LeadSheets1. The Song Library
The Library is where you view, search and manage all your songs.
- Search & Filter: use the search bar at the top to find songs by Title or Artist.
- Add a New Song: tap the icon at the top right to open the Song Editor.
- Swipe Actions: swipe a song to export it . Tap and hold (right-click on Mac) for a menu with Export and Delete.
- Now playing: the song that is playing is shown in pink with a speaker icon , and the list scrolls to it.
- More options : Import Songs, Export Library, Settings and Help.
- iPhone New in 2.0: the screen has a single top bar. The back arrow at the top left of the Library takes you back to your files.
Importing PDFs as new songs New in 2.7
Turn a folder of PDFs or scans into songs in one go. LeadSheets reads the title and artist from the pages, also from scans.
- Start: on Mac and iPad, the import button above the Library has PDFs as New Songs…; on iPhone it's Import PDFs as New Songs in the ••• menu. Pick one or more PDFs.
- Songbooks: every page is read, and a page with a new title at the top starts a new song. So one PDF with many songs is split into songs, and several files of one song (a scan per page) can be joined with Part of the previous song.
- Check the list: each song shows its first page with Title, Artist and Musician filled in. A ? means LeadSheets isn't sure. The arrow next to each field lists other texts found on the page and in the file name; ⇅ swaps title and artist. You can always type. Untick a song to leave it out. On Mac and iPad the selected page is shown large; on iPhone, tap the thumbnail.
- Existing songs: when the file already has a song with that title (and artist), the PDF is added to it instead of making a new song.
- Musician: filled in from a part name on the page ("Bass Guitar" → Bass) where possible; a new name becomes a new musician. Pages of the same song for the same musician become one PDF.
2. The Song Editor
The Song Editor is where you enter and format everything about a song.
Song Details
- Basic Info: Title, Artist and notes (e.g. "Acoustic intro only").
- Find Chords Online: the Safari icon searches the web for the song's chords. The paste button brings in text you copied. New in 2.6.1: chords copied from a web page keep their place above the lyrics, also when the page spaces them with tabs or special spaces, and an indent shared by every line is removed.
- BPM & Duration: type the tempo and length, tap the Wand icon to fetch the BPM from Apple Music, or tap out the tempo with the Hand icon . New in 2.5: the wand now listens to the song's own audio file and offers what it hears: the tempo, half time or double time, and the music library's BPM if that differs. You choose; nothing is set without asking. If the song can't be read (not downloaded, protected, or no clear beat), tap the tempo instead.
- Find and Replace / Convert to ChordPro+ : in the toolbar, to clean up pasted text in one go.
Scores & Sheet Music
- Add Files: "Add PDF" or "Add Photos" imports sheet music. On iPad and iPhone, "Scan Document" scans paper sheets with the camera into one PDF. New in 2.7: when the song has no title and artist yet, LeadSheets shows "Song from the PDF" after adding or scanning: the first page with suggested Title and Artist to use or skip.
- New Notation New in 2.0: starts an empty notation score and opens the score editor (see chapter 3).
- Import MusicXML New in 2.0: turns a MusicXML file (.musicxml, .xml or .mxl, e.g. exported from MuseScore) into a notation score.
- Edit New in 2.0: the Edit button on a notation score opens it in the score editor. On Mac it opens in its own window that you can resize.
- Rename New in 2.1: tap the name of a notation score to give it a new name. The name is also the title on the score's first page. New in 2.1.1: also with Rename… in the score's menu (right-click on Mac, long-press on iPad and iPhone).
- Remove a score New in 2.1.1: right-click (Mac) or long-press (iPad, iPhone) a score and choose Remove from Song; on Mac you can also click its trash button. Nothing is removed until you save the song, so Cancel brings it back.
- iPhone New in 2.1: in portrait, the Add PDF, Add Photos, Scan Document and New Notation buttons show only their icons.
- Assign Musicians: the dropdown on each score ("Unassigned" by default) assigns it to a role such as Bass, Drums or Lead Guitar.
- Edit Musicians…: adds roles to your band. Musicians then see only the scores assigned to them.
- Order New in 2.0: drag scores into the order you want. Sheet Music view shows PDFs, images and notation scores in exactly that order.
- Edit Pages New in 2.7: fix a PDF after importing it. Tap Edit Pages in the Scores section (or Edit Pages… in a PDF's menu). Each PDF of the song shows its pages; with a page's menu you can rotate it, move it left or right, Move To or Copy To another PDF of the song, a new PDF or another song, split the PDF after it, or delete it. On Mac and iPad you can also drag pages, also between PDFs. A PDF's menu can join it with the next one or remove it. Nothing changes until you tap Done, and pages sent to another song arrive when you save the song. A PDF whose pages changed loses its Apple Pencil notes (Done asks first).
