Song Viewer

The Song Viewer in JustChords is designed to keep you focused on playing by showing exactly the information you need: lyrics, chords, diagrams and quick tools, all in a configurable layout.

What you can see

The Song Viewer displays your song as a readable performance page with lyrics and chord symbols laid out like a song sheet.

Optional extras include:

Guitar or ukulele chord charts
Guitar tabs and simple melody diagrams (when present in the song)
Attached sheet music (PDF or image) for reference

You can tap any song section to select it, scroll to it and, if projection is enabled, project that section to your audience.

Showing and hiding elements

The viewer can be customized per song or globally to match different use cases such as practice, rehearsal or live performance.

Accessing viewer settings: Tap the Settings button in the Song Viewer to show or hide elements.

Toggleable components: Chords – Chord symbols above the lyrics.; Lyrics – Main text of the song.; Charts – Chord charts for guitar or ukulele.; Guitar tabs – Tab lines when the song contains guitar tab notation.; Sheet music – Attached PDFs or images, when available.; Melody – Simple melody diagram created in the Song Editor.

You can also open Zoom & Color to change the size of lyrics, chords, guitar tabs and chord charts, adjust chord color and enable or disable a monospaced font.

Song-specific settings

Most Song Viewer display settings — layout, which elements are shown, chord style, chord beats, zoom levels, lyrics background, metronome subdivision and more — are global by default: change one and it applies to every song. Any individual song can instead override these with its own settings.

Accessing song-specific settings: Open the Song Viewer Settings screen and tap Song‑specific at the top. This entry is gray while the song is using the global defaults, and turns colored as soon as at least one setting has been overridden for that song.; On the Song‑specific screen, every option follows the global default until you change it; anything you've overridden is highlighted so you can see at a glance how the song differs from your normal settings.; Tap Reset to Defaults to clear all overrides for the song and return to the global settings.

Per device type: Song-specific settings are saved separately for each device type – iPhone, iPad and Mac. An override you set while running JustChords on an iPad does not change how that same song looks on an iPhone or a Mac. To make a song look different on another device type, open Song‑specific again on that device type and set the override there too.; This makes it possible, for example, to show a simplified, large‑text layout for a song on a phone while keeping full chord diagrams for it on an iPad.

Syncing: Song-specific settings are stored together with the song itself, so they sync through iCloud along with the rest of your library. An override saved for "iPad" will therefore show up correctly on every iPad you use JustChords on, and an override saved for "iPhone" on every iPhone — but an iPad override never applies on an iPhone or Mac, and vice versa. Each device type keeps and syncs its own set of overrides for the song.

Scrolling songs

For songs longer than the screen height, the Song Viewer offers several scrolling options.

Manual scrolling

Swipe up or down to move through the song.
Tap a section to scroll to it and select it.

Autoscroll

Autoscroll is visible when enabled in settings (Quick Buttons / Autoscroll), View Mode is set to Scrolling (Layout menu), and the song exceeds screen height.

While autoscrolling, you can swipe to reposition; autoscroll continues from the new position.

Autoscroll speed is primarily taken from the song's Duration attribute, which you can edit in Song Editor. If not set, the default song duration of 1:30 is used (adjustable in settings under Quick Buttons / Autoscroll).

You can also enable +/- buttons in settings to adjust speed during scrolling.

Bluetooth pedal

Use a compatible foot pedal that sends Page Up/Down or Arrow Up/Down to jump between sections.
Tested pedals include AirTurn PEDPro and M‑VAVE Cube Turner.

Tapping sections or using a pedal also controls which part of the song is projected when lyrics projection is enabled.

Quick tools, transpose and capo

Action buttons in the bottom‑right corner give quick access to tools like transpose and capo while you play.

How to adjust key and capo: Tap the More… button.; Choose Transpose and select a new key.; Optionally choose Capo and set the fret position.; JustChords combines both settings to display the correct chord shapes for guitar.

You can use Discard transpose/capo in the same menu to revert to the original chords, and keep transpose/capo as temporary performance settings while using "Rewrite into key" in the Song Editor for permanent changes.

Sticky notes and other tools

You can quickly add sticky notes on the song to write musical instructions, cues or reminders and then move, resize, edit or delete them as needed.

The Song Viewer also works together with other tools such as the metronome, audio player and lyrics projection, so your setlists, timing and display stay in sync while you perform.