Manual contents

Key, capo, and transposing

By default, when you first create a song it is assigned the key of C.

You can change the song’s key by tapping on the song’s current key, or “Set key” if no key is currently set. The key editor popover will be shown:

If no key was previously set, SongSheet Pro will attempt to guess the song’s key based on the chords in the song, and suggest it in the key selector.

You can clear the currently set key by tapping in the top-left corner of the popover.

Tap the various buttons to set the required key. When done, you have two options:

1. Set key only – you might use this when you have pasted in a song that is set in a key other than C and you wish to update the key to reflect the current version of the song.

2. Transpose to key – all chords within the song (as well as the chord palette) will be transposed to the new key.

Note that the ability to set or transpose the key is also available during perform mode, i.e. when not editing the song.

You can also set a capo for a song by tapping the capo field.

The capo field appears whenever the song has a capo set. If the song has no capo, it only appears while you are in edit mode, and only if the song has a key.

To also show No Capo while viewing a song, turn on Display ‘No Capo’ when no capo is set and the song is not being edited in settings.

Drag the slider to choose the capo position, from -1 to 11. Set it to 0 (shown as None) to remove the capo.

When changing the capo, you can choose what the capo change updates:

• Chords (the default) – the chords in the song are transposed to show the chord shapes to play with the capo, so that the song keeps sounding in the same key. For example, if a song is in the key of D major and you play with a capo on the 2nd fret, SongSheet Pro will transpose a D chord to C, and so on.
• Key – the chords stay as they are written, and the song’s key changes to match the capo. For example, if a song in the key of C has its capo changed to 2, its key will change to D. This option is only available when the song has a key.
• Capo only – only the capo number changes. The chords and the key are left alone.

When you have chosen the capo and the update you want, tap the confirm button to apply your changes.

For PDF, RTF, and Word document songs, the key and capo are set in the metadata editor. To open it, view the song, tap Edit, then tap Edit metadata….