SongBook 2.1 Guitar Songs and Chords

Installation And Upgrade

SongBook runs on all Windows PCs, including Windows Vista. When you run the setup, the SongBook application and the chord libraries are automatically installed.

If Palm HotSync is found on the PC, the SongBook conduit is automatically installed.

At first program start, you should select the directory where your songs will be stored. The default is <My Documents>\My Songs. You can change the song directory later in the Options.

Where To Find Songs For SongBook

SongBook understands the widespread chordpro song format where chords are written in square brackets within the lyrics. Unfortunately, we cannot provide songs on this site due to copyright restrictions. However, the Internet has huge archives of songs in chordpro format: simply type the song name and chordpro into your favorite search engine.

You can also easily create your own songs. Just write the lyrics as usual and insert the chord names in square brackets at the appropriate positions as in the following example:

[Em]Alas, my [G]love, you [D]do me [Bm]wrong,

You can find a detailed explanation of the chordpro format as supported by SongBook here.

Song List

The song list displays title and subtitle of all songs currently in your SongBook database. In the category selection box, the number of songs in that category is shown in parentheses. You can filter by category, and sort the list by title or sub title. Entering a letter will jump to the first title/subtitle starting with that letter.

You can mark songs that you've already played via the context menu (or Ctrl-Space). Marked songs are displayed in grey. Marking also applies to all playlists in which the songs appear. When you restart the SongBook application, all songs are unmarked again.

Note: you can show/hide the Song List via View - Song List.

Song View

The song view displays the current song with lyrics and chords. Click on a chord to look up the chord definitions. Chord, lyrics and tab font and color can be changed in Tools - Options - View. You can also quickly increase/decrease the font size with Ctrl +/- or Ctrl+Mouse Wheel. When you select View - Zoom - Auto-Zoom, SongBook will try to show the song as large as possible so it still fits on the screen without scrolling.

To reset the font size select View - Zoom - Normal.

Select View - All Song Chords to get an overview of all chords that appear in the current song. Initially, the most simple fingering of a chord is displayed (the one in the lowest fret). Click on a chord to cycle through all definitions.

You can switch off display of chords or lyrics with View - Hide Chords or View - Hide Lyrics, respectively.

Full Screen Mode

To make maximum use of screen real-estate, SongBook can display a song in full screen mode where the whole screen is used to display the song. Tip: you can even show/hide the song list to the left with Ctrl+L.

To switch off full screen mode, type ESC.

Auto-Scrolling

To start automatic scrolling, select on View - Auto-Scroll.

You can pre-define a specific tempo for a song with the {tempo: } directive.

The Windows screensaver is suppressed while the song is auto-scrolling.

Transposing

With menu Tools - Transpose or the transpose buttons on the toolbar, SongBook lets you transpose a song to a different key by automatically adjusting all chords. The transposition is only temporary. To permanently change the tune, select menu Tools - Transpose - Save Transposed.

Note that if the song contains special chord definitions, these will usually no longer be valid after transposing.

Song Edit

You can edit songs or add new songs. The Edit - Chordpro menu lets you easily enter the most common chordpro control statements. There you can also find keyboard shortcuts for faster input. When you've selected some text, the chordpro control statement (e.g. [] or {c: }) will be inserted around the selection.

To move a chord definition like [Am] to a different text position, double-click on it to select it, then cut/paste it at the new position.

Use Edit - Chordpro - Convert Tab To Chordpro to convert the current song or selected text from tab format (where chords are on separate lines above the lyrics) into the compact chordpro format used by SongBook.

Playlists 

Playlists are collections of songs for a special purpose, e.g. for a concert, or for practising. Playlists contain references to songs (by title/subtitle, independent of their category). You can add songs to multiple playlists, and one song can occur multiple times in one playlist. The playlist dropdown box will show the number of songs in that playlists in parentheses.

To add songs to a playlist, right-click on a song in the list and select Add to Playlist... Note: To add multiple songs at once, select them with Shift or Ctrl+Mouse-Click before you choose Add to Playlist...

To remove a song from a playlist right click on the song in the playlist and select Remove... This will not remove the song from the handheld.

To change the order of songs in a playlist, select Move Up/Move Down from the context menu.

Note: Playlists contain only references (title and subtitle) to the real song. If you delete the song, it is not automatically removed from the playlists.

Chords and Instruments

SongBook comes with comprehensive chord libraries for guitar, ukulele (C and D tuning) and mandolin. By default, a huge guitar chord library with more than 2,800 chords is installed. To see the chord view, click on a chord in a song, or select Tools - Chords...

Chords are sorted by base pitch (tone) and name. Each chord can have several variations. SongBook knows about identical pitches (e.g. C# = Db).

You can add your own chords (File - New Chord...) or change existing chord definitions by clicking on it.

Right-click on a chord to find identical chords (with different names) or to add this specific chord definition to the song.

To remove a chord from the database, click on it to edit and select Remove...

To change the currently used instrument, select it from the Instruments menu. This instrument is used for all chord lookups.

You can also define your own instruments. Just specify the name and the number of strings.

Chord Edit

You can change any chord in the chord database. Select the base fret in the dropdown to the right, then click on the finger boxes. If a string does not sound (is muted), select the x above the string.

Shareware License

SongBook is distributed as shareware, i.e. try before you buy. When you continue to use SongBook after an initial trial, you must purchase a license. Licensed users will receive free support and information about program updates.

Feedback

Do you have a song that is not rendered correctly? Is an important chord missing in the chord database? Please let us know.

Version History

• 2.1
  - Apply transpose only to selection (in Edit mode)
  - Remove songs/playlists to recycle bin
  - Drag-and-drop text inside song edit field
  - Drag-and-drop in playlists
  - Sort by date (via menu)
  - Minor improvements to Auto-Scroll popup
  - Bug fixes
• 2.0
  - Unicode support (songs in other character sets, e.g. Cyrillic or Chinese)
  - Auto-zoom (show song as large as possible w/o scrolling)
  - HTML export
  - Toolbar buttons and shortcuts for easy transposing songs (change tune of song)
  - When adding songs to playlists, mark playlists that already contain this song with check mark (but you can still add it a second time)
  - Starting SongBook with a directory or a file as parameter will open that directory or file, resp.
  - In Song edit mode, double click selects the [chord] for easier cut/paste
  - Bug fixes
• 1.3
  - Ability to show/hide chords/lyrics
  - Screensaver is suppressed while auto-scrolling is active
  - Option to suppress screensaver while SongBook is running
  - Bug fixes
• 1.2
  - Show song in multiple columns if it fits on screen
  - Keyboard shortcuts for inserting chordpro controls
  - Mark played songs with context menu (or Ctrl-Space)
  - Show song count per category/playlist
  - Chord overview of all chords used in song
  - Convert tab to chordpro via Edit menu (for whole song or selection only)
• 1.1
  - Option to print locally defined chords at bottom of song page
  - Context menu in chord view to find identical chords, or to insert chord definition into current song
  - Highlight search result in song view
  - Bug fixes
• 1.0
  - First public version for Windows, feature set identical to Palm and Pocket PC versions
  

Special thanks to Kenny Song and Laurence Esterhuizen for their work on the chord databases and numerous valuable suggestions.