iGigBook

iGigBook
Available on the iTunes App Store

Saturday, December 31, 2011

So Long 2011, Hello 2012

Ah, the end of the year and it's been a pretty good one. A lot of features have been added to iGigBook as well as a number of performance improvements. The capability to transpose chord charts really rounds out the app by providing quick access to melody along with quick access to the transposed harmony. Keep your eyes peeled and your ear to the ground during 2012 for more great features.

Happy New Year!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

iGigBook Version 1.57 - How an update both works and doesn't work.

After spinning out version 1.57 of iGigBook an update that added the ability to make a copy of a set list and that we made performance enhancements to and fixed some iOS5 specific bugs something very interesting happened. It seems a large number of people but not everyone, had a problem with the update, meaning they performed the update and the app would crash when they tried to launch it. People that newly purchased the app didn't have this problem nor did a fellow that I'm playing "A Christmas Carol" with and the two iPads I have updated without a hitch. What was also odd is that some people could not access any part of the app i.e. it would never get beyond the splash screen, while others could access the top level views but couldn't view any sheet music.

The good news was that uninstalling the app and reinstalling the app corrected the issue with the update, that's good news because the user can get a resolution to their problem very quickly without having to wait days for an update. If you rely on iGigBook and have a gig that you need to use it on, being able to do something yourself to resolve a problem is the best possible scenario. If reinstalling didn't work, meaning there is a bug that's causing the app to not function, we would have to locate and fix that bug and get an update submitted to Apple and then we would have to wait for the update to be approved, which could take days even if an expedited review was requested.

We created an announcement on our forum over at http://forum.igigbook.com laying out out the steps required to correct the problem:

1. Backup the files
2. Uninstall
3. Reinstall
4. Restore the files

We also pushed messages out to users devices using the device notification system(for those users that have notifications turned on) directing users to go to the forum for information on how to resolve the problem and posted these steps on the iTunes page where it says "What's New in Version 1.57". Now that this post exists those instructions on how to resolve the problem are also here.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Transposable Chord Charts

Over a thousand chord charts available here, can now be accessed directly from iGigBook as a Dynamic Book, which means iGigBook has an index that allows you to access any of the charts on the site and also allows you to transpose them to any key. This is a great addition to the app for those situations where you're working with a singer that needs to perform a tune in a particular key and just adds to the extensiveness of your own iPad music library. These charts can be added to set list, shared with other users via email just like any other piece of music you would use in iGigBook. Of course an internet connection is required to view a chart however the caching feature of iGigBook allows any chart viewed to be called up again without internet access.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Busy October

October has proven to be a busy month for development on iGigBook with a grand total of 5 versions, each adding some really cool functionality to the app.

Version 1.51 exchanged the not so useful dimmer feature for a more useful quick view jump feature on the PDF page view. The quick jump allows you to jump to any of the 6 different iGigBook views which means you can swtch between up to 5 different scores using this feature. Version 1.51 also introduced the page preview in the Set List Manager something that was needed since the search can turn up multiple versions of the same tune in different books.

Version 1.52 introduced the ability to set the page offset for a book directly from the device. This is a welcome addition to those user that like using the trial and error method to figure out what the offset to a book should be even though there's a method for computing eactly what it should be.

Version 1.53 didn't introduce anything new but fixed a bug with A4 sized charts that were getting cut off at the bottom and fixed a bug with the set list manager page preview under iOS 5.

Version 1.54 added a feature missing from the Set List Manager search function which was the ability to search indexed song and files contained in the My Scores View. A handy little toggle switch allows you to flip between results from indexed songs and from files contained in the My Scores View. The page preview was also enhanced making it a lot more useful. This particular update got approved by Apple in less than 48 hours!

Version 1.55 added a much needed refresh button to the My Scores View which replaced a nagging pop up that would ask you if you wanted to rescan the folder whenever there was a possibility that the contents of the folder had changed. One may not need to worry about re-scanning the documents folder when there a small number of files present but when you have 500 to 2,000 files in a folder, it takes a while to resolve the differences, open up each file to determine the number of pages, etc. This update bests 1.54 in being approved in less than 24 hours! Go Apple!

There's already a version 1.56 in the works and this tricks the Set List Manager out even further, stay tuned...

