Write a chord chart

Every song has a chord chart on its Chords tab. Charts are written in a block editor: you type the lyrics, press one key to place a chord, and the chart looks after the layout. The same chart drives the PDFs shown in Live mode, the numbers view and the PDF export.

Open the editor

1. Open the song and click the Chords tab.
2. Click the pencil at the right end of the chart header. You need the Manage songs permission, which members have by default.

If you added the song through the search box in the Add song dialog and it matched our library, the chart is already filled in. Check it against how your band plays the song and edit anything that differs. Otherwise the chart starts blank.

Add lyrics and chords

1. Type a line of lyrics.
2. Put the cursor where the chord changes and press [. A small popup opens.
3. Type the chord, for example Am7 or C/G, and press Enter. The chord sits above the lyric at that spot.

If the song has a key, the popup also suggests the chords in that key, and you can press 1 to 7 to insert a scale degree without typing the name. Set the key with Original key in the Edit song dialog if the suggestions are missing.

Chords on a chord row can be dragged left or right to fine-tune their position. Click a chord to change it. Drag it off the row to delete it.

Leave at least one character between two chords on the same line. Two chords placed right on top of each other are read as one chord when you save.

Add sections and instrumental lines

On an empty line, press / to open the block menu:

• Lyric line: words with chords above them. This is the default.
• Section header: Verse, Chorus, Bridge and so on. It shows in bold.
• Instrumental: a row of chords with no lyrics. Type chords separated by spaces and use | for bar lines, for example G | C | D | D.

Hover over the left edge of any block to find the + button, which adds a block below, and the drag handle, which lets you reorder blocks or turn one type into another, duplicate it, or delete it.

Save

Click Save in the top bar, or press Cmd+S or Ctrl+S. Cancel or Esc leaves the editor, and asks first if you have unsaved changes.

Once saved, see Read, transpose and export a chord chart for the display options and PDF export. If you have a chart as text already, Paste a chart as ChordPro is faster than retyping it.