Lyrics & Chords
The line-by-line builder makes text charts:
- ChordPro+: one source for chords and lyrics (since 1.5.0). See ChordPro+ syntax below.
- Plain Text: lyrics as normal text.
- Song Chords: chords typed above the lyrics; LeadSheets detects them so they can be transposed.
- Musicians Grid: chords in bars, with repeat signs and time signatures.
- Remarks: section headers such as Chorus or Verse.
- Formatting Tricks: square brackets for inline cues; ending a line with "x4" shows the repeat marker in orange.
Row actions: on Mac, right-click a line to create, duplicate or delete a line or section. On iPad and iPhone, swipe left or right, or long-press.
ChordPro+ syntax
ChordPro+ is one line of text that holds lyrics, chords, bars, notes and drum cues together. In the Song Editor, choose ChordPro+ as the line type. LeadSheets builds every view from the same lines, but each view shows them differently:
- Chords & Lyrics : the chords you write between the lyrics are collected per section and drawn as a musicians grid above the text block; the lyrics follow below it without chords. The grid is built from the bar lines
|in your chord brackets, so put a bar line where each new bar starts. Without them, chords end up in the same bar. - Singer Mode : the same line shows each chord above the lyrics, at the place where you typed it. Bar lines and time signatures are left out.
- Drummer Mode : chords are hidden; drum cues are shown above the lyrics.
Where a chord sits: [Am]word (no space) puts the chord on the first letter of the word. [Am] word (with a space) puts it just before the word: the chord is played before the word is sung.
Example
{Verse} [4/4 |: Bm | F# E | Bm | •/• :|] {x4} [Bm] Walking down the [|F#]harbour, [E]lights are [|Bm]low[|Bm] {l:softly} <crash>[|G]Here we go again {c:all in} # Remember: long fermata on the last chord
The result in each view
VERSE
⁴₄ |: Bm | F# E | Bm | •/• :| ×4 Bm | F# E | Bm | Bm | G | all in Walking down the harbour, lights are low softly Here we go again
VERSE
|: Bm | F# E | Bm | •/• :| ×4 Bm F# E Bm Bm Walking down the harbour, lights are low softly G Here we go again
VERSE
Walking down the harbour, lights are low crash Here we go again all in
In Chords & Lyrics, the four bars of the sung line (Bm | F# E | Bm | Bm) come from the bar lines in [|F#], [|Bm] and [|Bm]. In Singer Mode, the space after [Bm] puts that chord just before "Walking". The # line appears in no view.
Grid lines of 2, 3, 5 or more bars
The musicians grid normally puts 4 bars on each line. To choose the line length yourself, put a ! after the bar that should end a grid line, inside the brackets. As soon as a section (Intro, Verse, Chorus …) contains a !, the grid of that section starts a new line only at each ! instead of every 4 bars.
{Intro} [Am | F | C! | G | Am | F | C | G!]
INTRO
Am | F | C | G | Am | F | C | G |
Without the two !, the same bars would be shown as two lines of 4. The ! itself is never shown.
| Write | What it does |
|---|---|
[Am]word[Am] word | A chord. Without a space it sits on the first letter of the word; with a space it comes just before the word (played before the word is sung). |
[Am7] [Cmaj7] [Bdim] | Chord types are written as usual. maj7, maj, M7 and M are shown as ∆, dim as °. Slash chords such as [C/E] follow the Slash Chords setting. |
[C | G | Am F |] | Bars: put bar lines inside the brackets. A line with only chords and no lyrics becomes a row of bars in the musicians grid. |
[-G] · [F -G] | A push: the chord comes a little early, before the beat. The musicians grid shows it glued to the chord before it (F-G). New in 2.6.1: Singer mode shows just the chord. |
[C!] | Ends a grid line after this bar. Once a section contains a !, its grid only starts new lines at the ! marks, so lines can have 2, 3, 5 or more bars. See Grid lines above. |
[|F#]harbour | A bar line inside a chord in a sung line: a new bar starts at this chord in the musicians grid. Singer Mode doesn't show the bar line. |
[|: … :|] | Repeat signs at the start and end of the bars. |
[4/4 …] | A time signature at the start of the bars, shown as ⁴₄ in the grid. Singer mode leaves it out. |
•/• · •//• · •3• | Repeat the previous bar, the previous 2 bars, or the previous 3 bars. On the iPad and iPhone keyboard they are under ° , sus and add (hold 123). |
{Chorus} | A line with only a word in curly brackets is a section name: it starts a new section. |
{x4} | Repeat count, shown as an orange ×4. |
{text} | A note, shown in orange italics, e.g. {guitar & drums}. |
{c:text} or {^text} | A note on the chord line (with the bars), not with the lyrics. Singer mode hides it. |
{l:text} or {_text} | A note on the lyric line. Drummer mode hides it. |
<crash> | A drum cue. Only Drummer mode shows it (in green), above the word that follows. Chords are hidden there, so <crash>[G]Here puts the crash and the chord on the same word. |
# text | A line starting with # is a private remark: grey in the editor, not shown in any view. |
Tip: pasted chords-over-lyrics text can be turned into ChordPro+ in one go with Convert to ChordPro+ in the editor's toolbar.
