Software Accessories: Chart Management Software
The last topic on metronomes didn’t get much traction. This week I’ll try chart management software.
It would be nice to hear what other people are using and their favorite features.
This past year I was lucky enough to find a group of people to put a list of songs together and play. We would get together maybe a couple of times a month. I would go to the session and the other guys would introduce some new songs or mention new songs to learn. I would go home and right away learn the guitar parts to the new songs. Between working on JamPlay lessons and other self indulgent endeavors and probably the age of my brain, by the time we would meet up again to play, a few weeks later, I would have pretty much forgotten most of the guitar parts to the new songs that I had learned a few weeks back and I have to listen to the song again during the session to help me quickly remember the parts. The other musicians really didn't seem to mind listening to the song at the session themselves, it is kind of casual get together.
One of the band members mentioned a popular chart management software that he had seen other bands use on stage. I went home and looked up the software he mentioned. I fount that the software only worked on Android. So, I started downloading and experimenting with Chart Management Software for iOS for about a week. Most of the software I found was rather disappointing and a few were mediocre at beast. Then I found OnSong. OnSong is music software done at it’s best. The thought given to the features, functionality, documentation, videos and other aspects of the product are absolutely outstanding. They have even responded rapidly to feedback and help.
OnSong (iOS and macOS only and Web Browser):
OnSong is worth every penny to me. The list of features and functionality is long and well thought out and practical. I paid for just about every feature that the app offers.
OnSong Features:
Here are some of the features I really like:
Very Flexible Charting import/export
Very Flexible Chart notations and annotations
Edit Charts on Laptop, iOS devices, Web Browser
Management of charts into Sets, Books, Folders
Chart projection onto TV/Monitor via Apple Air Play
Automatic scrolling with lots of tunable features, bpm, flow and triggers
Play with backing tracks while automatically scrolling through the charts
This isn't charting software like GuitarPro, it's more for performance, to help you quickly remember arrangements, lyrics, chord changes and being able to add your own performance notes and annotations.
Bias Warning: Currently the software I use runs on the following platforms:
Apple’s MacOS and iOS
The software I mention may or may not run on other platforms if it does I will try to mention which platforms.
If it doesn’t run on your platform let us know what you are using.
Bookmarks