The Song Writer uses the same format as the s.mart Songbook. This means that your song is saved as a simple text that you can easily edit with the integrated text editor.

The text editor and the Song Writer are seamlessly integrated. The Song Writer sends the text to the editor and parses your text after editing, showing the updated song structure with its chords.

Note, that just the marked blocks like verse, chorus, interlude, … are visible in the Song Writer. With the menu ⁝ you can easily mark the blocks. Don’t be irritated by the directives like {x_sccrd_g…} generated by smartChord. They are needed for additional song information like the fingerings you want to use. Just insert a few blank lines and ignore them, but do not remove or change them.

My first song

{start_of_verse}
C ▄ ▄ ▄
{end_of_verse}

{start_of_chorus}
▄ ▄ ▄ ▄
{end_of_chorus}

Special characters

Rest ‘▄’

Use ▄ to mark a rest during which no chord is played. The Song Writer’s player recognizes the pauses and silences a sounding chord.

Bar ‘|’

You can add tension, rhythmic interest or emphasize certain lyrics by changing chords within a bar. Change the duration of the chords, for example, to create syncopation. Start a bar with more than one chord or rest with a ‘|’. End this bar also with a ‘|’. Without a marking, each chord or rest does have the same time portion of the bar. If a bar contains several chords, the time of the bar is divided equally among the chords. The time of a bar depends on the time signature and the BPM.

Example:

• Time signature 3/4 -> 3 beats per bar
• 60 BPM -> 60 beats per minute -> one beat per second
• => the duration of the bar with three beats is three seconds

Add a ‘.’ behind a chord for an additional time portion. Add ‘.’ and a number to define the time portion e.g. ‘.5’ means 5 time portions of the bar.

Example:

|  C .   D   |  E   F .5  |  ▄  G |   A

C is played twice as long as the D
F is played five times as long as the E
The rest is as long as the G
The A is played as long as the rest and the G together (the whole bar)

Please note that after changing the time signature, the numerical values for the duration of the chords may have to be adjusted. Let’s take four chords in a 4/4 time signature as an example: each chord would have a duration of a quarter. After changing to a 3/4 time signature, the duration would be adjusted accordingly.