BETTER BY SUNDAY w/ PCO
LET CHORDPRO HELP YOU | Ed Kerr
I’ve been a Planning Center Online (PCO) user
these lines from “10,000 Reasons”:
since the days it was in beta. It’s been amazing
Reasons” in Eb major. Yep. Eb major.
to watch the site grow into such a popular and Verse 1
powerful tool for worship leaders and worship The [G]sun comes [D]up it's a [A]new day [Bm]
teams around the world. Like many of you dawning
reading this magazine, I can truly say that I [G] It's time to [D]sing Your song[A] again [Bm]
have come to depend on PCO’s features in my
weekly work as a worship leader.
just saved yourself is huge. Here’s “10,000
Ready to spend some time exploring ChordPro
This text will appear in ChordPro as:
in PCO? You can access it from the arrangement
view of a song. Once you’re in the arrangement
For several years I used the site mainly for
view, click on the “Lyrics & Chords” box.
scheduling my volunteers and organizing my
song list. Then a few years ago I discovered
ChordPro. It’s become one my favorite parts of
PCO. I’m not tech-head enough to understand Notice that I’m able to force my chord to land exactly what ChordPro does, but Wikipedia wherever I want it to. If I want it to align with the says it’s “an ASCII text file format for transcribing first letter of a word, bracket the chord name You may see text here already. If not, copy
songs with chords and lyrics.” I do understand, just before the letter. In example above, type your lyric and paste it into the empty box
though, how valuable it is to those of us who [G]sun, for example. If I want the chord played on the left. Then start entering your chord
sometimes change keys for our songs and before the lyric is sung, I type the bracketed names surrounded by brackets. Note that
those of us who might want to change a chord chord, a space, and the lyric. For “It’s time to ChordPro recognizes most commonly used
here and there in an arrangement. sing”, I type [G] space and “it’s time”. If I want a section names, like Verse, Chorus, Bridge and
chord to land just after a lyric, as you see with Instrumental. Just type those names and head
the A after “song” above, I type song[A]. to your next lyric line.
gives you the ability to customize a chord chart Whew! Don’t worry. Bracketing your chords Be patient with yourself. Once you see your
however you choose. In ChordPro you’re able just takes a little getting used to. Part of the preview screen update a few times showing
to change fonts and font size, choose layout beauty of how PCO presents the ChordPro you what your chord chart is going to look
options, add page breaks, etc. Some of you are workspace is that they give you a window for like and how perfectly placed your chords and
ready to move on the next article here. Some of text entry alongside a window that updates as lyrics are, you’ll start working more and more in
you, though, want to understand how you can you type to show you just what your chart will this ChordPro window. If you’re a person who
use ChordPro yourself. look like. (FIG. 1) likes to re-harmonize songs or perhaps create
As its simplest level, ChordPro helps me create When you’re ready to transpose a song, you’ll of services, you’ll find ChordPro an invaluable
chord charts that look great whatever key I be glad you learned how to use ChordPro. In tool. I know I do every week.
choose. In the past I might have used a word PCO, just choose the desired key for your song processor like Microsoft Word to make my and the display window automatically updates. chord charts. If I wanted to change the key All the spacing of chords above lyrics is perfect! for my chart I’d have to go through the chart With one click. The time and frustration you
These days you can find chord charts for
worship songs from many sources. ChordPro
different arrangements for your different types
and retype every chord name and make sure
everything lined up well. Those days are gone
FIG. 1
Ed Kerr
Ed Kerr lives in Seattle with his family. He serves as
worship arts director at First Free Methodist Church,
teaches keyboards in Paul Baloche’s leadworship
workshops and is a clinician with Yamaha’s House
of Worship. He also manages the Yamaha Worship
Facebook group and invites you to join the group.
www.KerrTunes.com
now that I use ChordPro. As I’m typing in the
lyrics to my song, I simply have to surround my
chord name with a bracket [ ]. The text within
the bracket is recognized by ChordPro as a
chord, and it will appear above the lyric, like
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February 2019
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