Most people think of a "performance view" as a stage thing. It isn't, really. Most of the time you open a chord sheet, you are sitting at home with a guitar on your knee, trying to get a song under your fingers. Your hands are busy. Reaching over to scroll, or squinting at small text propped against a music stand, breaks the take every time.
That is what Play Mode is for. It is Fretlist's full-screen view, built so you can play along with a song without touching the screen. The chord sheet fills the display in a large, clean font, scrolls in time with the song, and pushes everything else out of the way. Learning a song on the couch, running it before a gig, it works the same either way. Tap the Play Mode button on any song to open it (or press P on a keyboard).
How can I play along with a song without touching the screen?
Tap the play button (at the bottom of the control stack in the lower-right corner) and Play Mode auto-scrolls the chord sheet for you, so you can keep both hands on the instrument. The scroll is smooth, and you can pause or resume with the space bar.
The useful part is the pacing. If a song has a saved duration, Play Mode uses "smart speed" and matches the scroll to the song's length, so a 3:10 song reaches the bottom of the sheet in about 3:10. You read the last line right as the song ends, instead of racing ahead or falling behind. Songs without a saved duration use a calm default speed that you can nudge live with the on-screen speed control (or the [ and ] keys on a keyboard). Whatever speed you settle on is remembered, so the next time you open that song it picks up where you left it.
How do I practice a song to a steady tempo?
Play Mode has a built-in metronome. Set the tempo by typing a number or by tapping it out by ear with the tap-tempo button, set the time signature, and it clicks along while you play.
The metronome runs independently of auto-scroll, so you can use it on its own when you are woodshedding a tricky section by hand, or alongside the scroll when you want to run the whole song at tempo. It is the same reason a metronome sits on every practicing musician's music stand, just without the extra device.
How do I learn the chords as I go?
If you turn on Frets, Play Mode shows the chord diagrams for the section you are currently on, and updates them as you scroll. Move into the chorus and the panel shows just the chorus chords, so you are not hunting through every shape in the song at once.
This is built for learning a song you do not have fully in your hands yet. For everything about how the diagrams work, including custom voicings and capo handling, see Introducing Frets.
Can I read my chord sheets with no internet?
Yes. Once a song is saved on your device, Play Mode loads it from local storage, so it works with no connection at all. There is no spinner and no delay.
The chord sheet does not need a signal, so wherever you sit down to play, it is just there. And on a gig, dead-zone venue WiFi stops being a problem. Fretlist even spots WiFi that has no real internet behind it (the kind a stage mixer hands out) and falls back to your saved copy instead of hanging on a server that never answers. There is more on how that works in the offline chord sheet app post.
Will the screen stay on while I play?
Play Mode holds a screen wake lock, so your device will not dim or fall asleep mid-song. You do not have to change any system settings or reach over to tap the screen awake halfway through a verse. It releases as soon as you leave Play Mode, so your normal auto-lock is untouched the rest of the time.
Can I make the text big enough to read from across the room?
You can size the text, the line spacing, and the controls to suit where you are reading from. Open Settings to set the text size and line spacing, and on a wide screen split a dense song into two or three columns so it fits without much scrolling.
You can also drag a handle to resize the control buttons across five sizes, which helps when the device is an arm's length away on a stand rather than in your lap. All of these are remembered per device, so the way you set it up at the kitchen table is the way it opens next time.
Does it work on my iPad, phone, and laptop?
Play Mode runs in any modern browser, on iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac, and Windows. There is no separate app to install per platform, though you can add Fretlist to your home screen as an app if you want the full-screen, offline-ready version.
Your library syncs across everything on one account, so a song you saved on your laptop is there on the iPad you practice with, and there on your phone when you are away from both.
Does it go to the gig too?
It does, and the same hands-free ideas carry straight onto the stage. Open a song from a setlist and Play Mode brings the whole set with it, you can step through songs with a Bluetooth foot pedal, and an end-of-song pill carries you from one song to the next. That is a topic of its own, so it has its own write-up: performing live with Play Mode.
How do I open Play Mode?
Open any song and tap Play Mode (or press P). To run a whole set, open a setlist and tap Play Setlist. On a keyboard, press ? to see every shortcut.
It is part of Fretlist, free during Early Access. If you have a song in your library, put your hands on your instrument and try playing along with it once, hands-free. That is the whole idea. For a step-by-step walk-through, see the Play Mode guide, and organizing your setlists if you are getting ready for a gig.