Hi everyone,
I’m new to playing the guitar and new to Justin’s community.
I follow Justin’s course for a couple of modules now and I would like to start building my own song book. Is there any software you could recommend for building the song book - i.e. arrange the tabs nicely, add lyrics, chords,…and of course being able to print it nicely to take it to a party.
Are there any recommendations?
Thanks in advance and thanks for being part of this great community.
Cheers
Nick
Hi Nikolas and welcome to the Community.
There are quite a few applications out there to do this. I have been using Songbook Pro a number of years now. It has a handy feature to import tab/chord sheets from Ultimateguitar.com but everything can be edited, so you can correct mistake when you find them and you will. 
Also has the facility to create Sets and has an off line back so you can transfer your catalogue between PC and other devices.
Hope that helps.
Nick @drNine
I agree it’s Toby @TheMadman_tobyjenner I use SongbookPro as well to store my songs, definately worth a look at, not sure where you are but in the uk I think I paid 5 GBP, much less than a average bottle wine, I think Justin would say beer about one of his apps.
Michael
@TheMadman_tobyjenner Toby how well does the Songbook Manager work on your PC?
I have Songbook by LinkSOFT on my android tablet(it came out a few years before Songbook Pro different company) but the windows PC version is not included with the app. It’s an upgrade for $17.00 USD. I just looked at Songbook Pro and it says Songbook Manager for PC is included but doesn’t say what it costs it just say “in app purchases”. Which usually mean you pay forever not just a one time fee like Songbook.
I already know how to write Chord Pro format so can do any Writing or Editing in notepad on my PC but for those who don’t know how to write Chord Pro the manager would be handy to have.
Writing and Editing on a PC is so much easier than on a tablet or phone.
Rick I pretty much do all the set up on the PC and will use it for practice if I am sitting down learning a song. I’ll use the android version on the tablet if I play standing up, using one oy my extendable tablet stands. I am sure I just paid a one off fee for the licence but would need to dig back through my mails to confirm.
If it’s a one time fee for both the app and the manager than it’s a better deal than the app I have.
It was half the price of Songbook Windows PC, not sure that was the one you were using, there are a few with similar names. Did not like the functionality and interface, so after a couple of days bought Songbook Pro.
Cost around 7.5 euros March 22 and Songbook Windows PC was just under 16 euros.
The only issue I have had is the synchronisation across devices. It is supposed to be automatic at start up (if you set it up that way) but I started to get duplicated songs and sets, which was a right PITA. So if I have added or edited a song on the PC, I take a backup of that which go up in the Cloud and then do a restore on the Tablet to sync them that way. Should not have to do it but it only takes a few seconds. That would be my only gripe.
Hope that helps.
@TheMadman_tobyjenner @stitch
Toby/Rick
I don’t want to complicate the discussion further but I will as I have two licences for SongbookPro, one on my iPad and the other on my iPhone. I had to do this as they each have their own apple account, iPhone is a work phone. However I can sync between the two devices without any difficulty. I can also edit on my Windows laptop, so it is quite flexible using the built in Manager.
There is a unofficial Facebook page with some useful tips as well, it was mentioned in another thread on the community.
Michael
That would make sense, as I use the same Google acc across my PC and all Android devices.
So many great answers. Thank you so much! I will go for Songbook Pro and give it a try. If you like to share songs with friends is there a smooth way to do so?
@drNine Welcome to the forum Nick. Didn’t mean to hijack your thread but I think we narrowed it down to Songbook Pro.
There are 2 different app Songbook and Songbook Pro. Both do the same thing and look very much the same. It looks like Songbook Pro wins out for both price and you can use it on your Phone/Tablet and PC.
@TheMadman_tobyjenner @MAT1953
thanks guys for your input
@all What a great community. So many friendly answers in such a short time 
I don’t know if you can share directly, but you can import as PDF and also export as PDF, so email your friends the PDFs easily enough.
Most of the songbook apps use chordpro format and all can read PDF files so you can up load to the cloud and they can download the files to their app.
The chordpro format can be edited right in the app (change key, correct mistakes etc.)
If you have an iPad or iPhone, then the OnSong app will do all of that.
But only on ipad/phone. Songbook Pro works on ipad/phone, Android, amazon fire and windows 10/11 PC.
I’ve looked at some of these, but what I end up doing is just putting PDFs and text files onto Dropbox or Google Drive or whatever cloud storage you prefer, which can then be accessed from my phone, or a tablet, or a computer, or whatever.
For creating the lead sheets I usually just write them as plain text files. If I wanted an actual score or tab or something I’d probably create it in Lilypond and save it as a PDF. Lilypond is great for me, but some people prefer a GUI editor like MuseScore.
One of the things I like about this is that I’m not tied to a particular app. The end results are all plain text or PDF, so even years from now those kinds of files will be easily usable with all sorts of applications.
Am I the weirdo for printing out chord/lyric sheets and putting them in a plastic sleeve binder? For my keep them songs.
For stuff I’m learning, I have saved tabs on ultimate guitar, guitar pro, and saved PDFs/Word docs in Dropbox. But that stuff keeps me chained to a device and I like analog for this stuff.
