Chord Provider

A ChordPro file parser and editor for macOS, iPadOS and visionOS

Chord Provider is written in SwiftUI and needs Xcode 15 to compile.

• macOS Sonoma
• iPadOS 17
• visionOS 1.1

There are many "ChordPro" parsers in this world, however, none are really native in the Apple world.

I mean, in the macOS world, it is often an afterthought... Not for me. I'm mainly a mac user; the other versions are my afterthought...

The icon

A Telecaster shape, of course! In mid 2016 I felt in love with a guitar. An 'Olympic White'. That is the color of the shape. The background is a suitable modification of her 'plate'.

General

• It will view and/or edit ChordPro files.
• It can export a whole folder with ChordPro files to a PDF with a Table of Contents.
• It has an editor that highlights your chords and directives with colors you can change in the settings.
• It recognise most of the ChordPro directives, but not all.
• It can show diagrams for the guitar, guitalele and ukulele.
• You can click on a chord diagram and it will open a Sheet with all known versions.
• It can transpose a song; however, only in the View. The document will not be changed and that's on purpose.
• You can 'define' a Capo but that will not change any notes in the document; again on purpose.
• It can export your song to a PDF document.
• It can play chords with MIDI with a guitar instrument that you can select in the settings. Note: This does not work in a simulator.
• It can play audio songs when stored next to the ChordPro file when defined with {musicpath: file-name.m4a} and when a music folder is selected (sandbox restriction).
• Full 'left-handed' chords support.

macOS

• It has a 'Song List' Window for your songs if you select a folder.
• It has a 'quicklook' plugin for ChordPro files. Select a song in the Finder and press space
• It makes thumbnails for your ChordPro files.
• It has a fancier editor with linenumbers and you can edit a directive by double-clicking on it.

Some other guitar applications claim the ownership of ChordPro files and then the quicklook does not work anymore. Chord Provider does not own them; nobody should...

iPadOS

• It is not tested on a real device.

visionOS

• Currently DocumentGroup is partly broken. Resizing the window does not really work and closing the PDF quickview will close the whole document. (Xcode 15.4).
• It is the future; however, not yet.
• It is not tested on a real device.

Limitations

Not all chords in the database are correct; especially the more complicated chords. I wrote Chords Database for macOS and iPadOS to view and alter the database with all known chords. Feel free to contribute!

Only the macOS version is well-tested. I don't have iDevices that are supported by the current software version and I have no intention to buy one anytime soon.

iCloud

The iPadOS app will make an iCloud folder named Chord Provider; that's where your songs should be stored. In the macOS app, you can select a folder with your songs. If you use the same iCloud folder; updates are instantly.

Thanks

Stole code (and ideas) from:

• Swifty Chords
• SongPro for Swift
• Conscriptor
• PdfBuilder
• HighlightedTextEditor
• LNTextView

Used packages

All my own and in my GitHub account.

• SwiftlyChordUtilities: Handle musical chords
• SwiftlyFolderUtilities: Handle folder selection and monitoring
• SwiftlyAlertMessage: Alerts and confirmation dialogs

I like to start my package names with Swiftly instead of the usual Swifty {.leading} or Kit {.trailing}.

This is simply because it sounds more pleasing to me.

How to compile

Xcode 15 is required.

1. Clone the project.
2. Change the signing certificate to your own.
3. Build and run!