Chord Format Specification¶

Songbook uses simple text file format to interpret songs. It contains the song's lyrics intertwined with the chords. The chords are placed between square brackets [ and ], eg. [C7].

You must adhere to the formatting principles in order to create a valid song in Songbook.

Formatting Rules¶

Try to stick to these following rules in order to keep songs consistent with others:

Mark chords by surrounding them with square brackets, e.g.
```
[C]So, so you think you can [D]tell
```
Mix chords with the lyrics in the same line, placing them just before the words where they occur in order to precisely indicate where a chord should be accentuated, e.g.
```
Never gonna [G]give you [A]up
```
Don't

Do not place the chords on a separate line above the text.

Note

If you want to display chords above the lyrics, you can always change your Displaying Style in Settings. So don't force it on others, let others choose their favourite displaying style. Placing chords in the same line is extremely important, because only then chords are precisely defined in correct place, regardless different font styles or word wrapping. Don't worry about your favourite chords displaying style, Songbook will do all the magic for you.
If some part of a song is repeated (e.g. chorus), copy it to all its occurrences. When lyrics are continuous, it facilitates scrolling through the song and then you will not have to scroll back every time to see the refrain chords.

Don't

Don't put any superfluous annotations or paragraphs like Chorus, Verse, Title, Solo, Instrumental. Include only lyrics with chords.
If a song has difficult rhythm with chords changing frequently, place the chords between words or even inside the words in order to indicate the syllable with a chord accent, e.g
```
[G]Hotel Cali[D]fornia
```
In very simple cases, it is allowed to place the chords at the end of line:
```
Smoke on the water [C G#]
```
You can use dash - to couple quickly changing chords: D Dsus2-D-Dsus4 or use parentheses () to mark some chords optional: [C G (G7)].
Make sure you have chosen appropriate Notation for your chords (Am for English or a for German). Find out why specifying Chord Notation is so important
Use Reformat and Validate tools on your song before saving it, especially when you are going to publish it.

Valid chords¶

Please use the valid chord names inside brackets, so the Songbook can interpret them correctly. A chord name usually consists of two parts:

main note: eg. C, C#, D, Db etc.
chord variant: eg. add4, m, maj7, 7, etc. or empty (simple major chord)

Having that in mind, E minor chord, should be named Em (in English notation). Valid chords are for instance C G# A7 F#maj7

Don't

Don't use Fm# name, the valid chord is F#m instead (F sharp minor).

Note

In some chord notations (like German) minor chords are written with lowecase note names, eg. d (instead of English Dm). Also, valid note names depend on a selected chord notation, eg. German notation have A B H C ... notes, while in English it's called A Bb B C ....

Example¶

[C]Twinkle, twinkle, [F]little [C]star
[F]How I [C]wonder [G7]what you [C]are.

[C]Example [G#]text [C G# A7 F#maj7]
[C]So, so you think you can [D]tell
Smoke on the water [C G#]

Never gonna [G]give you [A]up
Never gonna [F#m]let you [Bm]down
Never gonna [G]run [A]around and [F#]desert [Bm]you
Never gonna [G]make you [A]cry
Never gonna [F#m]say good[Bm]bye
Never gonna [G]tell [A]a lie and [F#]hurt [Bm]you

Utilities¶

For your needs you can use comments by placing them between braces { and }, eg. {capo on 2 fret}, or {x2}. However it's discouraged to use the comments in the public songs. Try to get rid of them before publishing a song.

Find out more about Chords Editor, which has a lot of useful tools.

Importing songs¶

In order to load a song to My songs, you can import it from a local file on your device or any cloud drive supported by your device (like Google Drive).

You can load either:

text file (.txt),
PDF document (.pdf) or
Google Docs document.

Note

When importing a PDF file, the raw text will be extracted. Keep in mind that the extracted text might look different compared to original PDF, esepcially if it has non-flat structures inside, like tables or fancy paragraph layout.

Editing with external tool¶

If you prefer, you can use any external text editor to create and modify a song in a text file format.

The text file should be saved with UTF-8 encoding.

It can have arbitrary extension, but the common practice is to use .txt extension.

Displaying style benefits¶

Thanks to indicating precisely the place where the chord is accentuated (right before the word), Songbook can interpret that information in different ways when displaying a chord. You can choose how you want to display the chords in settings.

Given the following text file

[C]Twinkle, twinkle, [F]little [C]star
[F]How I [C]wonder [G7]what you [C]are.

you can choose how to present the chords on a song preview:

Chords inline (among the words) (In Songbook chords are bold with a color accent)
```
C Twinkle, twinkle, F little C star
F How I C wonder G7 what you C are.
```

Chords above the lyrics (on a separate line)

C                F      C
Twinkle, twinkle little star.
F     C      G7       C
How I wonder what you are.

Chords aligned to right (at the end of line)

Twinkle, twinkle, little star         C F C
How I wonder what you are.         F C G7 C

Lyrics alone (chords hidden)

Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are.

Chords alone (lyrics hidden)
```
C F C
F C G7 C
```

Remember

When editing a song, don't put the chords above words, keep them in the same line (among the words). Don't choose for others. Let others pick their favourite displaying style.