Use the free tool below: your data never leaves your browser — all work happens on your device, and nothing is uploaded to any server.
What ChordPro is
ChordPro is a plain-text way to write a song sheet. You type the lyrics, and you put each chord in square brackets exactly where it changes, like this: [C]Morning [G]light. A ChordPro file is easy to type, easy to email, and easy to keep in a folder of songs. The problem is that it is hard to read while you play. Bracketed chords buried in the lyrics force your eyes to jump back and forth, and on a music stand that costs you the beat.
This formatter fixes the reading problem without asking you to learn new software. Paste a ChordPro sheet, and it lays the chords out above the lyrics, one line of chords over each line of words, the way printed songbooks do. It also understands the common ChordPro directions: title, artist and key lines, and section markers like start of chorus. The result is a clean sheet you can read at a glance and print for a rehearsal.
How to use the formatter
- Paste your ChordPro text into the box. Chords go in square brackets at the point where they change.
- Add a title and artist with {title: …} and {artist: …} lines if you want them shown at the top.
- Mark sections with {start_of_chorus} and {end_of_chorus} so the chorus is easy to find mid-song.
- Press the button. The formatted sheet appears below, with chords above the lyrics.
- Choose a transposition if the song is too high or too low, and the sheet re-formats in the new key.
A worked example
Start with one line: [C]Morning [G]light on the [Am]hill. The formatter reads three chords and one line of lyrics. It places C above the word Morning, G above the word light, and Am above the word hill, because each bracket sits just before the word it belongs to. That placement rule is the whole secret of ChordPro: the chord sounds when you reach the word after its bracket. Once you know that, you can write sheets that read correctly the first time.
Now transpose the same line up two semitones. C becomes D, G becomes A, and Am becomes Bm, and the formatter moves every chord, including the ones after a slash in chords like G/B, which becomes A/C#. Slash chords keep their shape: only the root and the bass note move, while the chord type stays the same. A transposition that forgets the bass note would break the bass line, so this tool moves both parts together.
Writing ChordPro that formats well
- Put each chord bracket immediately before the word or syllable where the chord changes, not at the end of the previous word.
- Keep one chord per change. Writing [C][G] at the same spot stacks two chords on one syllable and reads badly.
- Use section markers for chorus, verse and bridge. A long sheet without sections is hard to navigate on stage.
- Write chord names the standard way: C, G, Am, F, D7, Bbmaj7. Unusual spellings may not transpose correctly.
Transposing for a singer
Transposition is the formatter’s most useful feature after formatting itself. A song in C may sit too low for one singer and too high for another. Moving everything up two semitones puts it in D, and moving down two puts it in Bb. The formatter does the arithmetic for every chord at once, so you cannot forget one chord in the third verse. Try the new key before you print: play the first verse and the chorus, and check that the highest notes are comfortable and the lowest notes are not mumbled. A key that works for the verse but strains the chorus is the wrong key.
One honest limit: transposition moves chord names, not the feel of the song. A song written around open guitar shapes in G can sound thinner when moved to Ab, because the easy open shapes disappear. If the transposed version feels awkward, consider a capo instead: keep the shapes you like, put the capo on the right fret, and let the formatter’s new key be the sounding key. The tool gives you the names; your ears choose the method.
Who uses ChordPro sheets
Worship teams, folk groups, school choirs and campfire players all keep song folders in ChordPro, because the format survives every device and every decade. A plain-text file from twenty years ago still opens today, while many music apps from five years ago are already gone. This formatter respects that durability: it never locks your songs into a format you cannot read. Paste, format, print, and your songs stay yours, readable on paper even when the screen is off.
Related calculators
- Spanish version
- Guitar Tab Chord Reader – Name the Chords Bar by Bar from Tab
- Vocal Range Chart – Soprano to Bass Ranges Compared on One Staff