ChordSmith is
a Giftware program
that can transpose song sheets from one key to any other. It
also can convert song sheets between two popular formats. ChordSmith
runs on any computer, PC, Mac, or Unix/Linux that has Java 1.4 or
higher.
What
is a song sheet?
A
song sheet is a text file that has the chords and lyrics of a song.
Sometimes they are called "fake sheets" or "lead sheets". There
are three styles of song sheets that are most common on the Web:
"Two-line" style, ChordPro style, and "Rise Up" style.
Two Line Style Song
Sheets
The first style, which for want of a better name I call "two-line"
style, is
easiest
for humans to read. In two-line style, the chords are above the words
where the chord changes are to be made. It looks like this:
D C D7 Em A Once she came in-to my room, feathered hat, and all,
Here
is the result of transposing the above two-line example
from the
key of D to the key of F#:
F# E F#7 Abm C# Once she came in-to my room, feathered hat, and all,
ChordPro Style Song
Sheets
The
second song sheet style is called "ChordPro" and was developed to
be easy for a machine to read. Software exists to print out ChordPro
text into HTML or PostScript. ChordPro has the chords embedded in the
lyrics using square brackets as delimiters. Here is a ChordPro
equivalent to the above:
O[D]nce she came in-[C]to my r[D7]oom, fea[Em]thered hat, and a[A]ll,
And
here is the transposed version:
O[F#]nce she came in-[E]to my r[F#7]oom, fea[Abm]thered hat, and a[C#]ll,
ChordSmith can
convert files from ChordPro to two-line format and the reverse. The
files must be text-only files; no HTML, no Word files, etc. ChordSmith doesn't
know how to handle the formatting features of those files.
Rise Up Style Song
Sheets
The
third style, popularized by Rise
Up Singing: The Group Singing Songbook, is
designed to minimize space by putting the chords for an entire verse on
a single line following the verse like this:
A long, long time ago I can still remember how that music used to make me smile And I knew if I had my chance That I could make those people dance And maybe they'd be happy for a while
/ GD Em / Am7 C Em D / GD Em / Am7 C / Em Am D /
The
above example was borrowed from http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/charts.htm,
which describes the format in detail. ChordSmith
cannot convert this format (which I will refer to as
"rise-up" format) to or from ChordPro or two-line formats, but
it can transpose it from one key to another.
Where
can I find song sheets?
You can enter your own chords and lyrics into Chordsmith to create your own song sheets, but you
can also find song sheets for thousands of songs on the internet. One way is
to do a Google or Yahoo search for the name of the song you are
interested in, enclosed in quotes, followed by the search words "chords
lyrics", like this:
"You've got a friend" chords lyrics
Here are a
few
websites that provide free song sheets:
If you play a chordal instrument such as guitar, piano, etc., and you
play "by ear" based on chords from song
sheets, you can use ChordSmith
to transpose your chords into any key you prefer.
What if my song
sheets are not in pure text files?
OODocBatchConverter
is another program I wrote that can help you convert a bunch of files
from one format, say PDF, to another format, say TXT. The program uses
the free OpenOffice.org
program to do the conversions. It can do any conversion that
OpenOffice.org can perform because it uses OpenOffice.org to do the
actual conversion. Without OODocBatchConverter you would have to
convert the files one at a time. OpenOffice.org is an excellent office
suite that includes a word processer (Writer), a spreadsheet (Calc), a
presentation program (Impress), a drawing program (Draw), and a
database program (Base), all for no cost.
What is Giftware?
ChordSmith a
giftware program. I have enjoyed creating it
and I give it to you in hopes that you will enjoy using it. It is my
gift to you.
If you use it and like it, you might feel moved to
make a gift to me.
If so, you can do so with the PayPal
links below, with complete
security. Any amount
will make me happy. If you decide to make a gift, you will be helping
me pay for the maintenance of the program and this website.
If you decide not to donate money, maybe
you'd like to send
me a note about your
experiences with ChordSmith
(hopefully
good, but if not good, I need to know that too). I will
consider your
note a gift, for it is an investment of your time and interest.
Windows Vista and Windows 7 users, please note: If your OS won't let
you install the program, do the following:
Create a folder called "Chordsmith" on your desktop.
Start the Chordsmith Installer by double-clicking on the file
"installChordSmith.jar" that you downloaded from this web page.
Step through the installer until you get to where it asks you
"Select the installation path:".
Click the "Browse..." button and find the "Chordsmith" folder on
your desktop.
Select that folder and click the "Next" button.
Proceed until the installer completes the installation.
You can leave the "Chordsmith" folder on your desktop or move it
to any place you prefer.
If
you want a shortcut to ChordSmith on your desktop, find the
"ChordSmith_INTL.jar" file in the "Chordsmith" folder. Create a
shortcut by right-clicking on the file and selecting "Create shortcut".
Move the shortcut to your desktop.
NOTE:
If double-clicking does not launch the installer, then your machine
probably does not have Java installed. Click on the "Get Java" button
below to
download and install the Java Runtime Environment.
