Piano Chord Chart Maker & Leadsheet Editor

The Leadsheet Editor in The Ultimate Piano is for writing chord charts: chords over the bars, lyrics underneath, repeats and codas where they belong. You can play the chart back to hear whether it works, move it into a key that suits the singer, and print it or export it for the band — a full chart, not a single chord diagram.

It builds professional chord charts and lead sheets, with lyrics, sections, the Nashville Number System, and ChordPro or PDF export.

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What the Leadsheet Editor Does

The Leadsheet Editor turns chords, lyrics, and song structure into a printable chart you can read at the piano or hand to a band. You build a chart by placing chords on a beat grid across the bars of a song, then add lyrics, sections, repeats, and navigation markers on top. When the chart is done, you can play it back, save it to your Cloud Library, or use ChordPro and PDF export to share it. The editor supports both piano and guitar, letter names and the Nashville Number System, and imports existing ChordPro files (.cho, .chopro, .crd, .pro) so you rarely start from a blank page.

Chord chart or chord diagram? The two get mixed up constantly. A chord chart is the whole song — bars, chords, and lyrics laid out so a player can read the tune from start to finish. A chord diagram is a picture of one single chord: which keys to press. The Leadsheet Editor makes chord charts; for single diagrams and fixed-key progression sheets, use the Diagram Generator.

How to Open the Leadsheet Editor

Open it from the Create menu in the header (look for Leadsheet Editor), or press Ctrl+Shift+L (Cmd+Shift+L on Mac).

Want to see a finished chart first? Click Demo to load the Amazing Grace example.

Adding Chords in the Chord Chart Maker

You add a chord to the chord chart in one of two ways, and each bar is divided into beat slots that hold up to 4 chords per beat:

• Drag and drop a chord from the Chords sidebar onto a beat slot
• Click an empty slot to open the chord picker, then choose a Root and Quality

For each chord you can set the Quality, Inversion (root position through 3 inversions), and Bass Note (for slash chords like C/E). The bass note appears below the chord in the chord images and sounds in playback — even when it is the root itself (C/C adds a C one octave lower). A No Chord (N.C.) marker silences the previous chord where you want a break.

Beat Grid

Choose how finely chords sit in a bar with the Grid setting — from one chord per bar up to several per beat:

Changing the grid redistributes existing chords proportionally, so you never lose your work.

Piano & Guitar Chords

Set the Instrument to Piano or Guitar in the song info.

• Piano chords show note-by-note voicings with hand and octave options.
• Guitar chords show fretboard diagrams. Pick the Voicing — Open, Barré, or a specific position — and the chart displays the matching guitar grip.

Sections, Repeats & Navigation

Structure a real song, not just a list of chords:

• Sections — Add named sections (Verse, Chorus, Bridge…), reorder them by dragging, and set how many times each repeats.
• Bars — Insert, duplicate, or delete bars; add pickup (anacrusis) beats before a bar. Click a bar to give it its own Time Signature — a single bar of 2/4 in a song in 4/4, for example. The bar gets exactly the beats of its meter, and playback follows it. If chords no longer fit after such a change, the editor asks before removing them.
• Repeats — Drop repeat start and repeat end markers onto bars, with a configurable repeat count.
• Endings (voltas) — Add 1st and 2nd endings. The editor warns you if a bracket or repeat sign is missing.
• Navigation markers — Place Segno, Coda, and Fine, plus D.C. al Coda and D.S. al Coda directives. Inconsistent jumps are flagged so the roadmap always plays back correctly.

Lyrics — Chords Over Lyrics

Open the Lyrics area on a bar to type the words for that line, then drag chord markers into the text so the chords sit exactly above the right syllables — the classic lead-sheet layout.

Song Info & Transposition

Fill in the song's metadata: Title, Composer, Lyricist, Year, Genre / Style, and Feel (e.g. Swing, Straight, Latin), plus BPM and Time Signature.

Set the Key, and transpose the whole chart to a new key in one move — the original and transposed keys are shown side by side. Use the enharmonic toggle to switch spellings (e.g. C# ↔ Db). Printing and every export use the transposed key, so the band reads the chart in the key you will actually play.

