Digital Music Stand
For years, I used a 10-inch Lenovo tablet to display Real Book charts at jam sessions. This let me carry my entire library of Real Book charts to gigs and sessions. It worked great for most Real Book charts that are usually a single page and well formatted. You could display two pages in landscape mode, but they were rather small.I wanted to do the same with my big band charts, but they usually have two or more pages and were poor copies that can be very hard to read. In 2025, I found a 14-inch Android tablet made by Callsky. It worked great for single pages in portrait mode, but some charts were unreadable in landscape mode.
I decided to try using two tablets, which lets me have two pages visible in portrait mode at a time. The same Callsky tablet was still available, but was $100 cheaper than in 2025. The software links the tablets via Bluetooth, so turning pages is a breeze. Both tables fit nicely on a standard Manhasset music stand as shown in the photo on the right.
I have the tablets paired with an AirTurn PedalPro for turning pages. This pedal has "soft" switches that are not very reliable, so I have ordered an AirTurn BT500 with classic metal switches.
I have it set to load song notes when a chart loads. This is especially useful to me as a band leader. These notes remind me about important things like counting in and soloists. The built in metronome is great for getting each chart started at the right tempo.
I use Zubersoft's MobileSheets Pro software, and I synchroize the libraries using Google Drive cloud folder.
