smartChord V7.14

✅ Notepad:
▫ Option to improve audio recording quality
▫ Expandable and collapsible notes
▫ Support for copy & paste
▫ Audio player is now part of the toolbar
▫ Starts editing at the end of the note


✅ Create notes in the notepad with a link to your item from each ‘Folder’ menu. Use it for instance to document your ideas about certain items.
▫ Chord progression
▫ Fretboard Trainer
▫ Metronome
▫ Pattern
▫ Playground
▫ Practice
▫ Set list
▫ Songbook
▫ Tone generator


✅ Songbook:
▫ New directives to embed links to your item like chord progressions, notes, exercises, …
▫ Editor got menu items to create these links
▫ New color options to define the text and background colors for the {highlight:} directive
▫ Fix: Replace chord didn’t update the song text
▫ Fix: Switching player to ‘automatic’ shows the right player again


✅ Custom tunings with just two strings are allowed (could make sense with activated setting ‘Rootless chord voicings’)


✅ Favorite fingerings are always preferred during sorting


✅ Chord name fix: Range switched accidentally


✅ Other changes and fixes

▶ There is a new video that explains the fretboard trainer


❀ Special thanks to Dominik Janiec, Eric Snoddy, Glenn Homes, Josef Metzger, Martin Hägerås and Paul Aussem for their contribution to this version

Continue ReadingsmartChord V7.14

smartChord V7.13

⭐⭐⭐ Rootless chord voicings ⭐⭐⭐

▫ Consider the new option to allow rootless chord voicings if…

  • you play instruments with fewer strings like a Cigar Box Guitar or a Ukulele
  • you’re playing in a band and the bass player will play the root note
  • you like this ‘jazzy’ sound

Rootless chord voicings…

  • ❗❗ are active by default for instruments with three or four strings
  • are shown in the features ‘Chord’ and ‘Choose chord’ if the option is activated
  • can be allowed by option in ‘Chord name’
  • can be added to the fingering favorites
  • are valid in the ‘Fretboard trainer’ if the option is activated
  • are used in the ‘Songbook’ if the option is activated

⭐ Chord name
▫ Option to allow rootless chords
▫ Possibility to add rootless chord voicings to fingering favorites
▫ Replaced context menu with buttons in the toolbar
❗ New sort order of the chord name list

⭐ There is a new manual describing the handling of chords in smartChord


⭐ Drum machine:
▫ 311 drum patterns: You shared your drum patterns with us. We have collected them and made them available for download


✅ Songbook: New section in documentation ‘how to get the best fingerings


✅ Other changes and fixes


❀ Special thanks to Rolf Puchtinger, Ron Beaver and Sébastien Streit for their contribution to this version

Continue ReadingsmartChord V7.13

smartChord V7.12

⭐ Songbook:

  • Different ChordPro style delimiters to be able to see the chords more clearly: Brackets ‘[Am]’, spaces ‘ Am ‘ or underscores ‘_Am_’
  • Predefined color schemes for normal and dark background (‘Songbook appearance -> Reset’ for existing users)
  • Optimized scrolling if the intelligent line break isn’t active
  • There is new documentation for the s.mart Songbook. It is worth a glance: https://smartchord.de/s-mart-songbook


⭐ Drum machine:

  • 234 drum patterns: You shared your drum patterns with us. We have collected them and made them available for download
  • Covers a lot of genres: Blues, Disco, Funk, Jazz, Pop, Reggae, Rock, …
  • ‘Download’ button in the ‘Table of contents’ to download and import the drum pattern collection
  • Preview in the ‘Table of contents’ of the drum machine makes it much easier to select an adequate drum pattern


▶ Our video shows how to use the drum machine:


✅ Table of Contents: More natural sort order especially if the item name contains numbers


✅ Speed trainer: Possibility to reduce the speed


✅ Fix: Select ‘cloud’ as ‘data source’ for song import


✅ Fix: Color scheme preview


✅ Other changes and fixes


❀ Special thanks to Harry Fehlemann, Marilyn Leahy, Marius Bleeke, Serkan Gürses, Stepan Efremov, Tom Geldner and Troy Cox for their contribution to this version

Continue ReadingsmartChord V7.12

smartChord V7.11

⭐ Songbook: Options to get the whole song on one screen
▫ Multi column layout
◾ Option to present a song in 1, 2, 3 or 4 columns
◾ It is song specific and can differ from song to song
◾ Supports intelligent line break with zooming
◾ Needs Android 7 or newer


▫ Compact song view mode
◾ New ‘Mode’ presents the song in ChordPro style, where the chords are in the same line of the lyrics