Nashville Number System

The Nashville Number System writes each chord as its scale-degree number instead of a letter name, so one chart works in every key. Switch the Notation setting in the song info from Letters to Nashville, and every chord in the chart is shown as its scale-degree number instead of a letter name — 1, 4, 5, 6m — following the Nashville Number System used by session players and worship bands.

Because the numbers describe a chord's position in the key rather than a fixed letter, one number chart works in every key. When your singer needs the song a step higher, you don't rewrite anything — the numbers stay the same. Chords outside the key are written with an accidental degree (#1, b3), and the numbers appear both above the beat grid and inline with your lyrics.

The whole chart — number chords and lyrics together — exports to a clean, printable PDF for the band. The chord picker still uses familiar letter names while you build, so you enter chords the way you think and read them as numbers when you're done.

Playback

Press Play to hear the chart back with the chosen Sound and an optional Metronome and Count-In. Playback follows your repeats, endings, and D.C./D.S. navigation, so you hear the song exactly as it's written.

ChordPro Export, PDF & Cloud Saving

The finished chart leaves the editor three ways: ChordPro export, PDF export, and a JSON project file. All three sit behind the Save / Export actions.

• ChordPro export — Export to the .cho ChordPro format used by many chord-chart and worship apps, so your chart opens in the tools your band already uses.
• Export PDF — Produce a clean, printable chord chart to share or print, including a Real Book-style variant.
• Import ChordPro — Load also opens ChordPro files (.cho, .chopro, .crd, .pro): the chords, lyrics, sections, and song info read into a working chart, so you start from an existing chart instead of a blank page. Chords the file defines with keyboard keys come in with exactly those notes, and remarks such as "play softly" are kept in the lyrics. (ChordPro records no rhythm, so one chord becomes one bar and you fine-tune the beat placement yourself. The importer is tested against the official ChordPro reference suite.)
• Save / Load — Save your charts to your Cloud Library as a JSON project and reopen them wherever you sign in. They're organized in folders alongside your other files, so you'll find them again later.

Use Cases

• Songwriters — Sketch a song's chords, lyrics, and structure in one place
• Worship & band leaders — Make Nashville number charts the whole band can read in any key, export to PDF or ChordPro
• Guitarists — Get fretboard voicings for every chord in the chart
• Teachers — Hand students a clean lead sheet, transposed to a comfortable key
• Arrangers — Map out sections, repeats, and endings, then check the playback
• Anyone with a ChordPro collection — Import an existing .cho/.chopro chart and build on it instead of starting from scratch

Related: Generate fixed-key chord diagrams with the Diagram Generator. Explore voicings and inversions in the Chord Explorer. Pick keys on the Circle of Fifths.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I make a chord chart online?

Open the Leadsheet Editor, set the key and time signature in the song info, then place chords on the beat grid — drag a chord from the Chords sidebar onto a beat slot, or click an empty slot to open the chord picker and choose a root and quality. Each chord can have its own quality, inversion, and bass note, and the beat grid controls how many chords fit in each bar. Add lyrics under the bars, mark sections and repeats, then export the finished chart to PDF or ChordPro.

Can I make a guitar chord chart?

Yes. Set the instrument to Guitar in the song info and each chord shows a fretboard diagram. You can choose an open, barré, or specific-position voicing for every chord.

Can I import a ChordPro file?

Yes. Use Load and pick a ChordPro file (.cho, .chopro, .crd, or .pro) — the editor detects the format automatically and reads the chords, lyrics, sections, and song info into a working chart. Because ChordPro doesn't store rhythm, the chords start out spread across the bars; from there you place them on the beat grid, add voicings, transpose, or switch to Nashville numbers like any other chart.

Does the Leadsheet Editor have ChordPro export?

Yes. The Leadsheet Editor has ChordPro export to the .cho format used by other chord-chart and worship apps, plus PDF export (including a Real Book-style variant). Charts can also be saved to your Cloud Library as a JSON project and reopened later.

Does it support the Nashville Number System?

Yes. Switch the Notation setting from Letters to Nashville and every chord is shown as its scale-degree number (1, 4, 5, 6m) instead of a letter name. Because the numbers describe each chord's position in the key, one number chart works in every one of the 12 keys — transpose without rewriting. Chords outside the key use accidental degrees like #1 or b3, the numbers appear above the beat grid and inline with the lyrics, and the whole chart exports to a printable PDF.

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