FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
You can edit your songs on your device. But there are much more comfortable ways. The two easiest ways are:
1. Use the s.mart Songbook Online Editor. There is a online edit mode, which allows you to edit your song comfortable in the browser of your computer.
https://www.smartchord.de/song/edit
For more information see our video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19JVc76ExkY
2. Synchronize your songs with your cloud e.g. GoogleDrive. During synchronization, the songs are stored as text files with the extension '.sccrd' in your cloud. You can access these song files via GoogleDrive from your PC and edit them with the text editor of your choice. With the next synchronization, the changes are imported into the songbook.
You can use the s.mart Songbook Online Viewer. This is the tool to sing with your audience and show them the lyrics. For more information see: http://www.smartchord.de/song
The 'Song' sync does ignore categories, as it is foreseen to sync songs with band mates and every band mate can have other categories. If we would add all categories of all other users, you would have probably too many of them. The other problem is the content of the categories. How could you get the items of new categories? There is just the selected item in the song. And what should happen if your band mate does have the same category, but more or other entries in his categories? Because of these unsolved questions, we decided to ignore categories in the 'Song' sync.
Imagine an "I can play this song" category. If we would sync the categories, your band mate would get it tagged "I can play this song", even if he can't play the song.
The same applies to favorites. Would you expect that your songs are tagged as favorite, just because your band mate loves this song? Favorites are in our opinion also personal settings and not meant to be shared.
The 'smartChord' sync is foreseen to sync the own devices and it also syncs the categories and favorites: https://youtu.be/OSqfxE42kUs
When you change the instrument or the tuning in the settings, it affects all the features like Chords, Scales, Arpeggio, Tuner or Circle Of Fifths. But it does not affect all features. Some features like the Songbook, Chord progression or the Fretboard Trainer store the instrument and tuning when the item is created. So every song or chord progression refers to the instrument that was selected during their creation. The instrument name and tuning are saved with the item and they stick to the instrument and tuning. This means that you have the same tuning with the same chords and fingerings in a song, every time you open it. But you can change the tuning/instrument for a song or chord progression in the menu. Then the fingerings are changed too and the new tuning is stored in the item.
Songbook:
This means that the instrument and tuning is specific to a song in the Songbook. If you want to change the instrument and hence the tuning for a song, you have to do it in the Songbook with the menu 'Edit -> Change instrument' or 'Edit -> Change tuning'.
Fretboard Trainer:
If you create a new quiz in the Fretboard Trainer, you can select one of your favorite instruments, the tuning and the fret range and a lot more. But once a quiz is created, it isn't changeable. You can just play the quiz. This is because the results of a game shall be comparable. But you can create a new quiz using the button 'New' or the 'Folder menu -> New'. A 'Create quiz' screen comes up, where you can configure the new quiz, including the input and output modules, the instrument or a tuning. There is a new video that explains the fretboard trainer: https://youtu.be/qhAHvyRHiF0
When option 'Show original chord names' is activated, transposing is disabled
When transposing, the original song (-text) is not changed, only the chords are transposed and the transposed chords are displayed. However, a ‘transpose’ directive (e.g. {x_sccrd_tr:2}) is added to the song text. So if you look at song in the editor or the smartChord Online Editor, you will see the song in its original key but with the ‘transpose’ directive. If you open the song with smartChord, it will appear transposed.
But there is a possibility to leave the song in transposed version and save it as it is visible. For a transposed song there is a menu item ‘Transpose -> Keep transposed’. It replaces the original text by the transposed text.
Fortunately it's possible, but unfortunately not intuitive. You have to create a custom chord for the different fingering and use this custom chord in the song where you want to have the different fingering. Please see:
https://smartchord.de/docs/songbook/chords-and-fingerings/#fingerings
1. Create a custom chord for the different fingerings.
2. Add the name of the custom chord in the song
3. Replace the fingering by the one you'd like
Either website does not provide songs or lyrics as plain text or lyrics as plain text or the song text isn't distinguishable from the other text on that page. The songbook supports plain text and the ChordPro format (https://smartchord.de/docs/songbook/song-text-format) but no videos or proprietary formats.
Is there at least a song text, ou can find a solution to get the song anyway in our documentation:
https://smartchord.de/docs/songbook/get-new-songs/#song_not_detected
The songbook is empty because of license issues and the question: which songs should the songbook contain! Everybody would expect different songs.
The solution is the internet. There are excellent resources. smartChord finds your songs out there. Just use 'Folder' menu -> 'New' -> 'Internet search'. Save a song if you like it. Please see our video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pjx7of4TpU
There is also an import functionality in the songbook. By the 'Folder menu' -> 'New' -> 'Import' you'll get to the 'Song import' screen. There you can import songs in form of text files or online via the browser on your PC. However, not PDF or Word files, just pure text files like .crd, .tab, .... Please see our video on how to import songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7L-p4UzZWo
You can also google for a song file collection and import them at once.
It's possible to synchronize your songs with your cloud (Google or DropBox). It allows to synchronize the songs between multiple Android devices or edit the songs text files conveniently from your desktop or notebook.
There are at least four ways to exchange songs between devices:
1. You can synchronize the content of smartChord between your devices. There is a menu item 'Synchronize' on the home screen. This is the most comfortable way.
2. You can synchronize your songs with your cloud (Google or DropBox). It allows to synchronize the songs between multiple Android devices. You can also take advantage of the possibility to edit the songs (these are just plain text files) conveniently on your desktop or notebook.
3. You can export your songs to single files. You can optionally edit these files and import them again on the same or another device.
4. You can share single songs or even multiple songs at once. This is possible in the songbook 'Table of content'. There is a 'Share' button.
With smartChord, you can organize your songs like books or within set lists. See our documentation: https://smartchord.de/docs/songbook/organize-songs/
There is an import functionality in the ‘Table of Contents’ section of the Songbook. There you can import songs in the form of text files (also tabs or ChordPro) or import them via your browser.
However, you cannot import PDF or Word files, only plain text files such as .crd, .tab, etc. I would import PDFs and Word files online via your browser on your PC.
Please watch our video on importing: https://youtu.be/V7L-p4UzZWo
Here is the documentation: https://smartchord.de/docs/songbook/import-songs/
This is the page for online import: http://www.smartchord.de/song/import/
If your songs are not in separate files or if they are in formats like PDFs or Word documents, rather than plain text files, you can import your songs via the browser of your computer.
Please see or documentation: https://smartchord.de/docs/songbook/import-songs/
The Songbook can handle plain text files. If you want to use PDF files, please use the "Set list" features. There you can add your songs, PDFs files or images of you sheet music with the '+' button.
Although we have support for PDF files and images in the Set List. But the focus and strength of smartChord is on ChordPro or normal text or TAB files.
smartChord allows individualized tone names and symbols. You can define your personal preferences in the general settings. These settings affect all of the smartChord features.
The chord diagrams shows the notes according the settings. But you can change the setting "Diagram info" to 'Theory' so the notes are displayed according the musical theory.
The songbook shows the chord names according your 'Name settings' in ‘Tone names’ and ‘Symbol’ settings. The intention is go see always the same chord names independent to the source of your song texts. So you'll always get a C#, even if the original chord of the song is written as Db. But there is a songbook option to force the songbook to show the original chords. But keep in mind, that with this option activated, the transposing is deactivated!
We chose SO instead of the more common SOL because there is limited space to display note names on small displays. But SO is also a valid naming/abbreviation.