ChordPro authoring guide

The practical reference for writing or pasting a chart into BandBinder. For the full ChordPro language spec, see Tools and community; for how a directive drives an app feature, see the directive-to-feature map.

First chart in 60 seconds

1. Open New Chart.

2. Type a title and artist.

3. Paste or type the body. A minimal chart is just chords in [brackets] sitting inline with the lyric text they land on:

   {title: Rehearsal Runthrough}
   {artist: The Band}
   {key: G}
   {tempo: 96}
   
   {start_of_verse}
   [G]Started the take with the [C]tape still rolling
   [D]Counted us in on a [G]breath
   {end_of_verse}
   
   {start_of_chorus}
   [C]Everybody hits the [G]downbeat together
   [D]Nobody's checking a [G]chart
   {end_of_chorus}
   

4. Save. Key and tempo chips read straight from {key}/{tempo} in the body above - there's nothing else to fill in.

Directives BandBinder reads

This table is the complete list of directives BandBinder's editor recognizes - the same set the { autocomplete suggests as you type. Common short forms are recognized too ({t: ...} for title, {st: ...} for subtitle, {soc}/{eoc} for chorus, {sov}/{eov} for verse, {np}/{npp} for the page-break directives, and so on) - see the directive-to-feature map for how directives drive specific app behavior. A section can carry a label, e.g. {start_of_chorus: Chorus 2}, which becomes that section's heading. An unrecognized directive is kept as-is, never dropped.

Reference links (BandBinder x_ extension)

Three directives carry a song's reference links in the chart text. They are a BandBinder extension using x_, ChordPro's own namespace for custom directives - any other ChordPro reader ignores them:

{x_spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/1a2b3c}
{x_youtube: https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ}
{x_audio: https://example.com/take-it-easy.mp3}

• They move onto the song's fields: on save or import, each value lands on the song's Spotify / YouTube / audio link and the directive line is removed from the chart body. The field is the source of truth from then on - the chart body isn't where you edit a link afterwards.
• Each is checked before it is stored: a Spotify or YouTube link must be a real Spotify/YouTube URL, an audio link must be an http/https URL. A value that doesn't pass is dropped rather than stored, and BandBinder names the directive it dropped. This is stricter than Song Edit's link chips, which warn about an unrecognized link but let you save it anyway - a chart arriving as text has nobody to ask.
• They are written back on export, so a chart exported from BandBinder and re-imported keeps its links. This is what makes a batch export a complete backup of a song's references.
• Inside a {start_of_tab} block they are left exactly as typed, like everything else in a verbatim block.

Chord syntax

Chords sit inline in [brackets], directly before the lyric syllable they're played on:

[G]Line one lyric [D]text continues [Em]here

• Root plus an open-ended quality suffix: [C], [Cm7], [Csus4], [Cadd9] all work - BandBinder doesn't restrict which qualities you write.
• Slash-bass chords: [D/F#], [C/G].
• Sharps and flats ([F#], [Bb]) and their enharmonic spellings are both recognized.
• A chord with no lyric after it (an intro hit or turnaround) is fine on its own: [G] [D] [Em] [C].
• Non-chord annotations like N.C. or % are preserved exactly as written and pass through transposition untouched.
• For the transpose-vs-capo distinction, see Chord Help, transpose & capo.

Tab in your charts

Guitar (or bass, banjo, whatever) tab pastes straight into a chart as a tab environment - open it with {start_of_tab} and close it with {end_of_tab}, or use the shorthand {sot} / {eot}:

{start_of_tab: Intro riff}
e|-----0---2---3---|
B|-----1---3---0---|
G|-----0---0---0---|
D|--0h2------------|
A|-----3-----------|
E|-----------------|
{end_of_tab}

• Tab lines render in a fixed-width font, exactly as typed, alongside your lyrics.
• Everything between the two directives is verbatim: transposing the chart (Shift++ / Shift+-) moves the chords above the tab but leaves your fingerings alone.
• The staff is one block that never re-wraps, so the strings stay lined up. A riff wider than its column shrinks to fit, down to a floor; past that you drag it sideways, with a faded edge marking the rest.
• The lattice characters (-, |, =) are drawn faint so the fret numbers, string names and technique markers (h, p, b, ~) read first.

Name your tab blocks

A tab environment takes a label, like a verse or a chorus:

{start_of_tab: Solo - second half}
{sot: Solo - second half}

The label becomes the block's caption, so the riff keeps its name in Performance Mode too, where {comment} lines are hidden by default - name a riff with the label, not a {comment} above it. An unlabelled block is captioned TAB.

Pasting from another source

Paste text into the chart field (or the New Chart box) and BandBinder detects the format and converts it to ChordPro automatically:

See Import formats for the in-app picker walkthrough.