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ChordPro Converter

Paste any chord sheet with chords above the lyrics and get clean inline ChordPro out. Works with plain text from any tab site, Word docs, or handwritten sheets.

Want to understand the format? Read the ChordPro guide

Save to your Fretlist library

Transpose on the fly, play on stage, access offline on any device.

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Chords above the words, moved into them

A chord sheet from a Word document, a PDF or an email holds its chords in place with spaces, which only works while the font stays fixed-width and the column stays wide enough. ChordPro puts each chord inside the lyric instead, so the sheet reflows on a phone without the chords sliding off their syllables.

You paste
Verse 1:
G          D          Em
Hello darkness my old friend

Am   F   C   G
You get
{start_of_verse label="Verse 1"}
[G]Hello darkn[D]ess my old [Em]friend

[Am] [F] [C] [G]
{end_of_verse}

Written for the app you are pasting into

Two things get rewritten rather than copied, both because a ChordPro file has to survive in a reader that is not this one.

Bare chord lines get brackets

A line of chords with no lyric under it becomes [Am] [F] [C] [G]. Left as plain text, every other ChordPro reader would show it as a line of lyrics.

Fretlist stores those lines exactly as you typed them, since the uneven gaps are the rhythm. The brackets are for the journey out.

Headings become real sections

  • Chorus{start_of_chorus}a real ChordPro environment
  • Verse 2{start_of_verse label="Verse 2"}keeps its own number
  • Solo{c: Solo}a comment, the form other apps read as a heading

Questions

What counts as a chord line?

A line whose tokens all read as chord names, sitting above a line of words. The chords are then moved into the lyric at the column they were standing over, so the sheet no longer depends on a fixed-width font to line up.

Why did my bare chord line come out in brackets?

A chord line with no lyric under it, like "Am F C G", is written as [Am] [F] [C] [G]. In any other ChordPro reader a bare chord line renders as a line of lyrics, so brackets are what make it survive the trip. Fretlist keeps such lines verbatim internally, because the uneven gaps carry the rhythm, but this output is for other apps.

What happens to my section headings?

A heading like Chorus or Verse 2 becomes a real ChordPro environment, so a chorus recall works in the app you paste it into. Names outside the usual set are written as a comment instead, which is the form other readers show as a heading.

Does it keep tab?

Yes, as it is. ChordPro has no way to describe a tab stave, so bracketing it would destroy it. Those lines pass through untouched.

Do I need an account?

No. The conversion runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and you can copy the result or download a .cho file without signing up.

I copied this from Ultimate Guitar. Should I use this tool?

Use the Ultimate Guitar converter instead. It does everything this one does and also strips the page furniture, the credits, the comment count and the related tabs that come with a whole-page copy.

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