How can I find smartChord’s files
The file explorer in the navigation menu of the home-screen starts in the base folder of the app. It allows the directory to be copied.
Chords are not detected
Possible reasons:
- Chords are ignored in text lines
- If a song contains western chord names, it ignores chord names using Soflege
Login into your cloud on a Chromebook
For us, it seems that a Chromebook is still not ready for all Android apps. They are still working on it. Please check if you have the latest version installed: https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/177889
If it does not work, Use this workaround. Please install “Chrome for Android (BETA)” from the Play Store and use this for login.
How to get the number of items (e.g. songs)
Open the Table of contents. Switch to the ‘multi select’ mode. Click the ‘Select all’ menu item. A toast shows the number of selected items.
‘Song’ sync does ignore categories and favorites
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
Changing instrument and tuning
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 do store the tuning when the item is created. 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.
The fretboard trainer is different. You cannot change the tuning/instrument of a quiz. If you want to learn a new tuning/instrument, you have to create a new quiz.
How can I restore the pitch pipe or the tuner?
The tuner has got different modes. One of it is the pitch pipe. To switch between tuner and pitch pipe, use the ‘Mode’ button in the left corner.
How do I work with the transposer?
Assume, that you have a song in ‘C’ and you need it two semitones higher:
– Move the lower ruler ‘C’ direct under the ‘C’ of the upper ruler
– Move the lower ruler two semitones to the left: Result is ‘D’
– Look at your song and replace the note of every chord by the note of the lower ruler direct below.
– If there is a Fm in your song, replace it by Gm
Edit songs
There are three ways to edit the songs of your songbook:
- Edit your songs directly on your device. No need to be online. There is a video that shows you how: https://youtu.be/QGxaxAS6Dwk
- Edit the songs comfortably in the browser of your computer. There is another video that shows you how: https://youtu.be/19JVc76ExkY
- Synchronize your songs with your cloud. Edit them in your cloud and start the synchronization again
Why is the songbook empty?
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’.
You can also google for a tab file collection and import them. Please see also our video for the import: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGM0XnuwtC8
Why is HTTP instead of HTTPS used for the online tools?
HTTP isn’t state of the art. We’ll switch to HTTPS in the future. But for the case it is foreseen, it is secure enough as the data is transferred completely within you local network. You can even turn the internet off. Thanks again!
Transposed song is not changed
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.
Transpose does not work
When option ‘Show original chord names’ is activated, transposing is disabled
Share / synchronize songs
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.
Organize and group songs
You can use the ‘Set list’ to organize your songs and lyrics for performance or practice. Please see our video on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/WgMssWHg_9
The ‘Table of content’ has a full text search function. You can search für every information in the songs. The most comfortable way to maintain these information is by the menu ‘…’ -> ‘Edit’ -> ‘Edit song information’ in the Songbook.