Introduction to Using ChordSong

Work through these steps for an introduction to using ChordSong.

Working through these steps is optional. If you prefer, you can just start playing with ChordSong (remember that it works a lot like a word processor), and you can also find everything there is to know about using ChordSong in the How to Use ChordSong (Details) section.

Step 1: Create Your First Measure
Step 2: Create Measure 2
Step 3: Create Measure 3
Step 4: Create Measure 4
Step 5: Listen to Your First Line
Step 6: Save Your Work
Step 7: Create Your Second Line

Step 1: Create Your First Measure

You're going to start creating a song. The first measure of your song will have a D major chord on beat 1.

Find ChordSong's "Top Chords" window (also called the Tops window for short), which is usually to the right of the main ChordSong window, unless you move it. If you've closed the Tops window, you can open it via the Chord > Top Chords menu command.

In the Tops window, click the D chord button. This creates the first measure of your song, which appears in the main song window. The measure has four beats, which are displayed as four hash marks (/ / / /). Your D chord is on beat 1.

The blinking cursor jumps to the end of measure 1, ready for you to create measure 2.

Step 2: Create Measure 2

Your 2nd measure will have a Bm (B minor) chord on beat 1.

Notice that the chords in the Tops window have changed. Now that your song has a D major starting chord, the Tops window lists the most common "good sounding" chords in the key of D major.

Click the Bm chord button. This creates measure 2, with a Bm chord on beat 1 of measure 2.

Step 3: Create Measure 3

Your 3rd measure will have a G major chord on beat 1. Click the G button.

Step 4: Create Measure 4

Your 4th measure will have an Em chord on beat 1 and an A chord on beat 3.

Click the Em button to create measure 4, with an Em chord on beat 1.

Click on beat 3 (the third "/") in measure 4 to place the cursor there. Then click the A chord button to place an A chord there.

You have now created the first line of your "chord song".

Step 5: Listen to Your First Line

When you click the Play button , your song will start playing from wherever the cursor is. Right now you want to hear your song from the beginning, so click at the beginning of your song to move the cursor there.

Now click the Play button. Your song starts playing over and over. If you want it to stop at the end, uncheck the Repeat checkbox next to the Play button.

Notice that the Play button changes to a Stop button while your song is playing.

Want to change your song's tempo? Click the arrow buttons on the Tempo control (next to the Repeat checkbox) to change the speed a little. Click them and hold your mouse button down to change the speed a lot.

Step 6: Save Your Work

Open the File menu and click the Save As command. Use the Save As dialog box to find a folder where you want to save your song, and save it using the file name "FirstSteps". The Save As dialog box works just like the Save As dialog box in other Windows programs such as Notepad, Paint, or WordPad.

Now you can close the ChordSong window if you like, take a break and come back later.

Step 7: Create Your Second Line

You're going to add a second line to your song. This second line will be an exact copy of the first line.

If you closed ChordSong after Step 6, open it again now. In the File menu, use the Open command to open the "FirstSteps.cdsg" file you saved in Step 6 (ChordSong automatically added the ".csdg" ChordSong file extension when you saved the file).

The cursor in the main song window is probably blinking, but if not, click in the main song window so your keyboard keystrokes will go to that window. Then press Ctrl+Home on the keyboard to make the cursor jump to the beginning of the first line.

Press Shift+End to "select" the first line. The background of the selected part turns black, and the black writing turns white.

Open the Edit menu and click Copy. This copies the first line to the ChordSong clipboard.

Now click in the blank area below the first line of your song. This makes the cursor jump to the blank second line, so we can insert your copied first line there.

Open the Edit menu and click Paste. This copies the first line of your song from the ChordSong clipboard to the main song window, at the cursor position.

That's probably enough of an introduction to get you started. To learn about the rest of ChordSong's features, look through the How to Use ChordSong (Details) section when you get around to it.