Chord Help, transpose & capo
The Chord Help panel
Press D in Chart View to show or hide chord-fingering diagrams for the chords on screen. If you've enabled more than one instrument, I cycles between them. Diagrams update live as you transpose or move the capo, so the shapes on screen always match what the chart is currently asking for.
Instruments and tunings
Seven instrument variants are available, grouped into four families:
- Guitar - standard tuning (EADGBe).
- Bass - 4-, 5-, or 6-string, each with its own tuning (EADG, BEADG, BEADGC).
- Piano - keyboard voicings, including slash-bass chords.
- Ukulele - standard (GCEA) and baritone (DGBE).
Enabling instruments
Only the instruments your band actually plays need to be on. In Settings -> Chord help instruments, toggle each one on or off; at least one always stays enabled. The I key cycles through exactly the instruments you've turned on, in the same left-to-right order they're listed in Settings - so a bass player who only enables the 5-string bass never has to cycle past guitar and piano to get back to their own diagrams.
Transpose vs. capo - they're not the same thing
These solve different problems, and BandBinder keeps them independent on purpose:
- Transpose (Shift++ / Shift+-) changes the song's actual key - every chord is re-spelled, and the chart's written key updates with it. Use this when the band is genuinely playing the song in a different key.
- Capo (Ctrl++ / Ctrl+-) changes only the chord shape shown in Chord Help - the fret position you'd actually play. It never touches the written key, because a capo is a playing aid, not a transposition: the song is still in the same key, you're just fretting it differently.
They stack: transpose the chart to the key you're singing in, then add a capo on top if that's how you'd rather play the shapes. Save your transpose and capo back to the song once you're happy with them - see Keyboard shortcuts for how, and for every other Chart View key.