Writing a chord sheet
A song is plain text. One line of chords is one line of the sheet, a blank line starts a new section, and sections alternate colour so your eye can find the jump without headings.
- Numbers are degrees of the key.
1 4 6 5in G is G, C, Em, D. Change the key and they follow. - Letters are written chords. They transpose too — they just start from what you typed.
%repeats the chord before it.x3at the end of a line plays that line three times.|splits a bar: chords between two bars share that bar evenly.- A line starting with
#is a reference line — a lyric cue or a note. It prints in grey and never transposes. - Qualities go straight after the chord:
6m7,1maj7,Dm7b5,Eb7(b5).
The full guide lives inside the app, under Main Menu ▸ Help ▸ Chord Sheet Format.
Common questions
How do I change the key of a song?
Tap the key badge above the chord sheet and pick a key. Songs written in numbers move instantly; songs written in letters are rewritten in the new key. The original written key is remembered, so you can always come back.
Can each singer have their own key?
Yes. Add your singers under Main Menu ▸ Singers, then set a key per singer per song. When a setlist entry names a singer, the sheet opens in that singer's key.
Where is the metronome?
Set a tempo on the song, and a metronome button appears in the Song Menu. No tempo, no button.
How do I get an existing chart into the app?
In the Song Editor, choose Import from Text or PDF. Paste a chart you copied from anywhere, or pick a PDF or scan. You get to review what the app read before it is applied.
Why did my capo setting not travel with a shared song?
On purpose. A capo describes one player's guitar and a remembered key describes one singer, so both are stripped on import unless the sender picked a "with Capo & Singers" variant — and even then a capo only fills a blank, never overwrites one you already set.
My bandmate's copy is out of date.
Shared libraries update when the person pulls them, not automatically. Ask them to tap Sync Now in Library & Sync. This is deliberate: songs changing under a musician between rehearsals — or mid-gig — is worse than a copy that is a day old.
I renamed a song and now my band has two of them.
Songs are matched between devices by title and artist, because each device mints its own internal IDs and those never line up. A rename therefore looks like a new song to everyone else. Delete the old one on their side, or rename it to match.
iCloud sync is not doing anything.
Check that sync is switched on in Library & Sync — it is off until you ask for it — and that the device is signed into an Apple Account with iCloud Drive enabled. If the app reports iCloud as unavailable, it is reporting what the system told it.
How do I keep a song off the shared library?
Mark it Private in the Song Menu. It still syncs to your own devices, and you can still hand that one song to one person deliberately. Note that marking a song private stops it being shared from that moment on — it cannot reach into a device that already pulled a copy.
Can I print or export?
Yes. Any song or setlist can be exported as a PDF from the Song Menu, laid out to fit the page.
Requirements
- iPhone or iPad running iOS 17 or later.
- iCloud sync and band sharing need an Apple Account signed in with iCloud enabled.
- Everything else works offline.
Something is broken
Send it to hello@chordsheetz.com. The single most useful thing you can include is the exact sequence of taps that produced it — a bug that can be reproduced is usually fixed in the next release.