How to use
1 Overview
The smartChord Lyrics Pad is an inspiring tool for poets, rappers, lyricists, and songwriters. It helps you capture creative ideas on the fly and find the perfect word or rhyme through a powerful integrated Word-Finder — all within the smartChord app.
For a complete overview of all features, see the Lyrics Pad Overview.
The Lyrics Pad in action — a song in progress with highlighted keywords
2 Writing Your Lyrics
The Lyrics Pad is a distraction-free editor tailored to songwriters. Type your verses the way you would in any notepad — the Lyrics Pad keeps every draft safe and ready for the next session.
2.1 Keyword Highlighting
Whenever a line begins with one of the configured keywords, it is automatically highlighted so the song structure stays visible at a glance. Default keywords are Bridge, Chorus, Interlude, Intro, Outro, Pre-chorus, and Verse. Keywords are case-insensitive.
2.2 Auto Save
With Auto save enabled, your changes are stored automatically when you leave the screen — no need to worry about losing a spontaneous idea.
A finished lyric with Verse 1, Verse 2, and Verse 3 keywords
Structure keywords keep your song readable while writing
3 Finding the Perfect Word with the Word-Finder
The Word-Finder is at the heart of the Lyrics Pad. Select a word in your text, tap Word-finder, and the tool suggests matching words from a database of several million entries. Results are automatically sorted by rating and number of syllables.
3.1 How to Launch the Word-Finder
- Double-tap or long-press a word in your lyrics to select it
- Pick Word-finder from the floating context menu
- Choose a search type from the green dropdown on the bottom right
- Tap the magnifier icon to run the search
- Tap any result to insert it into your lyrics
For the complete list of search types with examples, see the Word-Finder guide.
Select a word and tap "Word-finder"
Pick from 13 different search types
3.2 Search Types
- Rhymes — Perfect rhymes (spade → aid)
- Near rhymes — Approximate rhymes (forest → chorus)
- Synonyms — Words with the same meaning (ocean → sea)
- Antonyms — Opposite meanings (late → early)
- Adjectives — Adjectives commonly used with a noun (beach → sandy)
- Nouns — Nouns commonly modified by an adjective (gradual → increase)
- Meaning like — Words with related meaning (duck → bird)
- Kind of — Broader categories / hypernyms (gondola → boat)
- Part of — Components / meronyms (trunk → tree)
- Homophones — Same-sounding words (course → coarse)
- Consonant match — Similar consonant patterns (sample → simple)
- Similar sounds — Phonetically similar words
- Words by pattern — Search by meaning and a pattern, e.g. g??de for words like guide or grade
Rhymes for "pride"
Synonyms for "guide"
Adjectives for "steel"
"Kind of" guide — broader categories
"Part of" play — components / meronyms
Words by pattern "g??de"
4 Organizing Your Lyrics
Use the folder menu to keep your lyrics tidy. Every song can be saved, renamed, added to favorites, shared, or turned into a note for future reference.
4.1 Folder Menu
- Table of contents — Jump between your saved lyrics
- New — Start a new blank lyric
- Save / Save as — Store your current work
- Rename — Give a song a new title
- Add to favorites — Mark a song for quick access
- Share — Send your lyrics to any app on your device
- Create note — Turn the current lyric into a note
The folder menu — manage your saved lyrics
5 More Tools in the Lyrics Pad
The overflow menu gives you quick access to everything you need while writing — from speech input to printing a finished song.
5.1 Overflow Menu
- Paste text from clipboard — Insert copied text with one tap
- Search & replace — Quickly revise a word across the whole song
- Show word-finder — Open the Word-Finder panel without selecting a word first
- Print — Send your lyrics to a printer or PDF
- Settings — Open the Lyrics Pad settings
- Help, Logging, Error report — Get support when you need it
5.2 Speech to Text
Tap + and choose Add speech to text to dictate lines directly into your lyrics — perfect for catching a melody idea or a rhyme on the go.
Overflow menu — every tool one tap away
Dictate new lines with "Add speech to text"
6 Settings
Tailor the Lyrics Pad to your workflow. The settings let you control how lyrics are saved, highlighted, and displayed.
6.1 Lyrics Pad Options
- Auto save — Save changes automatically when leaving the screen
- Keywords — Define the words that trigger structure highlighting (case-insensitive)
- Font size — Set a comfortable reading size
- Language word-finder — Choose English or Spanish for the Word-Finder database
- General settings, Appearance, Table of contents — Fine-tune look & behavior
Lyrics Pad settings — keywords, font size, and language
7 Part of the smartChord Toolbox
The Lyrics Pad is one tool in a huge toolbox where all the tools are tightly integrated. Write your lyrics here, find the perfect word with the Word-Finder, then jump straight over to the Songbook to add chords and play along — everything works together seamlessly.
The Word-Finder is also available inside the Songbook and the Notepad, so your creative flow never breaks.
“With every verse and chorus,
They weave a magic spell,
Lyrics are the soul of music,
And stories they love to tell.”
