The song header shows details about a song, such as its title, key and tempo, at the top of the song while you play it. You choose what goes in the header once, and Chordle fills it in for every song, so there’s no need to type these details into each song.

The header is shown in the player and in the song editor’s preview. It isn’t included when you print or export songs, because printed pages already have their own header.

Turning the header on or off

Open Settings, expand Song header and use the Show song header switch.

If you’re new to Chordle the header starts off turned on, showing the song title with the key, capo and tempo underneath. If you’ve been using Chordle since before the header was added, it starts off turned off so your songs look the same as they always have.

On a wide enough screen, a preview next to the settings shows how the header will look as you change it.

Writing a header template

The Header template box controls what the header shows. Each line of the template becomes a line in the header.

Values from the song are written as %{NAME}. You can type them, or pick them from the Insert menu below the template box to add them at the cursor:

%{KEY} and %{CAPO} follow what you’re actually playing, so if you change the key of a song in a set list the header shows the new key.

The default template is:

# %{TITLE}
%{KEY}[ Capo %{CAPO}][ · %{TEMPO} bpm]

Formatting

• Start a line with # for large text, or ## for medium text.
• Wrap text in ** for bold, for example **Key** %{KEY}.
• Wrap text in * for italic, for example *%{ARTIST}*.

The Format menu inserts these for you. If you select some text first, Bold, Italic and Hide if empty wrap the selected text.

Hiding parts that have no value

Not every song has every detail filled in. Chordle tidies up the header in two ways:

• Anything in square brackets is hidden when a value inside it is empty. In the default template, [ Capo %{CAPO}] is only shown for songs played with a capo, and [ · %{TEMPO} bpm] only for songs that have a tempo, so a song with neither shows just its key rather than G Capo · bpm.
• A line is hidden when all of its values are empty. For example, a line Style: %{ARTIST} disappears for songs with no artist.

If you need a literal square bracket or asterisk in the header, put a backslash in front of it, for example \[ or \*.

Alignment

Use Alignment to place the whole header on the left, in the center or on the right of the song.

Where the header goes

When a song is shown in columns, with the Fit to screen or Paginated presentation modes, use Position to choose where the header goes.

With the song

This is the default. The header sits at the top of the song’s first column and flows with the rest of the song, so when Chordle shrinks a long song to fit the screen, the header shrinks with it.

Top of page

The header goes across the top of the screen, above all of the song’s columns, so the first column doesn’t have to make room for it.

Bottom of page

The header goes across the bottom of the screen, below the song’s columns, leaving the top of the screen for the song itself.

Alignment works across the whole width of the screen for a header at the top or bottom of the page, so together with Position you can put the header in whichever spot suits you, such as the top left or bottom right corner of the screen.

With Paginated songs, a header at the top or bottom of the page is shown on every page, so you can always see what you’re playing.

In the Scrolling presentation mode the header is always at the top of the song.

Text size

When the header is at the top or bottom of the page, the Text size slider sets how big it is. It stays that size however much Chordle shrinks the song to fit the screen, so a long song doesn’t leave you with a header too small to read. Drag the slider to the right for a bigger header, or to the left to keep it out of the way.

The slider is only shown for Top of page and Bottom of page. A header With the song is sized along with the song’s own text instead.

Notes and custom fields

Keyboard players and others with per-song setup reminders can store them in the song itself instead of abusing the alternative title. Open a song in the editor, tap Add additional field… and choose:

• Notes for free-form style, sound and transposition notes.
• Custom field for a named value such as the patch or groove. Type the field’s name in the first box and its value in the second. You can add as many custom fields as you like.

Remove a field with the x button at its end.

In the header template, %{NOTES} shows the notes and %{META:name} shows the custom field called name. Field names are case-insensitive: %{META:groove} finds a field stored as Groove. If a field appears more than once in a song, all of its values are shown in order, separated by commas. As with every other value, a line or [bracketed group] whose fields are all empty is hidden.

Custom fields are stored in the song as {meta: name value} lines, so they sync to all your devices along with everything else. The notes are stored the same way, as {meta: notes ...}. If you edit ChordPro by hand, you can write these lines yourself:

{meta: notes Gentle fingerpicked intro}
{meta: groove Slow waltz}

To add a custom field to the header template, choose Custom field from the Insert menu below the template box: it adds %{META:} with the cursor inside the braces, so you just type the field name.

Starting again

Reset to default puts the template back to the default shown above.

Examples

Title and artist, with the capo only when there is one:

# %{TITLE}
*%{ARTIST}*
%{KEY}[, capo %{CAPO}]

A compact single line:

**%{TITLE}** · %{KEY}[ · %{TEMPO} bpm]