▫ Buttons for ‘Info’, ‘Line break’, … are staying visible in ‘Just chords’ or ‘Lyrics’ mode
❗ Fix: DropBox synchronisation
❗ Fix: Update the song when changing the mode


✅ Simple ‘drum kit’ to jam around. Just for fun 🙂
▫ Use up to 16 percussion instruments in parallel
▫ Choose between more than 40 percussion instruments
▫ Create multiple drum kits and sync them between your devices


✅ Drum machine:
▫ Possibility to use the same instrument with different volume or velocity
▫ Button to get a drum kit for the drums in the drum machine


✅ Metronome: New lower limit of 4 BPM


✅ Other changes and fixes


❀ Special thanks to Eugene Mih, Henk Oostrom, Jose Climent, Lee Lawrence and Mike Mountain for their contribution to this version

Continue ReadingsmartChord V7.11

smartChord V7.10.1

✅ Optimized gallery and grid sizes for chords, scales and arpeggios


✅ Optimized printout for chords, scales and arpeggios


❗ Scale freeze: Workaround for Android bug on some devices


❀ Special thanks to Fernando G. Rojjas, Neil Stretton, Santi Chacon and Wayne Minor for their contribution to this version

Continue ReadingsmartChord V7.10.1

smartChord V7.10

⭐ Changes in appearance of chords, scales, arpeggios and the circle of fifths
▫ New option to apply the color scheme either to intervals or notes. With the new option, you can get always the same color for the same note
▫ New option to show semitones on the fretboard smaller. This helps your orientation on the fretboard a lot
▫ Consistent coloring according the chord and scale formula


⭐ Three new arpeggio pattern modes:
▫ 2 notes per string pattern
▫ 3 notes per string pattern
▫ 4 notes per string pattern


❗ Now there is just one general setting for what kind of information is shown on the fretboard. It’s the same for chords, scales and arpeggios


❗ New setting groups ‘Name settings’ and ‘Appearance’. Some settings have been moved to the new groups


✅ Scale and Arpeggio with improved usability and optimized pattern overview


✅ Synchronize categories


✅ Piano: Option to show color scheme together with the note name


❗ Scale: Fixed patterns with fret range bigger than 12


❗ Scale: Fixed update screen after scale change


❗ Arpeggio: Fix for more complex chords like 13sus4


✅ Fix: Keep categories when synchronizing songs or set lists


✅ Many other changes and fixes


❀ Special thanks to Christoph Lanz, Henk Oostrom, Leo Müller, Liam Gotch and Santi Chacon for their contribution to this version

Continue ReadingsmartChord V7.10

smartChord V7.9

⭐⭐⭐ Categories to classify and filter your items like songs or drum patterns
▫ Create and maintain your own categories
▫ Assign the categories to your items
▫ Filter your items by one or more categories
▫ Each item type may have different categories
▫ A category can be used in multiple item types
▫ Category ‘Genre’ is predefined but changeable
▶ Our video shows how to use categories: https://youtu.be/XBHYoUeMKA4


⭐ New set list export:
▫ Option to export as text or HTML
▫ Option to include the whole songs or just the lyrics
▫ Option to include ‘table of content’
▫ Option to include notes
▫ Export as text can be used e.g. to share it with your audience or to copy it into the clipboard
▫ Export as HTML can be used to open it in a browser to print it or create a PDF file


✅ New set list import


✅ Notepad
▫ Accepts shared texts and adds it as a note
▫ Copy a note to the clipboard


✅ Fix Songbook: Crashed on some old devices


✅ Fix Share: Allows to overwrite existing items


✅ A lot of other minor changes and fixes


❀ Special thanks to Barth Harrington, Chris Elstrodt, Emory Keller, John de Jong and Martin Porubsky for their contribution to this version.

Continue ReadingsmartChord V7.9

smartChord V7.8

✅ Individual ‘Auto save’ option for the different items like songs or notes


✅ Drum machine: Improved handling


✅ Set list: Improved search handling


✅ New chord types


✅ Fix: Edit song online


✅ Fix: Renaming of items


✅ Other changes and fixes


❀ Special thanks to Claudio Dossetti, Emory Keller, Henk Oostrom, Manfred Thyssen, Marc van Westerlaak, Marius Bleeke, Martin P. Daniels and Steve Marshall for their contribution to this version.