Saving and cancelling New in 2.0
- Save (⌘S on Mac) stores the song and closes the editor.
- Cancel closes right away when nothing changed. If you changed something, it asks first: Discard Changes, Save, or Keep Editing. The Mac window's close button and ⌘W ask the same.
- On Mac, only one Edit Song window can be open. Choosing Edit again brings that window to the front. Save or cancel it before editing another song.
- On iPhone, you can't swipe the editor away while there are unsaved changes.
3. Notation Scores New in 2.0
A notation score is sheet music you write inside LeadSheets. Like a PDF score, it belongs to a song and can be assigned to a musician. Note entry works like MuseScore: choose a note value, then type the note letters.
The score editor
- Tools: on Mac and iPad, a tool palette on the left holds every tool in groups that fold open and closed (Notes, Drums, Accidentals and pitch, Articulations, Chords, lyrics and sections, Repeats, Jumps and markers, Edit, Transpose, Layout, Key, time and instruments). On iPhone the tools sit in a scrolling bar at the top. A highlighted tool shows what the selected note or bar has; choose it again to remove it. New in 2.5.1: on iPhone, the Tools button opens every tool of the Mac and iPad palette in a half-height sheet, so the score stays visible. New in 2.6: drag a group's header (☰) to put the palette groups in your own order; right-click or long-press a header for "Default Order of the Groups".
- What you see is what you print: the score is laid out exactly like the printed pages, with the same bars per line. A dashed line marks where a new page starts.
- Above the score: Play and tempo, the speaker (notes sound while you enter them), smaller and larger music, A4 or Letter paper, and Export (PDF or MusicXML). Title, author and the musician's name appear as on page 1. New in 2.1.1: these controls, with the metronome button, stay at the top while you scroll through the score.
- Apple Pencil New in 2.1 (iPad): the pencil button above the score turns on writing with Apple Pencil. See Writing with Apple Pencil.
- Done saves the score into the song; you then save the song as usual.
Entering notes
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| 2 3 4 5 6 7 | 32nd · 16th · 8th · quarter · half · whole |
| . | Dot |
| A–G | Enter a note, in the octave nearest the previous note; the key signature applies |
| 0 | Rest |
| + / − / = | Sharp / flat / natural for the next note |
| ↑ / ↓ | Half step up / down |
| ⌘↑ / ⌘↓ | Octave up / down |
| T | Tie |
| Shift+A–G | Add a note to the chord |
| ⌥↑ / ⌥↓ | Pick one note of a chord, to change only that note |
| ⌘3 | Triplets on/off |
| ⌫ | Turn the note into a rest |
| ⌘Z / ⇧⌘Z | Undo / redo |
- New notes write over what is at the cursor. A note that doesn't fit in the bar continues, tied, in the next bar.
- Click or tap a note to select it. Then 2–7 or . change its length.
- Selecting a range: Shift+click or Shift+←/→ (on iPad and iPhone: the Select tool, then tap the last note). ⌘A selects everything. ⌘C, ⌘X and ⌘V copy, cut and paste, section names included.
Marks and lines
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| ⇧S / ⇧V / ⇧N / ⇧O | Staccato / accent / tenuto / marcato |
| ⇧X | x notehead (ghost note) |
| S | Slur to the next note, or over the selected notes. New in 2.6: a slur over two notes of the same pitch becomes a tie, and a tie whose notes no longer match becomes a slur. Notes under a slur play legato. |
| ~ or ⇧R | Trill (tr), or a trill line over the selected notes |
| \ | Slide to the next note (slides into and out of a note are in the palette) |
| / | Grace note before the selected note (⇧/ switches between with and without slash) |
- Octave lines New in 2.1.1: select the notes and choose 8va, 8vb or 15ma in the palette's Articulations group (one note works too). The music keeps sounding the same: under 8va the notes are drawn an octave lower, so they don't need ledger lines, and playback sounds them where you wrote them. Choose the same line again to remove it and put the notes back. Octave lines are kept in MusicXML export. They are not available on a drum staff.
