Chords over Lyrics

The default editor format. Chord names sit on a line above the words. What Fretlist renders and what it ignores: chords, sections, performance notes, diagrams, and tabs.

The song editor has two tabs above the text box (labeled Lyrics & Chords): Chords over Lyrics and ChordPro. Chords over Lyrics is the default, and it is the style most tab sites use: you type the chord names on their own line, directly above the words. You type in the editor and the preview renders the finished sheet as you go.

This page covers everything that renders in Chords over Lyrics. For the inline [G] style, see ChordPro.

Chords above the words

Put the chord names on a line by themselves, directly above the lyric, and space them so each chord sits over the syllable where it changes:

You type

G               C
Strumming on my guitar tonight

Renders as

GStrumming on my Cguitar tonight

Fretlist lines the chords up by character position, so the spaces in front of each chord are what place it. A line is read as a chord line when most of what is on it is recognizable chord names, and the line directly below it becomes the lyric those chords sit over.

What counts as a chord

A chord is a root note (A to G), optionally sharp or flat, with the usual extras: G, Am, C7, Dsus4, F#m7, Bb, Cmaj7, and slash chords like G/B.

If a line is mostly ordinary words, Fretlist treats the whole line as a lyric and shows it unchanged, so a normal sentence that happens to start with a capital letter is not mistaken for chords. The flip side: when you want a row of chords, keep it to chords and spaces.

Section headers

Label a section by putting its name in square brackets on its own line:

You type

[Verse]
G               C
Strumming on my guitar tonight

Renders as

Verse
GStrumming on my Cguitar tonight

Two hash marks work too: ## Verse. Common labels are [Intro], [Verse], [Chorus], [Bridge], and [Solo].

A single # at the start of a line is a hidden comment. It does not appear in the sheet, so you can use it for private notes to yourself. One hash hides the line, two hashes make a visible heading.

Notes that aren't chords

For a performance cue that is not a chord (a "stop", "let ring", an "x2"), put it in parentheses in the chord row. It renders above the lyric like a chord, but in italic, and it never transposes:

You type

E5             (Stop)      Emaj7
You might know that gloomy weather

Renders as

E5You might know Stopthat gloomy Emaj7weather

If you actually want the parentheses to show, double them. ((Break)) displays (Break):

You type

G       ((Break))
Take it from the top

Renders as

GTake it (Break)from    the top

In ChordPro this same note is written [*Stop].

Chord diagrams

Add a [Chords] block at the very top of the song to show fingering diagrams. Each line is a chord name followed by its fret notation:

You type

[Chords]
C       x32010
G       320003
Am      x02210

Renders as

Chords
C
G
Am

Diagrams have their own page: see Getting the most out of Frets.

Tabs

Paste a tab block and Fretlist renders it as tab. Keep the string letter and bar at the start of each line:

You type

e|--------------0--|
B|----------0-1----|
G|------0-2--------|
D|--2-3------------|
A|-----------------|
E|-----------------|

Renders as

eBGDAE||||||---------------2-----------3----------0-----------2----------0-----------1----------0-----------------||||||

The preview, and switching formats

The preview renders the finished sheet live and scrolls in step with the editor. Switch to the ChordPro tab at any time to convert the song to the inline [G] style, then switch back to return to Chords over Lyrics.

One caution: if a song uses ChordPro directives that have no Chords-over-Lyrics equivalent, Fretlist warns you when you switch, because editing and saving in this view can drop them.