Continue ReadingsmartChord V7.8

smartChord V7.7

⭐ Songbook now with an integrated Drum Machine
▫ Integrated drum machine to play the drum patterns for the musical accompaniment
▫ Minimized drum pattern view
▫ Individual drum pattern and BPM for each song
▫ New button to switch between the four possible players:
◾ Audio player
◾ Drum machine player
◾ Metronome
◾ YouTube player
▫ You can use the players also if they are hidden
▫ Option to select the player automatically
▫ Extended menu to add, change or remove a drum pattern
❗ The Metronome is now one of the players and can be controlled as the other ones


⭐ Drum machine
▫ Run the Drum Machine in the background to have it in other smartChord features or apps


✅ A lot of other changes and fixes


❀ Special thanks to Dean Eisen, Rick Johnson, Tim Schäfer and Winfried Schneider for their contribution to this version.

Continue ReadingsmartChord V7.7

smartChord V7.6

⭐⭐⭐ Drum machine ⭐⭐⭐
▫ Use up to 16 percussion instruments in parallel to create your drum patterns
▫ Use them for the musical accompaniment for your songs
▫ Use the Drum machine as rhythm trainer
▫ Choose between more than 40 percussion instruments
▫ Share your drum patterns with your friends, other musicians or students
▫ Sync your drum patterns between your devices
▫ Use the speed trainer to increase your speed
▫ Use the timer to control your practice time


✅ Piano:
▫ Optimized multi touch handling
▫ Option to move the visible range by octaves or single keys
▫ Option to show just active note names
▫ Option to highlight ‘C4’
▫ One additional key in each key range to play the complete octave even on the smallest range


✅ Notepad editor:
▫ Menu item added to insert a link to a saved drum pattern
▫ Button to pause the spoken note


✅ Fixed: Some links where not clickable anymore e.g. in the Notepad


✅ Lot of other changes and fixes


❀ Special thanks to Andre Messerschmidt, Bernhard Kumpf, Leonardo Frassetto, Sandeep Kowdley, Steven Vargas, Tobias Schulte and Victor Osaka for their contribution to this version.

Continue ReadingsmartChord V7.6

smartChord V7.5

⭐ Pretty nice piano to jam around. Just for fun 🙂
▫ Switch between more than 120 instrument sounds
▫ Adjust number of visible keys
▫ Slider view to move quickly between the octaves


✅ Synchronization: Option to allow deletion of song and set list files in the cloud, if the songs or set lists are deleted in smartChord


✅ New color scheme


✅ Fix tuner 5-string Banjo: Note name of the 5th peg was wrong


✅ Other changes and fixes


❀ Special thanks to Ewa Wisniewski, Henk Oostrom, Ismael Venegas Castelló and Mick Burke for their contribution to this version.

Continue ReadingsmartChord V7.5

smartChord V7.4

⭐ Songbook improvements:
▫ Allows song info section also in full screen mode
▫ ‘Back to start’ starts with a delay if defined
▫ Smoother zooming
▫ Extra lines removed after TABs
▫ Direct link to the current ‘Set list’ via navigation menu
▫ Support for large online song imports via ‘s.mart Online Songbook Importer’ (http://www.smartchord.de/song/import)


⭐ Picking patterns
▫ Find picking patterns easier: filter the huge list (429) by entering a pattern finger sequence
▫ Favor picking patterns also in the picking pattern dialog


✅ Set list: Direct link to the current song of the ‘Songbook’ via navigation menu


✅ Scales: Option to choose scales with or without tonic


✅ Tuner: Tune your instrument with the capo set


✅ Tuning is shown everywhere with capo position if capo is set


✅ Possibility to translate tips and hints


✅ Chord progression, Fretboard quiz, Practice: Screen keeps on bright (no dimming anymore)


✅ New picking patterns:
▫ PP 4/4 405 v2
▫ PP 4/4 405 v2 r
▫ PP 4/4 405 v2 r ab
▫ PP 4/4 424 v5
▫ PP 4/4 467 v2
▫ PP 4/4 492
▫ PP 4/4 493
▫ PP 4/4 494
▫ PP 4/4 495
▫ PP 4/4 496
▫ PP 4/4 497
▫ PP 4/4 498
▫ PP 6/8 636
▫ PP 6/8 637


✅ Fixes Songbook:
▫ Conversion of German musical nomenclature for lines in ChordPro inline chord notation
▫ Remove whitespaces from song name on online import
▫ Show in ‘Playground’


✅ Other changes and fixes


⭐ Preparation for Android 11 privacy improvements


❀ Special thanks to Henk Oostrom, Ian Hiscoe, Karlheinz Mackel, Martin Porubsky and Richard G. Riley for their contribution to this version.

Continue ReadingsmartChord V7.4