So here’s how I came up with the idea of Tablet Mounts for Musicians.
While sitting in a cafe during a trip to Europe, a musician with a guitar singing in Dutch was the main attraction. Had no idea what he was singing, but noticed him looking down at the middle of the microphone stand while he was playing. I was sitting in the back of the cafe because that’s where Americans sit when they sing in Dutch. After an hour of this, I decided to beeline for the Men’s Room which was located at the corner and was able to get a better look at what he was looking down at. Turns out he was using an iPad to read the music while he played the guitar. He had the iPad mounted to the microphone stand using what looked like a clamp with some twist ties. Not very elegant but it worked.
This got me thinking and off to the MountGuys Labs I went to do some research.
There are hundreds of applications that can teach you how to play the piano or guitar. There are applications for displaying music. There are a bunch that display a metronome (I always referred to that as the tick tock machine). While I’m clearly no musician, I know enough to come to the conclusion that learning to play an instrument while having to look down at a desk at your tablet has to be difficult.
It turns out there are a lot of tablet mounts for musicians. The problem is that they aren’t marketed as tablet mounts for musicians.
Pictured here is the Arkon Heavy Duty Table Desk Tablet Clamp Mount with 12-inch Neck. A common clamp mount with a gooseneck and it clamps tightly to a microphone stand. This is somewhat similar to the mount that the guy in Belgium was using only it uses a gooseneck instead of twist ties. There are dozens of mounts similar to this which are typically marketed for tables. It has a sturdy clamp that will open to 1.75 inches and an expandable clamp to make sure your tablet does not fall out when you turn into landscape. I think these work well for advanced and beginner musicians.
Those learning to play the guitar can use a tablet along with a suction cup mount. I suspect the quality of the sound coming out of your guitar will be somewhat effected when you have a tablet stuck onto the instrument. Since you are a student and just starting to learn, I would think that is not too much of an issue. What’s important is that you can watch the lesson and at the same time hit the proper notes on the guitar.
The metronome applications (also known as tick tock applications for musical mutants like me) look pretty cool on a big tablet. You just need to use a foldable table top mount to stand the tablet in portrait mode and place atop your piano top. I don’t know if these are used for other instruments, but the same inexpensive mount can be used and you can place it on a table.
I’m sure there are applications that I am not aware of, and this, mounting solutions I have not thought of, but I’m sure there are mounts for almost anything you can use a tablet for. Write us if you need some ideas.