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

From Italy: No Love!

I'm not sure what's going on in Italy, but there are two, one star reviews in the Italian iTunes store and both claim that iGigBook doesn't work, one claims that it is a ripoff and the other says don't buy it.

Non funziona é un furto!!!!!

Mi Sembra un pacco, non funziona! Non compratelo!

I don't know who these folks are, but I do know that version 1.43 of iGigBook is pretty solid and works quite well for thousands of people. I'd love to help them if I could but my experience has been that the person that leaves one star reviews is just looking to rant and isn't looking for or open to getting help.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

How accessible is your PDF music collection?

The iPad can be a great gig tool if you have the right app. The right app is one that can enable you to realize the full potential of all of the real books and fake books that you own in PDF format.  There are lots of apps that allow you to store your PDF library on an iPad but you still need to check each book to find the song that you want.  With these apps, your library, though portable, still has limited accessibility.  

Just having the books on your iPad without the ability to search through all of them at once is like using the internet without a search engine.  To be truly useful and for you to realize the full potential of your music library, you need an app that will allow you to search though all of the books by song title or composer to find the one that you want, need or is called on a gig, jam session or rehearsal.  The app that you need and the app that you want is called iGigBook and is available now on the iTunes App Store.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Bookmarks Phase II

Version 1.43 of iGigBook adds a "Purge" button to the bookmark menu enabling you to bulk remove bookmarks that were imported or created. We've also added an "Import" button so that you can decide if you want to pull in the bookmarks from the PDF file that you are viewing.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Sharper Now

Version 1.42 of iGigBook address the lack of sharpness when you pinch to zoom a PDF page. We've also added the capability to rename items in your set list so that you can potentially have multiple copies of the same song n a set under different names.

In future releases we will be enhancing the bookmark import from PDF feature to enable users to create a book index from the bookmarks associated with a PDF score/book. This effectively allows you to build a custom index using your iPad which should satisfy those that feel that the web content manager is not cutting it for them.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Bring in the Bookmarks

Keeping with the concept of quick and easy access to your sheet music, version 1.41 will add the ability to import bookmarks from any PDF that contains them. This feature gives you yet another option of creating bookmarks for quick access to songs within a book. The bookmark list will also have a search bar which we have found you will need if you have a copy of the real book with all 444 songs bookmarked!

Thursday, March 31, 2011

New version of iGigBook on the way

I'm currently working on a new version of iGigBook which will make some tweaks to the UI. The My Scores section will be a separate view and tab interface will sport a set of new icons. iGigBook Pager will be able to control(turn pages) on multiple iPads at the same time, which gives rise to some very interesting performance scenarios. Expect to see this capability expanded to provide more control over the remote iPads.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Was it something that I said?

It seems my last blog post has gotten the writer of the "Technology in Music Education" a little peeved, so much so that in my opinion he's attempting to distort what was said or better yet misinterpret what was actually written. I wish he had commented to the original post...In any event I'll quote some of the points made and respond to them here:

2) During 2010, the developer of iGigBook contacted me and offered a promo code for review of his app. I appreciated that gesture, but in researching the app, I saw that it was geared for “Fake Books,” and not for single sheets of music. In addition, it lacked annotation. I politely declined the offer, stating these reasons. I believe the app developer contacted me back and let me know that annotation was not a component they were planning on implementing. I’ve never told anyone not to buy iGigBook, actually, I’ve done quite the opposite: “What about the other readers? If you choose to buy them, go for it. GigBook offers great ways to organize music, and iGigBook offers some great features with indexes.”

I offered the author a promo code because the author expressed a desire to have a promo code for iGigbook in this post

And if you know the developers of iGigBook, and they would be willing to share a promo code, I’d always be happy to review the app!

I also think the author should consult his own blog to fact check what was said because here is my post from his blog:

iGigBook isn’t going to be all things to all people as it’s geared towards the gigging jazz musician in the same way that a product like iRealBook is. We don’t do annotation, or hot spots on the page, but if and when we do, expect the same innovate approach we have taken to things like set list management, wireless page turning, bookmarking and book indexing.

