# HOW TO MAKE A CHORD CHART FOR YOUR BAND. one page, the whole song > How to make a chord chart your band can read: what goes on the page, which layout suits each player, and how to print one from any song’s recording. Source: https://chordlens.app/guides/how-to-make-a-chord-chart Worship and bands · 02 of 04 - Any instrument - Beginner - 9 min read - Updated Oct 2026 - Chord Lens Team The short answer To make a chord chart for your band, start from the recording you will play. Mark the sections, write each chord where it changes, and add the key, tempo and any capo at the top. Pick a layout each player can read: chords over words, or bars in a grid. Then print it in the key you’ll actually play. 01 / 09 · WHAT ## Less than sheet music, more than a list of chords. A chord chart is the page a band plays from. It doesn’t write out every note the way sheet music does. It gives the song’s shape, its sections in order, the chords in each one and where they change, and leaves each player to fill in their own part. A guitarist strums the chords, a bassist plays their roots, a keys player voices them, and a singer follows the words. That is why charts suit bands so well. One page works for every chord player, it fits on a music stand, and a player who reads chords can be playing a new song in minutes. A full score of the same song could run to a dozen pages, one part per instrument, and most church and pub bands have nobody to write it. Charts come in a few common shapes. A **lead sheet** puts the chord names above the words, on the syllable where each one changes. A **grid chart**, sometimes called a real-book chart, draws the bars as boxes with the chords inside them and no words. A **number chart** writes the chords as scale numbers instead of letters, so it works in any key. Most bands end up using two or three, depending on who is reading. 02 / 09 · THE PAGE ## Six things every band chart needs. **The title**, and the version if there is more than one. A live take and a studio take of the same song often differ in key and in arrangement. **The key, the tempo and any capo**, on one line under the title. A chart in G that a guitarist plays with a capo on 2 should say so, or the keys player ends up a tone away from the band. **The sections**, in order, each with its name: Intro, Verse 1, Chorus, Bridge, Outro. When the leader calls “back to the bridge”, every player needs to find it in a second. **The chords**, placed where they change. Over the words for a lead sheet, inside the bar for a grid. A chord held for two bars should look different from two chords in one bar. **The chord shapes**, for a newer player, drawn once at the top for the instrument they play rather than beside every chord. **The arrangement notes**: “×2”, “quiet”, “drums out”, “last time hold”. Many bands add these by hand on the printout, in pencil, because they change from week to week. 03 / 09 · METHOD ## Make a chord chart from the recording in six steps. You can write a chart from scratch by ear, and our guide to [transcribing a song](https://chordlens.app/guides/how-to-transcribe-a-song) walks through that. If the band plays from a recording, it is quicker to let the recording write the first draft. The Chord Lens Studio listens to the song and lays out its chords in time, its sections, its key and its tempo, and the chord sheet prints from that. In the screenshot the demo song Coming Home, recorded in B, is printed as a Lead chart for a guitarist with a capo on the second fret. The header reads “Key B · Capo 2 · 143 BPM”, the shapes print as A, D, E and F♯m, the open shapes a capo player actually fingers, and each section is named and timed down two columns. 1. **Open the recording** Paste the YouTube link of the version your band plays into the Chord Lens Studio, or drop in an MP3, WAV or M4A file. 2. **Check the sections** Look over the sections along the top. Rename any that are wrong and move their edges, since the chart is laid out by them. 3. **Set the key and capo** Press Key + or − to move the song to the key you play it in, and pick a capo if your guitarists use one. 4. **Pick the instrument** Choose guitar, bass, ukulele, mandolin or piano, and the shapes of every chord in the song print at the top for it. 5. **Pick the layout** Choose Lead, Lyrics or Grid on the chord sheet, and switch on Simplify or Nashville numbers if your band needs them. 6. **Print it** Press the chord sheet’s printer button. In the print window choose a printer, or save it as a PDF to send to the