Chords, lyrics and text
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| ⌘K | Chord symbol (Space next note, ⌥Space next beat New in 2.5, Tab next bar, Return done). 0 or "NC" enters N.C. See Chords and chord playback. |
| ⌘L | Lyric under the note (Space next note, - hyphen) |
| ⇧⌘L | Free lyrics for a whole bar |
| ⌘E New in 2.2 | Fingering at the note: numbers or letters (1, 3, p, i …). Choose Above or Below at the top. Tab or Space goes to the next note, ⇧Tab back, Return finishes. Also the 1 2 tool in the palette's Chords, lyrics and sections group, and kept in MusicXML. |
| ⌘M | Section name (Verse, Chorus …) in a box above the bar |
| ⌘J New in 2.5 | Swing feel from this bar on (also the Swing tool in the palette). See Swing feel. |
| ⌘T | Comment above the note ("fill", "let ring") |
| ⌥⌘C / ⌥⌘V | Copy lyrics as text / paste text as lyrics, one syllable per note |
Tap a text to edit it New in 2.5: tap or click a chord symbol, lyric, section name, bar lyric, comment or fingering in the score, and its text field opens right there.
Bars, repeats and layout
- Repeats and jumps: start and end repeats (with x3 and more), 1st and 2nd endings, bar repeats (•/• for 1 bar, •//• for 2 to 4 bars), Segno, Coda, To Coda, Fine, D.C. and D.S. They apply to the cursor's bar or the selected bars.
- Jumps with repeats New in 2.6: after a D.C. or D.S. the repeats are normally skipped and only the last ending plays. To play them again, put the cursor on the bar with the jump and choose … with repeats in the palette's Jumps and markers group (on iPhone in the repeats menu). The jump then reads e.g. "D.S. al Coda (with repeats)".
- End repeat x… / remark New in 2.1.1: the x… tool in the palette's Repeats group (or "End repeat x… / Vamp, ad lib, on cue…" in the bar line menu) sets an end repeat that is played 2 to 99 times, shown as ×5 and so on. You can add a remark such as Vamp, ad lib, on cue or till cue, shown above the
:||. The palette's x3 and x4 tools are still there for the common counts. - Endings over several passes New in 2.1.1: click 1., 2. and 3. one after the other to make one ending for all three passes, shown as "1.–3.". The n.… tool (or "Other numbers…" in the bar line menu) takes any numbers up to 99, e.g.
1, 3,1-3or5. Select several bars first for a longer ending. Playback plays the repeat until every pass has had its ending: "1.–3." followed by "4." is played four times. - Repeat in the middle of a bar New in 2.1: put the cursor where the repeat should go and choose split in the palette's Repeats group (or "Split bar at the cursor" in the bar line menu). The bar becomes two parts; put the end repeat
:||at the end of the first part and the start repeat||:at the start of the second. Both parts keep the bar's number, and playback follows the repeat. join (or "Join the split bar") makes it one bar again. Changing the time signature also joins split bars. - ⌘I inserts an empty bar before the cursor's bar; ⇧⌘I inserts several, before or after. ⌘⌫ deletes the selected bars (or the cursor's bar). Moving past the last bar adds a bar.
- Return starts a new line after the bar.
- Copy and paste a section New in 2.5: in the palette's Edit group (or the bar line menu), Copy this section takes all bars of the section the cursor is in: every staff, all chords and the bar marks. Paste before or after inserts them as new bars before or after the cursor's section, in one undo step. A section starts at a section name, a start repeat, or after a double barline or end repeat. Normal ⌘C / ⌘V now also take the chords of the copied bars along, but no longer the section name.
- Key and time: double-click the start of a line (tap on iPad and iPhone), or choose Key and time… in the palette. The dialog sets the key, the time signature, a pickup bar, multi-bar rests and (on a drum staff) the drum voices. "Key/time change at this bar…" in the palette changes key or time from the cursor's bar on. New in 2.5: clefs, a second staff (piano) and the playback instrument are now set in Instruments.
- Multi-bar rests New in 2.1.1: empty bars in a row (only rests, nothing written in or above them) are drawn as one rest with the number of bars above it, as in printed parts. Turn this off with "Multi-bar rests" in the Key and time dialog to see every bar on its own.
- Playback for transposing instruments New in 2.1.1: in Instruments, choose under Sounds how the instrument transposes: B♭ (trumpet, clarinet, soprano and tenor sax), E♭ (alto and baritone sax), F (horn), or an octave lower (guitar, bass guitar, double bass). The notes stay as written; playback, and the notes you hear while entering them, sound where that instrument sounds. Drums are not affected. (New in 2.5: this moved from the old Clef, key and time dialog.)
- Transpose… (palette): the whole score, a section or the selection, by an interval or to a key. Chord symbols follow.
- Music size: the smaller and larger buttons above the score set how many bars fit on a line, on screen and in print.
Voices and two staves
- ⌥⌘1 / ⌥⌘2: voice A (stems up) and voice B (stems down) in the same bars. The voice you're not editing is shown in grey.
- ⌥⌘↑ / ⌥⌘↓: upper and lower staff of a piano score.
Drums
Choose the Drums clef. Every letter then enters an instrument; Shift+letter adds it at the same moment as the previous one.
