Chord Sheets

A chord sheet can be described as a lyrics sheet with added chord symbols to illustrate the chord progression of a song. More advanced chord sheets can also feature chord charts to suggest specific voicings for each chord.

A chord chart typically shows a collection of chord diagrams with 5 bars of a guitar fretboard and 6 strings in standard tuning.

Individual notes of a particular chord are indicated by dots on the appropriate strings. The character ‘x’ above a string represents a muted string while a circle in the same position represents an open string.

If a particular chord is not playable in the first 5 bars of the fretboard a number to the left of the chord chart indicates the chord’s fret position.

In TuneSmith the chords and lyrics of a chord sheet are entered into the main text editor in the middle of the screen.

You can format the chord sheet in the same fashion as you can format the lyrics sheets in the ‘LyricsEditor’. If, for instance, you have already created a lyrics sheet with indents and tabs in the ‘LyricsEditor’ you can paste a fully formatted copy of your lyrics into the text editor of the ‘Chord Sheet’ to quickly add the chords at desired positions.

The text editor of the ‘Chord Sheet’ offers two different modes to control the way the chords are being displayed. In the edit mode the chords are enclosed in square brackets and are displayed in plain text format within the lyrics. In the preview mode the chords are properly formatted and appear without the brackets above the lyrics.

Switch between the two modes by clicking on the ‘Preview’ button with the Db major chord icon above the text editor.

Above the ‘Preview’ button is the ‘Details’ button, which can be used to show or hide the guitar chord charts of a particular song.

The chord charts will be automatically placed in the head section whenever a chord sheet is being printed. If a simpler chord sheet is preferred the chord charts can be hidden and excluded from printouts by switching off the ‘Details’ button.