Paper songbook or tablet - what to bring to a gig

Before the first season with a tablet, most musicians ask themselves this question. A binder with printouts worked for years. It was proven, reliable, did not need charging. Why should I change?

That is a fair question. Paper has real advantages that a tablet does not. But it also has flaws that after a year of playing start to irritate.

What paper does well

A printout will never run out of battery. It will not freeze in the middle of a song. It does not need an internet connection. You can write on it - with a pen, pencil - and those notes stay. If the leader says "play the chorus one more time" - you instantly mark it on the printout and do not have to figure out how to do it in an app.

For musicians who have been playing with paper for years, there is also a psychological factor: the binder is familiar. You know how to use it. You do not have to learn anything new.

Where paper fails

The bridge changed in a song. Someone has to print the new version, deliver it to every musician, and throw away or cover the old page. If the band has four musicians and 80 songs with a few changes per season - that is dozens of pages to replace per year. And someone always has the old version.

A guest requests a song outside the planned set. You search for it in the binder under the right letter - if the page is somewhere in the back and you need to start soon, those 30 seconds of searching turn into stress. On a windy outdoor wedding, the page might simply land among the guests.

What a tablet with Lyricco changes

Changing song lyrics means editing on lyricco.app - from that moment, all musicians have the new version the next time they open the app. No printing, no distributing, no asking "who has the current page."

Searching by title or artist name takes a few seconds - even in a repertoire of 200 songs. The leader opens a song and it appears on all synced devices simultaneously - nobody has to search for anything separately. One musician controls the view for the entire band, because Lyricco sync works both ways on every device.

Should you give up paper entirely?

Some musicians keep a few backup printouts in the gear case - in case of hardware failure or dead batteries. That is a sensible approach, especially at the beginning, when the system has not yet been tested in real conditions.

There is no single right answer. It is worth starting with a trial run under controlled conditions - at rehearsal, not at a gig right away - and checking whether the approach works for your band. Musicians who have switched to Lyricco usually do not go back to paper.