- Drum voices New in 2.1: in the Key and time dialog, choose how drums are written. Hands up, feet down puts cymbals, snare and toms in voice A (stems up) and kick and pedal hi-hat in voice B (stems down). One voice (chords) gives instruments played together one shared stem, e.g. kick + hi-hat or snare + hi-hat. Notes already entered stay as they are.
- With New in 2.1 (palette and touch keyboard): tap it, and the next instrument goes at the same moment as the one just entered (like Shift+letter). On the touch keyboard you can also hold it down: every instrument you tap while holding it goes at that same moment.
| Key | Instrument | Key | Instrument |
|---|---|---|---|
| K | Bass drum | R | Ride |
| S | Snare | B | Ride bell |
| G | Ghost note (snare) | C | Crash |
| X | Side stick | N | China |
| H | Hi-hat, closed | L | Splash |
| O | Hi-hat, open | T / Y / U | Toms 1 / 2 / 3 |
| P | Hi-hat pedal | F | Floor tom |
| W | Cowbell |
Listening to the score
- Space plays from the current bar, or the selection. Space again or Esc stops. ⇧Space plays from the start.
- The cursor follows the notes. Repeats, endings, D.C./D.S. and bar repeats are followed.
- The ♩ = control sets the tempo; it starts at the song's BPM. New in 2.1.1: − and + change it by 1 BPM (hold them to keep going), or type a value from 30 to 300 and press Return.
- Metronome New in 2.1.1: the metronome button above the score adds a click on every beat while the score plays, with a higher click on the first beat of each bar. In 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8 it clicks on the dotted quarters.
- With the speaker on, each note sounds as you enter or change it, with its instrument's sound. New in 2.5.1: the speaker only affects entering notes, not playback.
Chords and chord playback New in 2.5
Chord symbols now have their own place in the bar, in a chord track above the staff. They no longer have to sit on a note: a chord can change on beat 3 of a whole note, or between beats.
- Typing chords: ⌘K starts at the note or the cursor. Space goes to the next note or rest, ⌥Space to the next beat (also inside a long note), Tab to the next bar. While you type, a box shows where the chord goes. A Beat / 8th / 16th picker in the chord bar sets how far ⌥Space moves. On the notation keyboard, use the Next beat key.
- N.C. (no chord): type 0, "NC" or "N.C." (or the N.C. key) to stop the chord before it.
- Edit a chord: tap it in the score.
- In the editor a thin grey line under the chord row shows where the track is; it isn't printed.
- Older scores are converted automatically. Older app versions still see most chords, on the notes.
- MusicXML keeps each chord at its exact place, also inside a long note.
Playing the chords: the Mixer New in 2.5.1
All playback settings are in one place: the Mixer (slider button) above the score, for every score, also one with a single instrument.
- A row per group, instrument and chord track ("Chords" for the main chords, "Chords · Guitar" for an instrument's own chords), each with a volume slider, M (mute) and S (solo). Solo works across everything: solo the chords to hear only them.
- Chords are muted at first: turn off their M to hear the chord symbols played along, as a bass note with the chord above it, moving smoothly from chord to chord.
- Rhythm (under Chords, saved with the score): Held, Quarters, Pop 8ths, Swing comp, Swing with walking bass, Bossa nova, Bossa nova (2 bars) and Waltz.
- Sounds are chosen in Instruments: a Playback sound per instrument (Plucked, Piano, Electric piano, Organ, Strings pad or Guitar) and a Chord sound for the main chords. An instrument's own chord track plays with that instrument's sound; with Guitar the chords are strummed.
- Volumes change at once; mute, solo, rhythm and sounds from the next start. The chords follow repeats, endings, jumps, the swing feel and the transposition; N.C. is silent.
- The old piano-keys chord panel is gone: everything it did is now in the Mixer and the Instruments dialog.
Swing feel New in 2.5
- Put the cursor in a bar and press ⌘J (or the Swing tool in the Chords, lyrics and sections group). Choose Straight, Swing 8ths or Swing 16ths, and Light, Medium (triplet) or Hard (dotted).
- The marking ("Swing" with a small rhythm) is shown above the bar, and the feel holds until the next change, so a song can switch between swing and straight. Remove Change takes it off.
- Playback swings the off-beats (drums too); triplets and dotted rhythms play as written. The feel goes along in MusicXML.
Full scores: several instruments New in 2.5
A notation score can hold the whole band: every instrument on its own staff, with the bars lined up. Each musician can then see only their own part (see Parts and full score).
- Instruments: the Instruments button (three people) above the score, or Instruments… in the palette's Key, time and instruments group. Add Instrument offers Vocals, Piano, Keyboard, Guitar, Bass, Drums, Trumpet in B♭, Alto, Tenor and Baritone Sax, Trombone, Clarinet in B♭, Flute, Horn in F, Violin, Cello and Other. Below the list: the Chord sound New in 2.5.1, section names above every instrument, and Concert pitch. Nothing changes until you tap Apply. New in 2.5.1: a score with one instrument also keeps its name, sound and musician.
