Chord Porn & Sing-Along Gold

Chords & lyrics? Yeah, that's literally what makes your song a song—shocking, we know. You can flex 'em either as [bracketed chords] sittin' right there with the words, or as chords floatin' above the lyrics like they're too cool for the same line. Organize this stuff into sections so people don't think your song is just one long, directionless mess.

Bracketed Chords (The Lazy Way)

So you slap the chords right on the same line as the lyrics, but wrap 'em in square brackets like they're in timeout. Here's what that looks like:

Verse 1:
Amazing [D]Grace, how [G]sweet the [D]sound,
That saved a wretch like [A7]me.
I on[D]ce was lost, but [G]now am [D]found,
Was blind, but [A7]now I [D]see.

Bracketed chords are literally the way you're supposed to do this in the OnSong File Format & the ChordPro File Format. It's not a suggestion.

Chords Over Lyrics (The Chaotic Way)

Wanna be all fancy? Put the chords on their own line above the lyrics & use a bajillion spaces to line 'em up. Cool if you're into that sorta thing, & honestly most random tabs you find online do it this way. Here's what that hot mess looks like:

Verse 1:
        D           G        D
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
                         A7
That saved a wretch like me.
  D                  G      D
I once was lost, but now am found,
               A7    D
Was blind, but now I see.

Real talk: if you stick random non-chord gibberish on a chord line, OnSong's gonna ignore it like it's spam mail. Put your musical notes & instructions on the next line instead, ya goofball. BUT—here's the exception that breaks the rule (because rules are fun!)—if you wrap instructions in parenthesis, OnSong'll let it slide & still read the chords. You can also force a line to be read as chords by startin' it with a period or a backtick, like this:

.I Am Chords
`I Am Also

OnSong figures out what's a chord by checkin' these rules:

1. Gotta start with a capital A, B, C, D, E, F, G or H (fancy languages & whatnot)
2. Can have a flat or sharp after: #, b, ♯ or ♭
3. Can throw in a modifier like: add, sus, m, min, man, aug or dim
4. Can slap a number on it: 0, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, or 13
5. Those numbers can also get flat or sharp'd: #, b, ♯ or ♭
6. Can use a slash for a bass note situation like "A minor over C" (that bass note can be sharp or flat too)

Comments (Stuff Nobody Needs to See)

Want secret messages in your song that only you see in the editor? Start the line with "#" & boom—it vanishes from the viewer. Magic.

# This line is hidin' from everyone but you, pal.