The assertion by the author that these items weren't going to be added to iGigBook is a product of his own imagination. We didn't implement hot spots, we actually created a feature we think is superior to hot spots for jumping to different pages in a music score that unlike UnrealBook and Forscore, also works if you're using a wireless page turner. I also reiterate that if and when we do annotation expect to see the same innovative approach we've taken to every other feature you see in iGigBook.

3) I still maintain that musicians need to mark their music. Clearly, in education, we have additional needs, such as writing in fingerings. But I know that “professional” musicians need to write in bowings, cuts, notes, and correct errors. To say that annotation is only a part of the “narrow confines of the world [a music educator] is working in” is patently false and insulting to the profession. There’s an easy way to solve this problem: put annotation into the app, I can then compare it with UnrealBook and ForScore. Please, explain to me why annotation is such a horrible thing to put into your app.

The author creates a false argument here as no one has said that musicians don't need to mark their music. I'm making the point that in my experience as a working musician and from speaking with other working musicians that actually use iGigBook, this is not a feature that's a must have on this device for the types of gig scenarios it is used in. Additionally the buying public for these apps is not focused on annotation in the way that the author is, not by a long shot, if one looked at what people are buying that fact would become readily apparent.

5) Shouldn’t your app be for children, too? Or more specifically, for young adults (I teach students who are 14-18 years old)? Isn’t 21st Century education about putting real tools into the hands of children so they are prepared for the world? Doesn’t that apply to music as well? Additionally, iPads are exploding on the educational front in 1-to-1 initiatives all across the world. As an app developer, don’t you want to benefit from app sales to those iPads? Or is iGigBook going to become an R-rated app? (I’m being a little silly here, but so was the statement about the app not being for children.)

The audience for iGigBook is the working professional musician which tend not to be children but it also doesn't include the author of the piece, since they don't have a need for many of the features that make this app attractive to working musicians. Without a doubt there's a market for apps for children and teens and we may create one for that market one day, iGigBook isn't one of those apps.

6) I’m fully aware that the core of this response is centered in the fact that I cannot recommend iGigBook without the added feature of annotation–something I’ve communicated all along. It’s okay to not like that–or to not like the opinions of this blog–blogs are notorious for providing contrary and sometimes even offensive opinions. But please…don’t insult music education nor the abilities of teachers and children alike to make great music–which they can do with or without iPad apps.

I think the author wants to find insult where none is intended. Moreover we don't require the author's endorsement or validation of iGigBook as a legitimate product when hundreds of working musicians who the application is targeted to already have endorsed and validated it by purchasing and gigging with it.

Lastly, the author of "Technology in Music Education" should check his own blog to refresh his memory as to what was actually said otherwise one could get the impression that the misstatements aren't by accident but a result of a particular agenda by the author.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

What's coming up and other musings...

My latest big band rehearsal sessions has reminded me of a feature that I needed while doing a theater gig with iGigBook this summer. The composer, Joseph Vernon Banks, usually uses a segment of the last song as the music that we vamp out on and that segment is usually a couple of pages back. Apps like ForScore and UnRealbook allow you create "jump" points that you press to take you to a particular page in a score. ForScore has a neat little thing where it jumps to the page you need to go to and then flashes an amber circle where you need to bring your eye to. This jump feature works pretty good in these apps but if you're using a wireless page turner and turning pages hands free, you still need to tap your little jump mark to jump. This got me to thinking about how I would implement this particular feature, I mean, really thinking about what would cover situations where you had repeats spanning multiple pages, D.C., D.C. al Coda, D.S, D.S. al Coda. Wouldn't it be great if, as you were viewing the score page by page, indicate which page these items are located and then have the navigation do the jumping for you during the normal course of advancing the page? Take a big band chart like "Nica's Dream" as an example. The D.S. al Coda is on page 4 and so is the Coda. The Sign is on page 1 and so is the to Coda. Which means you begin playing on page 1, advance to page 2, then to page 3 and then to page 4 and then jump to page 1 and then jump back to page 4. In order to get this right, you have to essentially do what notation software like Finale and Sibelius do when playing back a score and that's exactly what I've done. The next version of iGigBook will do all the jumping for you during and allow you to interactively indicate where all of your D.C., D.S., Coda and Signs are.




Okay, now on to some musings...