- Per instrument (tap the triangle to open its row): name and short name, clef, a second staff, Sounds (its transposition), Playback sound (also for its own chords), Musician (who plays it), Chords (Off, In its key, Concert pitch), Own chords (its own chord track, e.g. simpler chords for the bass) and Rhythm: Slashes (a slash on every beat, for a rhythm section; the notes still play). New in 2.6: Tab for string instruments, see Tab.
- Groups: drag an instrument onto another to group them (Horns, Rhythm …), or onto a group line to join it. Drag into a gap to move it, and drag a group line to move the whole group. Group names can be edited; the ungroup button releases a group.
- Concert pitch: write at concert pitch or as each instrument reads it, and switch at any time with the Concert pitch button above the score. Octave instruments (tenor sax, guitar, bass) keep their octave.
- Section names, endings and jumps above every instrument is an option below the list; otherwise they are shown above the top staff only.
- Moving between staves: ⌥⌘↑ / ⌥⌘↓, the staff buttons in the palette, or Staff on the iPhone input bar. The status bar shows the instrument.
- Chords in a full score are shared: ⌘K writes into the edited instrument's track (its own, or the main chords). Each instrument shows them in its own key or at concert pitch; chords moved into another key are shown in italics in the full score.
- Mixer (slider button): volume, mute (M) and solo (S) per group, instrument and chord track, plus the chord rhythm. See the Mixer.
- Show (eye button): fold groups, hide instruments or leave out instruments where they only rest. This is per device; the score doesn't change. You can also tap ▼ above a group's bracket to fold it, and tap the folded line to open it again.
- MusicXML: a full score is exported with one part per instrument (with groups, transposition and sounds), and multi-part MusicXML files from MuseScore, Sibelius or Dorico come in as a full score.
Tab for guitar, bass and more New in 2.6
Every string instrument can show tablature, worked out from the notes. You keep writing notes as usual; the tab follows.
- Turning it on: in Instruments, set the instrument's Tab to Notation + Tab (a tab staff under the notes) or Tab only (the tab takes the staff's place, with the rhythm as stems and beams). Choose a tuning (guitar, drop D, bass, 5-string bass, ukulele, mandolin or your own) and a capo. Off hides the tab but keeps its settings and the strings you chose.
- Automatic fingering: LeadSheets puts the notes on the strings, keeping your hand in one position where it can, chords on separate strings that don't cross. Tied notes show their fret in brackets; grace notes as small numbers. Notes that can't be played on the instrument are left out, with a message.
- Choosing a string: select a note (⌥↑↓ picks a note of a chord) and press ⌥⇧↑ for a higher string or ⌥⇧↓ for a lower one, or use the arrows in the palette's Tab group. auto puts it back. Only that note moves; the notes around it stay.
- Techniques (Tab group): H/P (a slur: a hammer-on going up, a pull-off going down, shown as H or P over the numbers), bends ½ and full (a curved arrow), and P.M. (palm mute, a dashed line above the tab). They play back too: bends bend, palm-muted notes are short and soft.
- The Show tab switch in the Tab group turns the tab on and off quickly.
- Part views, PDFs and MusicXML keep the tab: tuning, capo, strings and frets, hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends and palm mutes.
On iPad and iPhone
An on-screen notation keyboard replaces the normal keyboard: note letters, rest, tie, staccato, slur, slide, grace and dot on the first row; note values, triplet, ♭ ♮ ♯ and ↑↓ on the second; chord, lyric, text, select, arrows, staff, voice, undo and delete on the third.
- +♪ works like Shift: tap it and the next key uses its small label (e.g. octave instead of half step), hold it to use it for several keys. New in 2.2: +♪ with the Text key enters a fingering.
- ♭ ♮ ♯ apply to the next note you type.
- With a hardware keyboard, all the keys above work, and the on-screen keyboard can be hidden.
Writing with Apple Pencil New in 2.1
On iPad, tap the pencil button above the score to write on it with Apple Pencil. Your fingers still scroll and select. What you draw is read as soon as you pause, and then entered as if you typed it. Tap ? next to the pencil button for a short overview. Tap the pencil button again to turn writing off.
| Draw | Result |
|---|---|
| Tap a line or space | A note with the note value chosen in the palette |
| Filled notehead + stem | Quarter note; each flag or beam halves it (a beam can cross several stems) |
| Hollow notehead | Whole note; with a stem a half note |
| Fill in a half or whole note | It becomes a quarter note |
| Dot right of a notehead | Dotted note, also on a note already there; a second dot makes it double-dotted |
| Stem or flags on a note already there | A stem makes a half or quarter note; each flag makes it shorter |
| ♯ ♭ ♮ in front of the note | Accidental. Without one, the key signature and earlier accidentals in the bar apply |
| Notehead on a note | Adds it to the chord |
| Zigzag / a "7" | Quarter rest / eighth rest |
| Block under the 2nd line / on the middle line | Whole rest / half rest |
| Arc from a note | Tie to the next note (draw it again to remove the tie) |
| Two lines over a bar line | Double bar line |
| A line after the last bar | New bar |
| Scribble over notes | Erase: the notes become rests |
- A note drawn on a rest replaces the rest; a note drawn just right of a note goes into the next note or rest.
