The Choordinator Guide
A visual tour of every feature — what it does and where to find it. Looking for short answers instead? Try the FAQ.
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Pricing
Anyone can follow a session free; Pro is for the person leading.
Anyone can join a session by code — no account needed. With an account, your personal library, bulk imports, and practice mode are free. A Pro subscription unlocks leading live sessions and creating bands. New accounts get 30 days of Pro included.
Free
Your songbook
Free, with or without an account
- Join any session by code (no account needed)
- Unlimited personal library
- Bulk imports from PDF, DOCX, or paste
- Practice mode + tuner + metronome
- Color-coordinated highlights
- Foot-pedal support
- Per-user transpose
- Join bands as a member
New accounts get 30 days of Pro on us. Everything you build stays yours on Free.
Pro
$4.99/month
or $39.99/year · save $20
Leading a session? This is for you.
- Unlimited personal library
- Bulk imports from PDF, DOCX, or paste
- Practice mode + tuner + metronome
- Color-coordinated highlights
- Foot-pedal support
- Per-user transpose
- Join any session with a code
- Join bands as a member
- Plus everything Pro adds
- Lead live sessions — broadcast charts to multiple devices
- Create and lead bands with shared libraries
- Shared band notes and highlights
- Up to 25 live viewers per session
- Band analytics for the bands you lead
Live Sessions
Everyone sees the same chart at the same time.
Start a session with a memorable code, share it with the room, and every device sees the same chart synced to the leader. Pick a song and everyone follows. When you scroll, they scroll with you. No accounts required for viewers — perfect for jams with friends or pickup gigs with strangers.
- Memorable music-themed session codes
- Leader controls song + scroll; viewers follow automatically
- Take-lead handoff for switching MCs mid-set
- Works for guests with no account
- Tap Start session on the home page, or enter a code to join
- No WiFi at the venue? Share a phone's Personal Hotspot. Every tablet on it can follow along.
Leader view
Viewer perspective
Personal Library
A private library you control.
Build a private library of chord charts you can pull up at a moment's notice. Paste a chart and we'll suggest the title and artist, warn if you already have a similar song, and detect the key automatically. Tap the + button in your library to create a new chart.
- Create, edit, and tag charts
- Auto-detect title and artist on paste
- Duplicate-song warnings
- Automatic key detection on every chart
Bulk Import
Import your songbook.
Upload a PDF, DOCX, or TXT songbook and Choordinator splits it into individual charts. Chord alignment is preserved — the importer reads the source PDF's text positions directly, so chord-over-syllable spacing comes through clean.
- PDF, DOCX, and TXT supported
- Multi-song documents split into individual charts
- Chord alignment preserved automatically
- Go to Library → Import to get started
1. Upload
2. Detecting...
3. Review & import
Setlists
Build a set, run a gig.
Drag songs into the order you want to play them. Setlists show estimated total duration so you can plan your slot. Start a session straight from a setlist and the whole queue is loaded for you.
- Drag-and-drop reordering
- Estimated total duration
- Launch a session directly from a setlist
- Tap + New Setlist and search your library to add songs
Band Workspaces
A shared space for your group.
Bands get their own shared library, setlists, tags, and annotations. Owners and editors can curate the catalog; members can read and rehearse. Invite codes get anyone in instantly.
- Shared library + setlists
- Owner / Editor / Member roles
- Invite by code
- Any member can start a session
- Create a band from the Bands page, then share the invite code
Group Notes
Your cues, your band's arrangements.
Notes are a band feature — tied to how you play a song with that specific group. Editors can write team notes visible to everyone in the band (e.g. “Capo 3, skip second verse”), and every member can add their own private note for personal reminders. Notes for the same song in different bands stay separate, so your cues always match the arrangement. Scroll speed and start delay are saved alongside the chart.
- Band-shared notes visible to all members
- Your own note per song per band
- Band lead can write notes for specific members
- Saved scroll speed and start delay
Editing a note
Note in session
Transpose for the band
Every player reads it in their own key.
Every band member can read a chart in their own key, no retyping required. An editor picks one key for the whole band, and any member can set their own instead. Handy when your singer wants it a step down but the rest of the band is happy where it is.
- Set Everyone to pick the band's key for the song. It's the default every member reads until they choose their own.
- Give one member a different key. Their value replaces Everyone's for them; nothing adds up.
- Tap the note icon to leave that member a note. It shows up for them as a note from the band lead.
- A transposed song shows the key you'll read in and the shift right on the card, in the library or any setlist. Each member sees their own.
