The Ukulele Social Songsheet Generator uses a modified version of the ChordPro file format for input.
In simple terms, to generate a songsheet you type the song's lyrics into the Songsheet Generator panel on the left, mark the chords changes, give it a title, and click on the "Show PDF" button. The generated PDF file will appear in the right hand panel (this panel), and you can download it to your own computer by clicking on the "Download" button.
Restrictions:-
Note: We don't recommend printing the PDF directly from the web-based pdf panel as we have found that on some systems, the printed font sizes get set incorrectly due to a problem in the browser's pdf add-on.
To see the demo songsheet, click the "Demo" menu item.
To get started with a new songsheet, first make sure you have a blank Generator panel. If needbe, click the "New" button.
Start by entering the song title in the "Title" box. This is required and you can't do anything without a title.
The "SubTitle", "Footer Text", "Key", "Tempo" and "Strum Pattern" boxes are optional.
The "Font Size" box sets how big the words will appear on your PDF page. A value of 12 produces a readable page.
The "Chord Pos" box indicates where the chord diagrams will appear on your page (see below).
The "Hide Common Chords" checkbox indicates whether chord diagrams should be hidden for common chords (see below).
Now you can start entering your lyrics, together with chord tags and section tags.
There are two types of directive: block directives and comment directives.
Block directives may represent the chorus of a song, a refrain, an introduction, an instrumental, an outro, etc. The full list is:- "intro", "chorus", "refrain", "instrumental", "acapella", "bridge" and "outro".
A block of lyrics or chords is marked as a block by putting a directive opening tag at the start of the block and
a directive closing tag at the end of the block. A directive opening tag comprises the directive name, surrounded by curly braces, ("{" and "}")
and a directive closing tag comprises the same thing but with a slash ("/") immediately before the directive name. Hence an
intro block might be marked as:-
{intro}
[D] [A] [D] [A]
{/intro}
It is also possible to surround a directive block with a box to make it stand out from the rest of the songsheet.
This might be used to make a chorus stand out when it has to be referred to from various parts of the songsheet. To put
a box around a block, add ":box" into the directive immediately after the directive name, as in
the following example;-
{chorus:box}
...
{/chorus}
There are two comment directives that you can use, the "repeat" directive and the "comment" directive. These directives do not need closing tags.
The "repeat" directive allows you to have a line that says something like "Repeat chorus". A "repeat" directive consists
of the word "repeat" followed by a colon (":") followed by whatever words you wish. For instance, to print
"Repeat refrain:" at the start of the line, enter:-
{repeat:refrain}
The "comment" directive allows you to enter a comment at any point in the songsheet. A "comment" directive consists
of the word "comment" followed by a colon (":") followed by whatever words you wish. For instance, to print
"- hint: No strumming. Clap on 2nd and 4th beat" at the start of the line, enter:-
{comment:hint: No strumming. Clap on 2nd and 4th beat}
Chords are entered inline with the lyrics by putting the chord name in square brackets, e.g. "[G7]", at the point at which the chord should be started.
A typical line might look like:-
Note: It is normal in many songsheets to only mark chords when there is a
change of chord. We do not
recommend this as it can leave the player who is not fully familiar with the song not knowing when to
change chord. We recommend marking every bar, even when the chord has not changed, and if the chord is
only played for part of a bar, marking the individual beats with slashes ("/") so that the player
always knows where to change. This then looks like:-
Here we have a line of 4 bars: 2 bars of D major, 1 bar of G major, and one bar consisting 2 beats on C major and 2 beats on G major, (with the first word, "This", sung before the start of the first bar).
Currently recognised chord types (shown for the key of A but available through all possible notes) are:-
Chord diagrams are generated automatically by parsing all the chords in your song.
Chords diagrams can be shown on your pdf page in one of three positions:-
If you have a lot of chords in a song, it may sometimes be useful not to show chord diagrams for the most common chords that most players will already know. "Check" the "Hide Common Chords" checkbox to achieve this.
The chords that will be hidden are:-