- A note value you draw also becomes the palette's note value, so taps after it use the same length.
- Undo (the undo key or ⌘Z) takes back what the pencil entered.
- Not yet: 16th rests, clefs, slurs, dynamics and articulations, and drum staves. Use the palette or keyboard for those.
4. Viewing & Playing Songs
Tap a song to open the Performance View. Its controls are in the top toolbar.
View Modes
Switch with the segmented control:
- Chords & Lyrics : the full text chart, with chords and bar lines in a musicians grid, plus global notes.
- Singer Mode : chords above the lyrics; sections without lyrics show the musicians grid. Global notes are shown.
- Drummer Mode : the full text chart with global and drummer notes.
- Sheet Music : the attached PDFs, images and notation scores, in the order set in the Song Editor. The Musician dropdown shows only your part. Pages sit side by side in landscape and above each other in portrait; swipe to turn the page. Notation scores show the song title, the artist and the musician's name at the top.
- Landscape: text in columns New in 2.2: when the screen or window is wider than it is tall, Chords & Lyrics, Singer and Drummer views put the song in columns side by side, read left to right, and you scroll sideways. A section (Verse, Chorus …) stays together in one column; only a section taller than the screen is split.
- Portrait: whole pages New in 2.2: in Sheet Music view each page is fitted to the screen in both directions, so a full page is in view. Scrolling is free; the pedal or swipes go page by page.
- Music size New in 2.6: in Sheet Music view, make notation scores larger or smaller with the buttons over the pages, or pinch on iPad and iPhone. Printing and PDFs follow the same size.
Parts and full score New in 2.5
When a song has a full score, the musician menu in the song view does more:
- Your part: choose your musician and LeadSheets shows your instrument's part: written for your instrument, in its key, with your chords, the shared marks and multi-bar rests. Link instruments to musicians in the Instruments dialog.
- Instruments: per full score, choose Automatic (your own part), Full score, or any instrument. The choice is kept per device.
- Director's view: with Full score chosen, the menu adds Concert pitch, Large bar numbers and marks, Hide resting instruments, Show Instruments and Unfold all groups. Tap ▼ next to a group's bracket to fold it on the pages.
- Print: "All parts (PDF)" or "Full score and all parts (PDF)", each part starting on a new page.
Transposition & Formatting
- Transpose: the tuning fork icon transposes the chords to any key.
- Annotate: the pencil icon lets you draw, highlight and write on PDF scores.
Audio Playback & Metronome
- Backing Tracks: the Play button plays the song from Apple Music or Spotify, as chosen in Settings. New in 2.6: LeadSheets now matches the recording on title and artist (anything in ( ) or [ ] is ignored), so two songs with the same title by different artists each play their own recording. When several recordings fit, it asks "Which Recording?" and remembers your choice on this device; the recordings button (a note with a list) in the player lets you choose again.
- Your own songs play inside LeadSheets New in 2.0: songs you bought and that are downloaded on this device (on Mac: in your Music library) now play inside LeadSheets. Songs only in iCloud, Apple Music copies and Spotify still play in their own app.
- Player bar: previous , play/pause , next , the position slider, Key, Speed and stop . On iPhone in portrait the slider and time are hidden to save room; turn the phone sideways to use them.
- Key New in 2.0: − and + play the song a half step lower or higher (up to 12), without changing the tempo. The value is saved with the song, separately from the chord transposition. Double-tap the value to reset it.
- Speed New in 2.0: the tortoise and hare play the song 5% slower or faster (50–150%) without changing the key. Speed is a practice setting: it stays for all songs until you change it, and isn't saved. Double-tap the value for 100%.
- Key and Speed are greyed out for a song that plays in the Music app.
- Tuning New in 2.5: the tuning fork in the player bar sets how the recording is tuned (e.g. A = 445 Hz), saved with the song. LeadSheets moves it to the A your band tunes to (Settings → Tuning), so you can play along with a recording that isn't at 440. The fork turns pink when the song is moved.
- Phone calls and Siri New in 2.5 (iPhone, iPad): a song playing in LeadSheets pauses and continues afterwards.
