ChordPro
A simple text format for the notation of lyrics with chords
The official site for the ChordPro file format and its reference implementation
Here you can find all the information and tools you need to embrace this format to enhance your musical notations. ChordPro will help you to let your songs looks great so you just want to play them.
- Create Songbooks
- Turn your ChordPro formatted songs into beautiful looking songbooks.
- Any Musical Purpose
- Although initially intended for guitarists, ChordPro can be used for all kinds of musical purposes.
- Popular Standard
- ChordPro became a popular way to write lead sheets and many tools adopted its format.
- Simple Text Format
- ChordPro is a simple text file format. Any text editor can be used to create and maintain them.
ChordPro examples
Here you can see a couple of examples of what ChordPro can do for you with its powerful PDF creation:
A simple format but not simple
While simple by nature, the reference implementation of ChordPro has very powerful features.
- Markup
- It is possible to use markup in lyrics and other texts to change the way how these will be displayed.
- Custom Tunings and Notes
- Not just C F G on a 6-string EADGBE tuned guitar. C D E or Do Re Mi? Nashville or Roman? ChordPro supports alternative tunings and note naming systems.
- Integrated ABC
- Include fragments of musical scores with the integrated ABC support.
About ChordPro
In 1992 Martin Leclerc and Mario Dorion developed a simple text file format to write lead sheets, songs with lyrics and chords, and a tool to create neatly printed lead sheets out of these text files. The tool was called chord, and the text files were called chord files. It soon became a popular way to write lead sheets and many users and tools adopted this format for similar purposes. For still unknown reasons people started calling the files chordpro files.
ChordPro.ORG
In 2015 a small team of enthusiast ChordPro users took over the maintenance of the ChordPro standard from Martin and Mario and developed a new reference implementation with many new features and an easy to use graphical application.
All is Open Source and contributions are always welcome!
Support us
The ChordPro standard and reference implementation are free products. Free as in speech. However, web sites, storage and bandwidth cost real money. If you like ChordPro, please consider a small donation. We will appreciate it!
