A chord sheet you can read on a dark stage
A sheet that looks fine on a laptop at home is hard to read on stage. The light is bad, the stand is a metre away, and you have half a second between lines.
Should chords go above the words or inside them?
Above the words is easiest to read from a stand. Put each chord on its own line, directly above the syllable where it changes, and line it up with spaces, not tabs. gigbrain locks each chord to its word, so when a long line wraps on a phone, the chord wraps with it.
Am C D F There is a house in New Orleans
Inline chords in square brackets, like [Am]There is a [C]house, work too. Pick one style per sheet.
Label every section
Write Verse 1, Chorus, Bridge or Solo on its own line. Your eye finds "Chorus" faster than the first word of the chorus. gigbrain also uses them to show how far through the song you are.
Is it fine to write "Chorus x2"?
No. With "Chorus x2" the sheet stops scrolling while the song keeps going. Paste the chorus in full each time it is sung.
How do I write an intro or a riff?
Put the intro chords on one line under an "Intro" label: "Intro: G D Em C, twice". A riff written out in tab takes six lines and pushes the first verse off the screen. If you need the tab to remember it, keep it in the note above the song.
How do I mark a key change?
Write it on its own line where it happens: "Key change: up one, to A". Then write the chords that follow in the new key. A note at the top saying "goes up at the end" is easy to miss under stage lights.
Mistakes that only show up on stage
- A chord one syllable late. On paper it looks close enough. On stage it is a change one beat late.
- A chord stuck to a lyric with no space, like "Amthere". It reads as a word, so you skip it.
- Page numbers and headers copied from a PDF, landing in the middle of a verse.
- Two versions of the same song in the songbook, with the old one in the setlist.
Short lines
Break lines where the singer breathes. A line that fills a laptop screen becomes three wrapped lines on a phone, and the chords end up far from their words. Split any line longer than about ten words.
Put the instructions where they happen
"Capo 2" goes at the top. "Build here" goes on the line where the build starts, not in a note at the bottom. gigbrain treats a line like "(let ring)" or "(x2)" as an instruction, not a chord.
The note above each song in gigbrain is for the things you forget: the key you sing it in, the retune, the intro length, who starts.
How big should the text be?
Bigger than you think. At the kitchen table a phone sits about 40 centimetres from your eyes. On a stand it is closer to a metre, and you look at it sideways while you play. At twice the distance, text needs to be about twice the size. If you wear reading glasses, test the sheet without them.
A busy song needs smaller text so lines do not wrap. gigbrain remembers the text size per song on each device, so set it on the phone you take to the gig.
Mount the phone at chest height. A stand by your knees makes you lose the room and your place.
Phone or tablet?
A tablet shows twice the lines. A phone fits a mic stand clamp, and with auto scroll it does not need to show the whole song. On a phone, short lines matter more. One gigbrain account works on both, and each device keeps its own text size.
Will the screen turn off mid-song?
Not while a song plays. gigbrain keeps the screen on during playback. Turn auto-brightness off before the gig, though, because stage lights can fool the light sensor and dim the screen.
Set the brightness by hand, on the stand, in the room. Full brightness in a dark bar glares and lights up your face from below. Start around three quarters and turn it down until the text is still sharp from where you stand. Charge the phone before the gig, since a bright screen for two hours uses a lot of battery.
Is dark mode better on stage?
Yes, for most rooms. Light text on dark is easier to read and does not light your face up blue. Turn it on from the moon icon.
Test it on the stand
Before a gig with a new song, put the phone on the stand, step back, and press play. Check that:
- Every section has a label on its own line.
- Every chorus is written out in full.
- No lyric line wraps at the text size you play with.
- The capo and the key are in the song note.
- You can read it from where you stand, with the lights down.
Next comes the order: see the post on building a setlist.
If you still play from a binder, gigbrain vs a paper binder covers what paper still does better.