- Lock screen and Control Center New in 2.0: for songs that play inside LeadSheets you get play, pause, next, previous and the position slider there too, and headphone buttons work. On Mac, the keyboard's media keys work.
- Visual Metronome: a pulsing icon appears when a BPM is saved.
- Audible Metronome: tap the Metronome to start or stop it.
Chord Diagrams
- Tap a chord to see its diagrams.
- New in 2.5: tap a guitar diagram to hear it strummed as drawn.
- New in 2.5: chord symbols above a notation score in Sheet Music view can be tapped too.
5. Setlists
- Create: on the Setlists tab, tap to make a new setlist.
- Rename New in 2.5.1: swipe a setlist to the right, or long-press (right-click on Mac) it, and choose Rename. On iPhone, an open setlist also has Rename Setlist in its Share menu .
- Add Songs: open a setlist and tap to pick songs from the Library. On iPhone the search field is always shown under the title.
- Reorder: tap Edit and drag songs into order.
- Live Metrics: the total number of songs and the estimated duration, from the saved song lengths.
- Setlist Player: tap the first song, then use the arrows at the bottom or swipe left and right to move between songs. The current song is highlighted. New in 2.2: a page-turn pedal also turns pages and moves to the next song (see Page-turn pedal).
- Playing a setlist New in 2.0: the Play button plays the setlist song by song. Each song uses its own Key, and the next song starts by itself when one ends, also when a song in between plays in the Music app.
6. Exporting and Sharing
- Export PDFs: the Share icon in a song makes a PDF of the chord chart, singer view or drummer view. New in 2.6: in Sheet Music view, Export PDF makes one PDF of exactly the pages shown for the selected musician, in the same order, with your Apple Pencil notes on them.
- Notation score as PDF New in 2.0: in the score editor, Export → PDF makes the pages exactly as shown, on A4 or Letter.
- Notation score as MusicXML New in 2.0: Export → MusicXML, to open the score in MuseScore, Finale, Sibelius and others. Use "Import MusicXML" in the Song Editor to bring scores in.
- All parts as PDF New in 2.5: for a full score, Export in the score editor's page view (or Print in the song view's musician menu) makes "All parts (PDF)" or "Full score and all parts (PDF)". Page turns are placed where the player rests where possible, the last page is balanced, and lines are spread over the page.
- Share Setlists: Share icon → "Export Data (.bandset)". Bandmates who import the file get all songs, chords, PDFs and notation scores, and each song's Key setting.
- Export Setlist for Stage Print: Share icon → export as PDF.
- Export Text Lists: "Export Text List (.tsv)" makes a file for spreadsheets.
- Bulk Import/Export: Import Songs and Export Library (in the menu of the Library) back up or import many songs at once.
- Import from another LeadSheets file New in 2.6.1: copy songs and setlists from another .leadsheets file into the one you have open. On Mac and iPad, the import button above Library or Setlists has "From Another LeadSheets File…"; on iPhone it's in the ••• menu. Pick songs and setlists (a setlist brings its songs along). Scores with their Apple Pencil notes, the audio key and tuning, and missing musicians come along. For a song that's already in your file (same title and artist) you choose: Skip, Replace or Keep Both, per song or for all.
7. Settings
Open Settings with the Gear icon (on iPhone: in the menu).
- Slash Chords: how chords like C/E are shown across the app.
- Music Service: Apple Music or Spotify for the Play button. On Mac, the Spotify desktop app must be open.
- Tuning New in 2.5: "We Tune To": the A your band tunes to (430–450 Hz, default 440). Songs playing in LeadSheets are moved to it from their recording's tuning.
- Show Button Labels: text labels next to the toolbar icons.
- Page-Turn Pedal New in 2.2: 2 or 4 buttons. See below.
Page-turn pedal New in 2.2
A page-turn pedal (PageFlip, AirTurn and others) connects over Bluetooth or USB and works like a keyboard. Pair it with your iPad, iPhone or Mac, and choose in Settings how many buttons it has. The arrow keys of a keyboard work the same way.
| Pedal | Next page | Previous page | Next / previous song |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 buttons | → or ↓ | ← or ↑ | Press next on the last page to go to the next song in the setlist, previous on the first page to go back a song. |
| 4 buttons | ↓ | ↑ | → and ← switch song. |
- Page Down and Page Up always turn to the next and previous page.
- Sheet Music view: one page per press.
- Chords & Lyrics, Singer and Drummer views: half a screen per press, starting at the beginning of a line. In landscape, with the text in columns, a press brings the next columns into view.
- Pages turn in every song view; moving to another song works when the song is played from a setlist. In the iPad and Mac setlist player the backing track follows, like ⏮ and ⏭.
- On Mac, the pedal doesn't act while you type in a text field with several lines, or when another window (such as the score editor) is in front.
Questions or ideas? Mail leadsheets@icloud.com or see the Support page.