Recommendations for Software to Create a Song Book

[sairfingers]

I’ve been experimenting with Adobe Scan and I’ve discovered it can scan in ‘book’ mode meaning it will scan both pages of an open book in one scan and then create a pdf of each page separately but within the one file. This is especially ideal for my Justin songbooks which have ring binders so lay flat and have the song on the left page and the hints and tips on the right hand page (or a longer song that covers two pages). This pdf can then be imported into SongbookPro. I can’t edit the PDF files. It appears I would need the Adobe Acrobat paid for version to do that

What I should be able to do now is scan and import the songs I want from these books (and of course other books too) into SongbookPro meaning I can have all the songs I want on my iPad.

Brilliant. I shouldn’t have been so quick to give up yesterday! Now all I need to do is practise taking decent scans so the pages don’t look all squint.

[Socio]

@sairfingers

Now all I need to do is practise taking decent scans so the pages don’t look all squint.

And not spend all your time scanning the song books rather than learning to play the songs in them

[TheMadman_tobyjenner]

Gordon

Just wanted to thank you for raising this topic, as its got me thinking about how I use Songbook Pro and how I can make greater use of its “features” especially with PDFs.

So I have just finished importing the 20 track PDFs for David Hamburger’s Fingerstyle Blues Handbook and will do likewise from some of my other Truefire courses, Blues Rock Soloing, and Justin’s Solo Blues Course which also includes PDFs. Most of these also come with GuitarPro files but I find it easier to follow a PDF than using GP (old eyes!) to learn a song but having to scroll manually in Adobe is a real pita. Collating the lesson material in Songbook Pro makes it much easier and I just create a Set for each course.

And all portable should I decide to play in the courtyard for a change.

From little acorns …

[TonyHS]

I have been watching this thread with some interest. At the moment I use Guitar Pro for learning and practice and printed song sheets for ‘performing’. and trying to work out if Songbook Pro is worth it for me.
I can see it works for rhythm playing where you just play the chords, but what about the individual notes for solo or fingerstyle playing? Can it cope with that?

[TheMadman_tobyjenner]

Tony

See my screen shots for both fingerstyle and lead a few post back. You could export your GP tab as a PDF and import that into Songbook as already discussed. Or copy and paste TAB entries from UG and the like, as I showed above, and build the song layer by later.
Or a combo of the two like White Rabbit.

@TheMadman_tobyjenner

@TheMadman_tobyjenner

[TonyHS]

@TheMadman_tobyjenner , Toby, thank you. I missed that previous post, or at least I didn’t realise it’s significance.

[Jamolay]

I haven’t put effort into seeing if the tablet version of Guitar Pro can do the same as what SongbookPro does. It’s descriptions suggest it might, so you might look into that if you already have the tablet version.

I like that SongbookPro is really a pretty straightforward program and you can scan any pdf you want into it, lesson text, cord shears, tab and whatever.

[jkahn]

I made a comment on this thread a long time ago that I used printed paper and plastic sleeve binders for songs.

Well that got unmanageable a few months ago, and I switched to Songbook Pro. It seems the best I could find, although its syncing didn’t work properly for me for a long time (now it’s working properly finally via webdav).

I found it cumbersome for tabs, so I still use GP & save tabs to my computer or ultimate guitar. But it’s great for chords & lyrics, which is really what I find I need once I’ve learned a song.

So another vote for Songbook Pro.

[DaveTC59]

If you are into Apple environment and looking for a really good (bonus) free app to create a songbook, check out JustChords. It works on iPhone/iPad and Mac’s.
Regularly updated with new features, you can:

Write your own songs and tab, lyrics chords and strumming diagrams
Import and edit songs from web,
Transpose/Capo, change key on the fly,
Includes chord diagrams (Guitar, Ukalele, piano) but you can add and edit your own chords and choose versions to use in songs
Show chords with or without beats,
Tap chord in song sheet to play chord sound
Add backing tracks from multiple sources and play while screen auto scrolls song sheet
Record your audio
Create Setlists for live play
Project your lyrics via Airplay
Bluetooth and midi options
AUv3 compatible with DAWs, send your chords and beats to DAW
Tools include Tuner, metronome, chord library
lots more……
Did I mention that it free!

