User Manual
Chords
The chords tab lets you transpose and capo chords as well as determine how those chords appear. It also lets you select an instrument for chord diagrams.
Supported File Formats
OnSong can transpose and format songs in text files as well as PDF files. Learn more about these supported file formats and how to get the most out of the chord transposition engine.
Key
The key chooser lets you set the key of the chord chart. This can be different from how the song was written in the song editor as transposition is performed from the original key to the one selected here. The original key of the song is visually highlighted. The key the chart is written in is always offered, so you can undo a transposition.
Below the transpose toggle is the listen button. Tap it to use Key Finder, which listens to you sing or play through your audio input or a connected MIDI instrument and detects the key to perform the song. A Listen For Key prompt first explains the feature; tap Listen to start. While OnSong works out the key, Calculating Key… appears. If your plan doesn’t include this feature, tap Upgrade in the prompt. The listen button doesn’t appear when the Transpose Control option is set to the slider.
If the song has no key, only the transpose toggle is available. Tap it and choose Detect Key in the No Key Set prompt to find the key from the chords. If the song doesn’t contain enough chords, No Key Detected appears instead. The key chooser and capo stay disabled until a key is detected.
The most common keys are presented in a "circle of fifths" order, placing keys with less sharps and flats toward the left. Keys switch between major and minor based on the how song is written. You can change this interface to be in alphabetic order, or to use the original slider interface instead using the Transpose Control option.
Users who prefer more options in keys or who want to access theoretical keys can turn on Theoretical Keys option.
Capo
The capo slider allows OnSong to adapt the chords based on capo position. This maintains the key of the song found in the transpose slider but alters the chords to work with the capo. You can capo from 0 to 11 and determine if the capo is applied by toggling the power button on the right.
By default, increasing the capo slider will modulate the chords of a song down. The reason for this is to allow the declared key of the song to be maintained. For instance, if the key of the song is C#, and a capo is applied on the first fret, then you should set the capo slider to 1. This will display the chords of the song down one half step in the key of C.
You can change how capo effects your chord chart in Settings » Display Settings » Song Formatting » Capo.
You can tap on the left and right sides of the slider to adjust the capo up and down one fret.
Transposing Instrument
If you are playing an instrument that does not play at concert pitch, you can adjust the chords that appear throughout the song to adjust for those instruments. Options include:
- Off used for concert pitch and most stringed or percussion instruments like piano.
- B-flat used for B-flat instruments such as trumpet, clarinet, bass clarinet, and soprano and tenor saxophones.
- E-flat used for E-flat tuned instruments such as soprano clarinet, or alto and baritone saxophones.
- F used for F tuned instruments such as French and English horns.
- G used for alto flute.
Position
The position chooser lets you determine if chords should be displayed above the lyrics, or inline with the lyrics. Options include:
- Above displays the chord above the lyrics on an extra line.
- Inline displays the chord within the lyrics on the same line.
Style
The style choosers lets you pick how the chords should appear on the screen. You can choose from the following options:
- Alpha displays chords as an alphabetic character (A-G) including enharmonic preference (sharp or flat). Default.
- Numeric displays chords as Nashville numbers (1-7) based on their position in the key.
- Roman displays chords as Roman numerals (I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii) based on their position in the key.
- Solfege displays chords as numbers using Latin (do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti) based on their position in the key. Tap and hold the Solfege button to choose Default, Fixed or Movable for the “do” of this song.
Split Chord
This determines what portion of the chord is displayed when it includes a split bass component. Options include:
- *Both displays both the chord, and the bass note separated by a slash.
- Bass Only displays only the bass note. If no split bass note is specified, the note of the corresponding chord is displayed.
- **Chord Only*** displays only the chord portion of the chord and omits the bass note including the slash.
Typography
This section lets you customize how the chord is rendered using different typographic conventions including. Each of the following items can be toggled on and off independently:
- Superscript turns superscripting of the chord variation on and off. This includes everything after the note definition but does not superscript the slash bass note. Default is off.
- Enharmonic Symbols replaces text-based representations for sharp and flat with actual musical symbols. Default is off.
- Replacement Symbols replaces certain chord variations with symbolic notation. For instance, minor is replaced with a minus, augmented is replaced with a plus, and major seventh chords are replaced with a triangle.
- Lowercase Minor Chords will omit the "m" syntax for minor chords and represent them instead with lowercase note values.
- Lowercase Split Bass will lower case the note found in the split bass portion of the chord after the slash.
Decoration
While OnSong uses square brackets to designate chords in a chord chart, they typically do not get outputted in the result chord sheet. The following options are mutually exclusive and allow none to be selected to remove all decorations:
- None is the default and uses no decoration. This is achieved when none of the options are selected.
- Square Brackets will wrap all chords with square brackets.
- Parentheses will wrap the chords in parentheses.
- Angle Brackets will wrap the chords in angle brackets or less than and greater than symbols.
- Curly Braces will wrap the chords in curly braces.
Methodology
Changes made in this menu do not modify the original content of the song as found in the song editor. Every setting except for key and capo are applied to formatting chords for the song when you choose the system scope.
When you select a song in the All Songs list, the changes are applied to the master library. If you select a song in a book or set that has Separate Set/Song Styles enabled, the changes are only applied to the song within that set. This allows you to transpose a song in a different key for that book or set without changing the master version.
You can change the default behavior and interface options for this screen by tapping the wrench icon in the upper left corner to change Style Preference Chords options.
