Question to members, hoping to get varied opinions/discussion/pro and con.

Q. If you were setting up your laptop anew for lyrics how would you do it?

I'm in the process of trying to figure out the ins and outs and how too's of setting up a laptop to display lyrics. This is new for me and wondering the best way to set it up ie alphabetical,numbers, types of music, or sets by venue etc. Please explain in beginner language.

Would appreciate any input on what works for you.

I'm starting cold on this, never even had a computer connected to the kybd before, but need a better way to handle lyrics, than paper flying everywhere. so have gone the laptop route, in leu of scottyee's monitor system which sounds great,but can't afford that.

If you would rather talk one on one, email me. pose@citlink.net Thanks.........Pose

I use a word processor, MS Word. You could use Word Pad or Note Pad if you wish.
Just type or copy and paste the songs. Under File, Properties (in MSWord) you can put the name, artist, genre, etc. This will allow you to sort the songs in several ways.
Use a readable type face. I generally use Arial Bold, 12-point. What you use will depend on the size of your screen and the length of the song and which word processor you use. I try to get a song on one page, so I don't have to scroll.
I use a cordless mouse so the audience never sees me "using" the laptop.
There are many benefits to doing it this way. You can have a whole set of songs open if you want, so they are loaded instantly.
If you have certain songs you always do in order, as a medley, you can past them all in one and scroll through it.
One of the things I did right, was when I first started playing music, many years ago, I always wrote down the lyrics and chords to every song I ever learned.
After 20 or so years I was lugging around a whole case full of loose-leaf binders. Some nights I didn't open them, other nights I used them a lot.
When I converted to computer I spent countless hours (thousands) entering them. In recent years you can find almost anything you want on the internet. Just copy, paste and edit a little.
Good luck.
DonM

Pose,

Take the CD I sent you and copy it to a folder on your desktop computer and label it LYRICS in MS Word.

After this is done, double click the folder, then make the folder one colum wide--just wide enough so you can read the song titles.

Now, just double click any song and it will open in MS Word--it's that easy.

Once you get into word, go to VIEW at the top of the screen, click TOOLBAR, then uncheck everything. This provides you with the most viewing area and the least amount of scrolling, which is what you want.

I personally like a white background with black letters, mainly because it's very easy to see at nearly any distance. Additionally, the white background acts like a florescent light and helps light the top of your keyboard when performing in darkened rooms.

When you're ready to select the next song, merely position the mouse pointer at the bottom of the display and single click the Lyrics Folder and the folder will again appear. Now, using the computer's keyboard, just press the first letter of the song and you will be instantly taken to the first song beginning with that letter. You can now quickly scroll down to the song title, press enter and the song instantly appears on your screen. You can do this all night long and never run out of computer memory because the files are very tiny.

Nothin' to it!

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Like Don, I think I am a pro at making a lyric lead sheet, I've done so many.

These are tips I can provide, YMMV.

1. Make the page margins 0.5" top, bottom, left, right. This gives maximum room for the largest font.

2. Highlight the entire lyric and title. Make the font Arial and make the Size as large as it can be and still fit on one page. For me, this is usually 18 to 22. I'm talking BIG letters. BIG. Sometimes, there is no way to break the lines, the lines are long lines and I have to go to something like size 13.

I also BOLD the font. Do this before you check to see if it fits the page, as it increases font size.

3. Title of song is put in quotes and underlines. Quotes, I guess that's not necessary but I do it.

4. If I type anything else about the song, I change the font for that line to a much smaller font, such as 13. I can squint a bit for that line if I need to read it.

5. If the layout allows, I like to indent the chorus.

6. If the layout allows (margins), I like to indent the bridge even more.

7. If a line is wrapping too long, often, I will change the font size for the last half of the line to a smaller size. So that the overall page font size can still remain as large as possible. I usually only need the first words in a line anyway to remember the line.

8. Everything is single spaced unless it's something that I am having to play with a bass player or another guitarist. For those, I might double space it, it's two pages, sometimes, and I write in heavy dark pencil, the chord names. For working up songs, they can look over my shoulder.

9. Everything I do on the page is done with an underlying goal of still retaining the largest font size possible to fit on one page. (Except for 2-page deals mentioned.)

10. If it's a complicated song, I leave a wider left margin and write the chord names in heavy dark pencil in the margin. Sometimes, I have typed the chords in superscript and that's nice but it takes longer.

11. I made my own nomenclature. Such as...

Foxswing/A.B.D/124/M PHR1/-2

That would mean Foxswing style, using fills A, B and D, tempo is 124bpm, mute PHR1, transpose down a whole step (2 half steps).

12. In the left margin in heavy dark pencil, I write A,B,C or D for when I am changing a fill section. Just to the left of line where I hit the fill button.

13. I try to not write in ink. Things change.


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Me Bill
Yamaha PSR2000

I have put all my music, both notation and lyrics with chords in one master folder.
I have separate folders for different occasions. The same song can be in many different folders.
1-Folders to match my keyboard set up. The number on the registration in the keyboard is the same as the song in the laptop.
2-A folder to cover senior jobs.
3-One for Christmas---
Whatever your needs are. Remember when adding or changing a song save it in the master folder then in the folder you want it in.

Key, tempo, style and all the info I need is written on the page. Although the registration on the keyboard takes care of most of that, I have the info if I should be on a different keyboard.

I am not using the mouse as much?I place the mouse arrow at the right top ?X? ready to close the page?it stays there. Then I use the arrows to navigate?highlight and press the enter button?works most of the time. Finished with the song, press enter, the arrow is waiting on the ?X? to close.

Hope this helps, John C.

How do you sort using properties?

Ed

Hey great stuff guys:
I think each post has given me good pointers.

I loaded Gary's disk on my PC desktop, for a test set/up, Had a few problems, but got it going. The index now shows 2 collums at a time and scrolls sideways, less scrolling.

Don I think a radio mouse is a must, or is there someway to scroll the lyrics down with a foot pedal.

bruno123 great ideas, I had'nt thought of having more than one lyrics set-up.

Looks like this is not going to be that difficult, only many hours of copy/paste/changing to suit.

Now if there was someway to trigger the lyrics to come up by saving to the reg on the keyboard?????? I hear the new tyros may have that feature built in and allows for a larger monitor from a computer? (at least I think I read that somewhere)

Thanks for all the input, I'm still thinking about this, and hope to get the most mileage from whatever turns out, cause I can see there's going to be hours and hours of work involved, and needs to be easily expandable, and a system that can be flexable and not have to be redone or started over......Pose

I haven't found a way to scroll with a footswitch, except that my Ketron SD1 will do that if you load the lyrics into the keyboard harddrive. You name the style and the text file the same, and they both open together. Very neat, but I haven't chosen to use that feature except to try it out.

You don't actually use the Properties to sort. Rather, you use the Properties to save the song name, artist, genre or whatever else you want to enter. Then, MSWord allows you to sort by merely clicking on the appropriate bar at the top of the page.
DonM

Don:

Thanks for the info, I just got home from the city, and stopped at walmart and bought a wireless mouse, this should allow a easier way to scroll/change, if I can find a good place to place it? may have to make a flat surface mouse pad platform right under the keys, where the right hand can get to it fast......Pose

The Tyros has a built-in mouse holder. Some call it a floppy disk holder. The SD1 has plenty of room also. It's easy enough to make one to fit between the kb and stand.
DonM

Update:

Thanks to Gary and him giving me step by step on which buttons to push on my computer, via the telephone, I have got the system set up.......(Thanks to all). I'm tickled that I can do away with all the paper..........Pose