Edit song

Lyrics

The lyrics edit page follows the same formatting as the desktop version of OpenSong :

• Chord lines start with a full stop/period .

• Lyrics/word lines start with a space   

• Comment lines start with a semicolon ;

• Verses are identified with a [V], [V1], [V2], etc. tag

• Choruses are identified with a [C], [C1], etc. tag

• Bridges are identified with a [B] tag

• Pre-choruses are identified with a [P] tag

• Tag sections are identified with a [T] tag

• Any custom tag can be used e.g. [Instrumental], [Outro], etc.

• Sections that can be filtered (to show or hide) look like [*Guitar:V].   These Tags are not fully understood by the desktop app and will appear as custom tags.

Additionally you can add line breaks | or section breaks || in your lyrics.  These only apply to songs that are projected to a second screen.

Any changes made are only temporary until you click on the SAVE button.

It is important to remember that lyrics are not 'wrapped' when displayed.  The lyrics will keep the lines intact to preserve chord formatting.

An example of a song is shown in the image, and the text for one of the verses shown below.

Lyrics extra/advanced settings

Once you start making changes to the song lyrics, you will have access to the undo/redo buttons at the bottom of the page.

You can also click on the menu button at the bottom of the lyrics edit page to pull up additional settings.

• Insert a new section [..] at the current cursor position in the text editor

• Insert a column break !-- at the current cursor position.  This will force up to 3 columns when using full auto scale in performance mode rather than have the app trying to manually figure them out.

• Copy chords between sections:  If you have chords on verse 1 and want to copy them over to another verse which is currently lyrics only, this will help simplify the task.

• Autofix minor formatting issues:  This will try to tidy up the lyrics into OpenSong format (e.g. starting lines that look like chords with the chord identifier (.) at the start of the line and a space at the start of a lyrics line).

• Switch between OpenSong/ChordPro editing.: Songs will always be saved in OpenSong format, but for those who prefer editing in ChordPro format, we've got you covered.   The verse shown in OpenSong format above looks like this in ChordPro format.  Notice that because of the chords entered in [ ], section headers are converted to comments in ChordPro format using the # character. 

#Piano only for verse 1.  All instruments join on the chorus

#[V1]

[G2]Love everlasting, [D/F#]love without measure,

[Em7]Full of compassion, [D]righteous and pure;

[C]Is my [G/B]Saviour's love, [Am7]is my [C/D]Father's [D]heart.

• Change the edit text size.  To help you strike a balance between readability and scrolling whilst editing, you can adjust the text size in the edit lyrics page here.  If you edit songs regularly, I'd highly recommend installing the desktop version of OpenSong (different developers) and synchronising your storage using DropBox or Google Drive.  It's much easier on a bigger screen with a keyboard and mouse!

• Transpose the chords currently in the song lyrics.  If you have already set the key of the song, this will also be adjusted.  If you have highlighted a section of text, only this part will be transposed.  If nothing has been selected, the entire song is transposed.

Main information

This tab contains the main details about the song (other than the lyrics).   It's up to you how much detail you include, but the more you put here, the easier it is to search for songs later. 

• Title:  By default OpenSong songs normally have matching filenames and song titles, however, you aren't restricted to follow this convention

• Artist:  The author or performing artist for the song.  

• Copyright:  The copyright owner of the song.  If you are projecting to a second screen, this information is normally required.

• Folder:  The folder that the song is saved in.  MAIN refers to the default OpenSong/Songs folder.  Subfolders that exist inside the Songs folder can also be chosen.  By changing this for an existing song, the song will be moved to the new folder.

• Filename:  The name of the stored file on your device.  This is often the same as the title.

• Song sticky notes:  If you want to include a note for yourself when performing the song, you can add it as a song sticky note.  These are described in more detail on the sticky notes page

Song features

If you plan on using pads, autoscroll or metronomes with your song, this is where you can set the required information.

• Key:  The key of the song.  This is required for automatic pads (that match the key of the song) and also improves the transpose feature in the app by letting you see the new transposed key instead of the default number of semitones.

• Original key:  The first recorded key set in the song file.

• Capo:  If you want to play this song with a capo, you specify the capo fret.  From the song display settings you can choose whether the app shows you the native (non capo) chords, the capo chords, or both.  When a capo fret is set for a song, the capo icon will appear at the top of the song display with the fret number.

• Pad:  These are backing tracks that can be played when performing a song.  You can set the pad for a song to the following options: ' Auto',  'Audio file link' or 'Off'.  More information on how to use and edit pads can be found on the Pads page

• Loop:  Once a pad ends playback, should it loop (play again)

• Tempo/Time signature:  The tempo in beats per minute (bpm) and time signature for the song.  These are required for use of the metronome with the song.  This can also be set on the Metronome page where you can preview the tempo.  If you have a connected BeatBuddy or Aeros loop studio, the tempo and time signature will be sent automatically over MIDI if you have a connected device, you have selected 'Automatically send BeatBuddy song' and a matching song has been found on your BeatBuddy database.

• Tap to set tempo:  You can tap this button to set the tempo.

• Song duration and autoscroll delay time:  These are used to determine the autoscroll settings for the song.  The delay makes the app wait for the desired time in seconds at the beginning of the song before continuing scrolling for the remaining song duration.  You can enter the song duration as seconds only, or minutes and seconds (the app will sort this on save).

There are other song features that can be manually edited here such as MIDI information, Music score and Link, but these are better edited on their specific action pages.

Tag

This is where you can store additional information to tag songs in searches and additional song information.

• Song tags:  Use to organise your songs into different categories.  Clicking on this text box will pull up the existing song tags found in your song database.  You can select tags from that list, or create new tags.  For example, I tag songs that are normally only sung at Christmas time with a 'Christmas' tag.  You can filter songs by tags in the song menu.   If you wish to assign or remove tags for multiple songs, you should use the manage tags page

• Also known as:  Another title by which the song is sometimes known

• CCLI:  If you use OpenSongApp in a church setting, you are normally required to record song usage and submit statistics to the CCLI website (Christian Copyright Licensing International).  Each song registered with them has a unique CCLI number.  If you switch on automatic CCLI logging in the app (more info on the CCLI page), the CCLI song number, title, author, copyright and type of usage is logged for you and can be exported from the app when required.

• User 1/2/3:  Whatever you like (e.g. the page in the paper songbook, scripture references, etc.) 

• Hymn number:  The hymn number of a song in your church hymn book.

• Presentation order:  If you want a song to sort its sections into the correct order (e.g. Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus).  This can save you from writing the chorus section twice in your lyrics.  You can specify the order by clicking of this button and selecting and organising the detected sections in your song.  You can choose whether OpenSongApp pays attention to this information in the Songs display page.