‎JustChords

[Rolandson]

I use forscore. It is a great app but it costs 10 euros in one year when you want extra features. Like turning pages.

https://forscore.co/

[Cyril_fr]

I use patacrep. Unfortunately, it’s no longer maintained, but I managed to get the latest version working to create my own songbook. More for PDF and paper version people.

[drNine]

So far SongBook Pro works for me. I struggle a bit with including strumming patterns, e.g. Wonderwall. Do you have a hint how to include strumming patterns? Unfortunately there is no directive in ChordPro. Cheers Nik

[TheMadman_tobyjenner]

I very rarely add actual strumming patterns into any Songbook Pro entries, as I allow the song to dictate what I am strumming. I do add “tab” entries, where I may have to recall an intro or repeating riff.

If a particular song is tripping me up I will manually add a strumming pattern as a guide like this :

Hope that is of use.

[MAT1953]

Nikolas @drNine
You could edit the text for say Verse 1 and chorus to say
Verse 1 D-DUDUDU
Chorus D-D-DUD-

However I tend to include that sort of info in the parts of the title where I would include Capo position if necessary.
Hope this helps.
Michael

[Tbushell]

@drNine

So far SongBook Pro works for me. I struggle a bit with including strumming patterns, e.g. Wonderwall. Do you have a hint how to include strumming patterns?

Some of these Apps let you embed special codes for things like strumming patterns.

Creating Lyric and Chord Sheets

I also need the bars above the sometimes, but I have found that you can put any annotation above the lyrics just by putting it in brackets, so something like: This [|] [Am]is [G]the [|] [C]way [|] renders as: | Am G | C | This is the way As you would expect. You can put other accents and things. In general anything with * in front of it is explicitly not a chord, but will go above the lyrics. Hope this helps.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to make this work with Songbook Pro, but found it to be only partially supported by the product…and eventually gave up on it.

But perhaps you will have better luck.

[Moloko126]

Thanks! I just recently started with SongbookPro and this post helped me.
I finally understand how to write the chords so they fit the lyrics without using double lines and writing out the chords above.

[stitch]

If you learn to write Chordpro format (it’s been around as long as computers) you can write out tabs and song sheet in note pad or similar programs and upload the to SongbookPro.
I think I posted a link to how to write in this format earlier in this thread.

[TheMadman_tobyjenner]

@stitch

Chordpro format is the standard for most if not all of these Song Book type apps.
Once you know how to write in Chordpro(it’s really easy to learn) you can write you’re own tabs and song sheets in Note pad on your computer(mush easier than your phone or Tablet) and import them into which ever app you choose.

Here’s an over view of Chordpro Format.

LinkeSOFT SongBook Songs and Chords

From over a year ago.

[deiussum]

Thanks to this thread I’ve started using Songbook Pro as well. Here are a couple of tips I’ve found when playing with it that others might find helpful around showing tabs.

1. I found that sometimes when trying to copy tab into it, one of the lines would be messed up and not be in a fixed width font like the other lines. I noticed when that happened that Songbook Pro was automatically putting in the {sot} {eot} markers. (Start of Tab, End of Tab). When I manually placed these in the appropriate spot it fixed it up. So if you have anything you want displayed in a fixed font (e.g. ASCII tabs) just put them between a line that has {sot} at the start and another line at the end with {eot}.
2. I found that on my phone PDFs exported from Guitar Pro could be really small and hard to read. After playing around I found that you can export from Guitar Pro into ASCII tabs. Just use File → Export → ASCII. This will create a .txt file that you can import into Songbook Pro and have it display the tab in ASCII format, which to me is a little easier to read on a phone-sized screen. It’s not as pretty as a PDF, but I don’t always have the larger screen of my tablet available.

[SteveL_G99]

Hi Toby, I didn’t even finish the discussion thread, but immediately went and purchased SongBook Pro for my IPad Pro (12 inch diagonal screen) based on your recommendation. I know how many songs you have in your repertoire and decided that if works for you it must be useable for me. I have Guitar Pro, but that is not the best for chord/lyric charts and I just finished editing my ten songs for Grade 2 consolidation performance in MS Word, So this looks like it could be a useful tool.