There's an article here where the blogger and beta tester for UnRealBook is making the point yet again about how being able to annotate a score is a must have feature for him and the work that he does in music education. You can read his piece "Sheet Music Readers for the iPad - Thoughts in February 2011" here

I think it's perfectly valid for this fellow to feel that annotation is a must have feature for the line of work he does and for interacting with and teach music to children. It's also valid for him to believe that an app like iGigBook is missing a vital component, i.e. annotation. When we shift our attention from the narrow confines of the world this author is working in and expand it to the realm of the working musician who may be playing piano at the hotel lobby bar and taking requests from the audience for tips or the person heading up the weekly jam session, we encounter a different set of needs from an application. This app isn't called iGigBook(i Gig Book) for nothing. The feature set you see in iGigBook reflects what the working musician typically encounters on the gig, set lists, set list management, and the biggest one of all, having immediate access to as much sheet music resources that you can. Just having your books on the device and being able to open them, check the index and then go to the page is better than not having the resource at all but having the ability to search through multiple books in seconds to find a tune is using the iPad to it's fullest potential.

iGigBook isn't an app for children, it's a tool for the working musician playing the bar gig, the restaurant gig, the hotel lobby gig, the community theater gig, the corporate party gig, the jam session and the open mic...it's the Go-To Gig Tool!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Stars in my eye...

This is a recent 1 star review in the iTunes App Store for iGigBook Mobile.

This app is overpriced and underperforms. No PDF music can be found on iTunes. Very unfriendly.

First off, I'm not sure if this user is a member of the audience that iGigBook Mobile is targeted towards. This app runs on a iPhone or an iPod, there's going to be a limit to what you're going to able to do with it, compared to say, an iPad. I've spoken to a number of pro sax players and in their opinion all they would need is their iPhone and an app like iGigBook Mobile. They would use the app as a quick reference/refresher for tunes they somewhat know but need to brush up on the melody a bit before hitting the band stand. There are of course countless scenarios where you wish you had access to all of your musical material in a small compact package. "underperforms" [sic], compared to what? Consulting the index of various books by hand?

"No PDF music can be found on iTunes" - Both iGigBook Mobile and iGigBook are for musicians that have resources that they want to have quick access to. They're looking for a solution to the problem of it not being practical to carry around a suitcase full of books and binders. It's not our fault when a customer doesn't have material or does not know where to acquire it. The assumption is that you already have material that you want to get quicker and fuller access to. This is why you buy an app like iGigBook or iGigBook Mobile.

A Ferrari is a bad ass ride, and it doesn't stop being a bad ass ride because local road rules and/or your driver skill doesn't allow you to realize its full potential.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Building a set list with iGigBook

Here's a short 6 minute video illustrating how easy and quick it is to build a set list of 10 songs from multiple books. Looks simple enough, right? Try this excercise using any similar app currently available to get a real appreciation of what's happening here. There are apps out there that claim that they have the best/newest/revolutionary organizational system. Are they able to allow you to perform this essential gig prep task in less than 6 minutes? The true test of any organization system is how quickly it allows you to find what you're looking for.

Monday, January 10, 2011

iTunes App Store Review Process...FAIL!

Thank you for submitting iGBMobile to the App Store.

We’ve completed the review of your app, however, we cannot post this version to the App Store because it is using a private API, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines :

2.5 Apps that use non-public APIs will be rejected

We have included additional details below to help explain the issue and hope you'll consider revising and resubmitting your application.

The non-public API that is included in your application is unable to parse xml text. If you have defined a method in your source code with the same name as this API, we suggest altering your method name so that it no longer collides with Apple's private API to avoid your application being flagged in future submissions.

This is an excerpt of a app store rejection email I received from Apple in reference to my submission of version 1.33 of iGigBook Mobile(iGBMobile). I have bolded the non-public API that I'm alleged to be using, which is:

unable to parse xml text

The API is so private, they can't even included its name in the email.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Version 1.33 - Time to zoom

Version 1.33 of iGigBook and iGigBook Mobile will enable pinch zoom in the PDF view. This is particularly useful for users of iGigBook Mobile which runs on the iPhone/iPod Touch. Also in this version is a fix for scores not being recognized in the "** My Scores **" section when added via iTunes with the app running or in a suspened state. The point size of all of the items in the list of all of the views has been increased in iGigBook.