Ways To Create PDF Documents

3. Get a free Dropbox account and load all your .pdf documents into it

Dropbox is free and is becoming one of the best ways to store your documents in the ‘Cloud’. Check out this article: How To Start Using Dropbox 

You can also transfer pdf files many other ways from your phone or laptop. Check out this youtube video.

4. Download a great music reading app

My favourite music reading app is ‘forScore’.  Here is a link to an article of the top music reader apps. The reason I prefer forScore over other apps (and I’ve tried numerous other ones) is:

• It links easily with Dropbox
• It has great user-friendly features
• It has a versatile metronome built-in with great sounds and great program features: I can tell it how many beats to play and then have it turn off automatically so it ends before a ritard ending
• The metronome instantly changes when the next song comes up
• You control the metronome with a footswitch
• You can add metronome controls on to any page of the music.
• You can easily write notes on your iPad music screen.

I also want to give honorable mention to the OnSong app. It has a solid metronome, great editing and transposing features, the ability to sync tracks and also download charts from Dropbox and convert files from CCLI’s Songselect.

5. Buy a stand for your iPad

Here is the current foldable stand I am using from Liugast. It’s available on Amazon and holds my iPad and iPhone. It’s also very reasonable priced.

6. Buy a Bluetooth Foot-switch for your iPad

I recently upgraded my foot-switch to an iRig Blueboard. This pedal has 4 foot-switches so I can easily turn pages (forwards and backwards) and also turn the metronome off hands free. (this video is in French but it will give you the idea)

Airturn has also just come out with a new bluetooth foot-switch for only $69. This will enable you to turn pages and other functions. It is great to be hands free! Check this great Youtube video on the how-to-use-it with OnSong!

If you have an older iPad you can use the Airturn BT-105 (which I was using before I upgraded my iPad).

7.  Practice and use the iPad for live music ~ here’s how:

• I make all my music into .pdf’s and then I download all of them onto my Dropbox account.
• I put them into a set list.
• I set-up the metronome settings for each song.
• I link my iRig Blueboard foot-switch to my iPad and practise using it to turn the pages backwards and forwards and turning the click on and off.
• I send the metronome click to the band for their in-ear monitors… Recently I have been using a 2nd iPad to run Multitracks app ‘Playback’ to run tracks, clicks and pads.
• I also put a special programmable transparent button on each page to quickly turn the metronome on/off in emergencies. (see set-up for buttons on forScore)
• I practice using this set-up so that it works seamlessly in live performances.
• I memorize my music and currently I only use it in rehearsals.

Question: What are you using on stage for your music? What app are you currently using? Do you memorize your music?

Check out my new book.. “Leading Worship ~ Notes from a Grand Adventure’ available in Kindle or Soft Cover Editions.  This is a great gift for the musician or worshipper in your life.

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