Manual Chord diagrams

Adding chord diagrams

to the chord charts is convenient in many ways.

You can …

• … create song sheets for beginners
• … explicitly notate a chord voicing
• … create a standalone chord dictionary

Before you start

You should be familiar with the basics of using this tool to create simple chord sheets.

It's a good idea to add the chord diagrams as a final step.
After finishing a regular sheet.

There are two multi-page PDFs showing the core concepts.

1. What types of applications are intended.

2. How to add the chord diagrams.

Chord diagram dictionaries

You can select a chord diagram dictionary in the settings.
So you don't have to provide the chord diagrams yourself.

However, if the chord is not available in the dictionary, you can add a chord diagram definition yourself.

Examples

Please have a look at the examples.

These chars have a special meaning.

. period

after a chord to show the chord diagram.

. period

before a line to show chord diagrams for this line.

// def

start a line with chord definitions.

// def

diagrams are visible and valid for the whole chart

/// def

diagrams are valid for the whole chart but not visible

//// def

diagrams are visible and valid for the page

///// def

diagrams are valid for the page but not visible

diagram definition fret

x fret

muted string

0 fret

open string

1-9 fret

fret number

a-f fret

fret number, hexadecimal (a = 10, b = 11, ... ,f = 15)

diagram definition fingering (optional)

0 fingering

open string

1-4 fingering

finger

t fingering

thumb

A valid guitar chord diagram definition has to match this pattern:
[0-9a-fx]{6}([0-4t]{6})?

Although it looks overwhelmingly technically complicated, it is very simple once you get the hang of it.

This is an example of a C7 chord. (without and with the fingering)

// C7 x32310
// C7 x32310032410

So it is 6 chars for the fret positions, and optionally 6 more chars for the fingering.

Have a look at this example with some fancy chords.