Chordpro Format
SongBook stores songs in the chordpro format, a simple format for notation of lyrics together with chords. Using your Internet search engine you can find huge collections of songs in chordpro format.
Chords are written in square brackets [] within the text, e.g.
[Em]Alas, my [G]love, you [D]do me [Bm]wrong,
SongBook will render this as:
Em | G | D | Bm |
Alas, my | love, you | do me | wrong, |
In addition to the chords in square brackets, the chordpro format defines several commands in curly brackets {}. Songbook understands the following control statements:
Control | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
{title: ...} or {t: ...} | Song title | {t: Greensleeves} |
{subtitle: ...} or {st: ...} or {artist: ...} | Song subtitle, typically the artist or composer | {st: Traditional} |
{comment: ...} or {c: ...} | A comment, e.g. "Repeat 2x" or "Chorus". Comments are rendered inverse by default. | {c:Chorus} |
{soc} ... {eoc} | Start and end of chorus. Depending on settings, the chorus is marked with line to the left or indented or shaded. | {soc} Halleluja, halleluja... {eoc} |
{sot} ... {eot} | Start and end of a tab. A tab (tablature) section is rendered in a fixed width font. Often used for intros, bridges, solos... | {sot} E|---|------|-0--1-0-|------|--- B|---|-1--3-|-1------|-3--0-|--- G|-2-|-2----|-0------|-0----|-0- {eot} |
{sog} ... {eog} | Start and end of a chord grid (Jazz Grille). Parts between bars | are considered chords and rendered in columns. | {sog} |
{soh}...{eoh} | Start and end of a highlight marker. Can span multiple lines. For colored highlighting (web colors), use {soh #rrggbb} | {soh}(Louder){eoh} {soh #00FF00}Green{eoh} |
{define ...} | Used to define a special chord diagram for this song only. The format is <chord name>: <base fret> <string 6> ...<string 1> Base fret is usually 0. To force a certain chord variation to show up in the songs chords window/bar, define it in the song. | {define: D 0 X 0 0 2 3 2} |
{image: src="..."} | Include image in song. File must be png or jpg and in same folder as the song file. Image will be shown on a separate line and will be scaled down if larger than the current song width. | {image: src="intro.jpg"} |
# | Lines starting with # will be ignored and are not displayed. | # (C) Author, 2022 |
SongBook specific controls | ||
{time: mm:ss} | Total playing time of song (including last page), used for auto-scrolling independent of zoom-factor. | {time: 2:30} |
{pause: ...} | If this line reaches the top of the screen, auto-scrolling will pause for the specified number of seconds (also works on beginning of song) | {pause: 2.5} |
{metronome: ...} | (iOS/Android only) Defines the metronome tempo for this song (beats per minute) | {metronome: 90} |
{key: ...} | Key of the current song, used e.g. for transposition or NNS conversion. If not set, SongBook uses the first [chord] in the song as key. | {key: Am} |
{capo: ...} | Indicates usage of a capo. All song chords are transposed down the given number of half-tones. E.g. for a capo 2, an A written in the song will be displayed as G. | |
{zoom: ...} | Zoom size for current song. Device-specific as zoom-iphone, zoom-ipad, zoom-android. 1 is original size (depending on font preferences). Use Save Zoom to save the currently used zoom factor in the song. | {zoom: 1.5} |
{tag: ...} | An arbitrary tag for a song (e.g. *** for favorites, or In Progress). A song can be marked with several tags. Songs can be filtered by tags. | {tag: ***} {tag: Sample} |
{instrument: ...} | Use the specified instrument only for this song. For chord look up and chord bar display. SongBook will switch back to the default instrument when you change to another song. | {instrument: Ukulele_C} |
{tuning: ...} | Song-specific tuning (use together with {instrument: ...}) | {c:Drop D tuning} |
{musicpath: ...} | Path to a music (MP3) file which can be played with the song. SongBook will search for the given file name in the main song folder. | {musicpath: Greensleeves.mp3} |
{new_page} | (Windows PC/Mac only) Insert a page break when printing the song. | {new_page} |
{define-<instrument>...} | (iOS/Android/Mac only) Instrument-specific chord definition. You can have several definitions for the same chord but different instruments in a song. SongBook automatically displays the first matching one. | {define-Guitar: D 0 X 0 0 2 3 2} {define-Ukulele_C: D 0 2 2 2 0} |
SongBook user-specific controls | ||
{c-<user>:...} | User/instrument specific comment. This comment will only be displayed if the given value matches the user name defined in settings or the currently selected instrument. Note: This also works for sot, sog, capo, image, instrument and tuning. | {c-Lead:Play 2x} {c-Bass:Emphasize} |
{soh-<user>}...{eoh} | User/instrument specific highlighting. The text will only be highlighted if the given value matches the user name defined in settings or the currently selected instrument. | {soh-Female}(Louder){eoh} {soh-Guitar #00FF00}Green{eoh} |
SongBook will also recognize links in the song text, e.g. www.linkesoft.com, http://linkesoft.com, file://path/to/file etc.