Using an iPad at the Chanter's Stand

I've had my iPad for about a year and a half, and it's been with me at almost every liturgical service since then. I've amassed a decent library of digitized texts, and I've yet to really take the time to go through and thoroughly organize them. However, the present post is not really about the content I have on my iPad, it's how I use it. I thought I would share my experience so that, if others are interested in a similar implementation, they at least have a place to start.

First of all, I have an iPad 1, 32GB capacity. I have a ton of apps and probably close to two hundred .pdf files containing byzantine music texts, but I still have plenty of storage space. Those files range in size from one page, to hundreds of pages. For example, on the smaller end, take Fr. Seraphim Dede's typical Sunday eMatins booklet: usually just under 30 pages, and a 350-500 KB file. St. Anthony's Monastery's Divine Liturgies book, on the other hand, is a 688-page, full-color text, taking up 118 MB.

Having the iPad is nice, and having all these files is great, but none of it matters if you don't have the right application through which to interact with it all. Some people that I know use the built-in iBooks app, which works well, but it is not versatile. I have been using the app GoodReader since day one, and I've been very happy with it. Its user interface is intuitive and clean, and it is full of features. On top of that, and most important, is that the program is stable. It has never crashed on me, even while running multiple, large files. I've convinced one other iPad user I know of to try this program for this purpose, and they've been using it ever since.

This post is not intended to be a write-up of all the features of this app, rather, it is to provide a brief, practical introduction for cantors who would like to use an iPad.

From the screen captures, it should be obvious that you can create and customize a folder tree based on your needs. The app has very intuitive controls for editing file names, organizing folders, finding files, and for connecting to remote servers, like Dropbox or Google Docs. It also has a built-in web browser. So, for example, if you need to download Sunday Matins, you can pull up the browser, go to ematins.com, and tap the link for the file you need, save it, then return to your folders.

Organizational interface.

The web browser interface.

Another great feature of GoodReader is tabs. What this means is you can have multiple files open and simply tap on the corresponding tab when necessary. For example, before any given service, it is a good idea to determine what texts you will need, and then go ahead and open them all. (Additionally, you can prepare by creating bookmarks to quickly find and jump to the music or text you will need next.) Having these files open keeps them ready in the background. So, for example, if I am chanting Orthros, and am using Fr. Seraphim's eMatin's text, but need music for, say, a Saint's apolytikion, I can simply tap the tab for the Minologion I already had open in the background and bookmarked to that section of the text. Once the apolytikion is finished, I simply tap back to the Orthros text.

Note the tabs at the top.

An example of bookmarks.

Reading in landscape mode. (Not to scale with other screen captures.)

Reading in portrait mode.

Another potentially important feature of GoodReader for the cantor is the ability to annotate the file. Inevitably, there will be mistakes in the text and/or music, or the parish you are in may prefer "You"s, when all your text has are "Thee"s.  Or, you just may want to make a note on the document for your own reference. If you're working with scans of old documents or bad photocopies, you may need to re-write some things to make them legible. GoodReader makes this easy. I've included a fictitious example below, adding a klasma to the first note of Kyrie Ekekraxa:

Bringing up the annotation menu. Note the zoom level.

Hand-drawing the klasma.

The edit in the context of the rest of the score. (Red circle just for locating the example.)

You can delete your annotations.

GoodReader is versatile in how you can choose to read the file, too. You can read it in landscape or portrait mode, zoom in, lock scrolling, and even crop margins. You can flip through pages or advance them by a single tap, depending on how you set your preferences. Another nice feature of GoodReader is that it can play audio files (or, you can simply play audio via the music app in the background), which is great for singing along with a piece for practice.

Using your iPad through a typical Sunday Orthros and Divine Liturgy will use up some battery power, but if your iPad is fully charged in the morning, you will have plenty of power to get through the services. Just recently, I used it for Orthros, Divine Liturgy, and three separate baptismal services in one day, and still had around 40% battery life left.

At the time of this posting, GoodReader retails for $4.99, and I would say it is worth every penny (especially if you use it for other business or school work).

There is another app that I have downloaded, and which I think will potentially be superior to GoodReader. It is called forScore, and is a reader program specifically with the musician in mind. It has features like half-page turns, a visual and/or audio metronome, pitch pipe, a set list creator, organization by composer, and other features that would be great for this type of use. The only problem that I've had is the program's instability when handling large files (like the above-mentioned Divine Liturgies book). I'll continue to monitor that app's progress, and if it becomes more stable, then I'll probably do a similar write-up for it. But until then, there's no point in using an app that's likely to crash when you're in the middle of a hymn.