- Tap ⋮ on a card and choose Transpose to jump straight to those rows, right there in the setlist. No need to open the song and come back.
- Members set their own key with the same stepper editors get. Until you touch it, it follows the band's Everyone value.
- Set it once and it sticks: on the song page, in practice, and in every session with this band.
- In a live session, the settings sheet shows the band's default right under Transpose.
- Nudge the stepper to set your own key for the song. It saves to your band row, so it's still there next week.
Good to know
- Your own value replaces the band's Everyone value. The two never add up.
- The leader's “Shift everyone” during a live session is separate and temporary. It clears when the song changes.
- Editors can set Everyone's key or any member's. Every member can set their own.
Works the same on the phone.
Section & Inline Highlighting
Color-code parts so nobody misses a cue.
In a band chart, switch the editor into Highlight mode and tap any section header or inline hint to color it. Eight colors let you cue different instruments, mark dynamic changes, or call out the bridge — and everyone in the session sees it.
- Tap to color section headers
- Tap inline parenthetical hints to highlight cues
- Eight colors with day + night variants
- Shared across the whole band session
Viewer screen boundaries
See what the most-constrained viewer can see.
When you're leading, turn on viewer screen boundaries in Settings and Choordinator draws two faint lines on your chart marking what the most-constrained viewer can actually see — someone on a small screen, or holding their phone sideways. Keep the lyrics being played between the lines to ensure everyone can see it. It's off by default, and only you see it.
- Turn it on in Settings (leader-only, off by default)
- The lines track the smallest screen, including landscape phones
- Keep the current lyrics between the lines so no one's left behind
- Updates live as people join, leave, or rotate their phone
Lyric Formatting
Style lyrics without breaking alignment.
Use familiar markdown-style markers in your chart and Choordinator renders them styled while keeping chord-over-lyric alignment perfect. Great for emphasis, whisper-soft sections, or call-and-response cues. Type these markers directly into any chart in your library or a band workspace.
- *italic*, **bold**, __underline__, ~~strikethrough~~
- Alignment stays exact
- Works in personal and band charts
Chord Diagrams
Tap any chord to see how to play it.
Don't recognize that chord? Tap it. A guitar fingering pops up right next to the chord, with around 150 voicings built in. No leaving the chart, no breaking flow.
Reading Comfort
Make every chart easy to read on stage.
Adjust font size, switch into compact mode, or pinch to zoom for the perfect reading size. Day and night themes for any lighting condition.
- Adjustable font sizes + pinch-to-zoom
- Compact mode (chords only)
- Day and night themes
- Open the settings gear in the session toolbar to adjust
Hands-Free Control
Scroll without taking a hand off the instrument.
Pair a Bluetooth page-turner pedal and set it to arrow key mode (ArrowUp / ArrowDown). Choordinator captures arrow keys on all platforms including iPad — no fullscreen needed. A forward press starts auto-scroll or nudges the chart down; backward nudges up or stops scrolling. Both leaders and viewers can use pedals.
- Set your pedal to arrow key mode (ArrowUp / ArrowDown)
- Pair the pedal in your device Bluetooth settings first
- Works on phones, tablets, and desktops
- Viewers can use pedals to scroll independently
Tuner & Metronome
The basics, built right in.
A chromatic tuner that uses your device microphone, and a metronome with tap tempo and adjustable BPM. Both live on the Tools page, one tap from anywhere.
History & Play Counts
See what you've been playing.
Every session is logged, every played song counted. Browse your history to see what you played last week, or check play counts in your library to surface your most-used charts.
- Session logs with played-song lists
- Play counts per chart
- Visit Library → History to browse past sessions
Privacy
Your library is yours.
Your personal library is private to you. Songs only become visible to other people when you add them to a band workspace you belong to — that's the way Choordinator is meant to be used with a group. Choordinator is a tool for playing together, not for publishing or distributing chord charts.
- Personal library is private by default
- Band workspaces are the way to collaborate with a group
Trash & Recovery
A safety net for stray taps.
Deleted charts move to your Trash, where you can recover them at any time. Nothing is gone for good until you say so. Visit your Library and tap Trash to see deleted charts and restore them.
Send Feedback
Help us make Choordinator better.
Found a bug? Have a feature idea? Use the built-in feedback form to let us know. Pick a category — General, Bug Report, or Feature Request — describe what's on your mind, and hit send. Your feedback goes straight to the Choordinator team.
- Built-in feedback form — no email needed
- Categorize as General, Bug Report, or Feature Request
- Your feedback is private and visible only to the team
Get help
Email support@choordinator.com or send feedback. Questions, bug reports, and feature requests are all welcome.