band. ![The printed Lead chart of the demo song Coming Home with a capo on the second fret: the header reads Key B · Capo 2 · 143 BPM, guitar shapes for A, D, E and F♯m print under In this song, and the Intro, Verse 1, Chorus and Outro sections are named and timed with the chords above the words in two columns.](https://chordlens.app/assets/guides/how-to-make-a-chord-chart/printed-lead-chart.webp) Key, capo and tempo The shapes to finger Each section named and timed 04 / 09 · LAYOUTS ## Lead, Lyrics or Grid. The Studio’s chord sheet has three views, and each prints in its own way. You don’t have to pick one for the whole band. Print the song once in each layout your players need; it only takes a press. **Lead** prints the chords riding on the words, in two columns that fill the left of each page before the right. It suits singers, acoustic guitarists and anyone who leads from the words. Instrumental bars, such as an intro, print as a row of chords. The shapes of the chords in the song print once at the top. **Grid** prints a real-book chart in one column: eight bars to a row, with the bar lines lined up down the page, each section boxed and named, and a double bar at the end of each section. Every bar has its chords written out, even when it repeats, so nobody has to count back. It suits a drummer, a bassist or a keys player who counts bars rather than reads words. Our guide to [worship set planning](https://chordlens.app/guides/worship-set-planning) shows a printed Grid in numbers. **Lyrics** prints only the words, in two columns, with no chords and no shapes. Give it to the vocalists, who want the words large and clear on the stand. Whatever the layout, no playback state prints: there is no highlighted chord and no position, just ink on white. The browser’s print window picks the paper size, Letter or A4, and the chart fits the page with a margin of its own. A song with no words, such as an instrumental, opens straight in Grid, since there is nothing for Lead or Lyrics to carry. That is usually the clearer page for one anyway. 05 / 09 · OPTIONS ## One song, a chart for every player. **A capo.** Pick a capo from 1 to 9 for guitar, ukulele or mandolin and every chord on the chart becomes the shape you play with it, while the song stays in its key. The header adds “Capo 2” so the rest of the band knows the chart is in shapes, not concert pitch. The [capo chart](https://chordlens.app/guides/capo-chart) shows which fret gives which key. Bass and piano take no capo, so their charts stay at concert pitch. **A new key.** Move the song with Key + or − and the chart is re-spelled for the new key, and the header shows the shift, such as “Key A (−2)”. This is the chart for the key your leader sings, not the key on the record. **Nashville numbers.** Switch on Nashville numbers and the chart reads 1, 4, 5 and 6m instead of letters, with “1 = B” in the header so everyone knows where 1 sits. Our guide to the [Nashville number system](https://chordlens.app/guides/nashville-number-system) explains how to read one. **Simplify.** Hard chords such as Cmaj7 or Dsus4 become the plain major or minor chord under them, so a newer player can keep up. The header adds “Simplified”, so nobody wonders why their chart looks different from the next person’s. **Sharps or flats.** The chart spells accidentals the way the key asks by default. Set it to Sharps or Flats if your band reads one more easily. 06 / 09 · CHECK IT ## A draft, checked by ear. A chart written from a recording is a very good first draft, but it is still a draft. Before it goes on the stands, play the song through with the chart and listen for three things: a chord that sounds wrong against the record, a section that starts in the wrong place, and a turn the band plays differently from the recording. Sections you can fix in the Studio by renaming or moving them, and the chart follows. The chords themselves can’t be edited there, so mark a correction on the printout in pencil, or copy the draft into your own chart as you check it. Our guide to [finding the chords of a song](https://chordlens.app/guides/how-to-find-chords-of-a-song) helps when a chord sounds off. Then add your arrangement on paper: the repeats the leader wants, the bars where the drums drop out, the tag at the end. Those change from Sunday to Sunday, so they belong on the printout rather than in the song. 07 / 09 · SHARE ## On the stand, or on a screen. Printing is part of Premium and Pro. On a computer the printer button opens the browser’s print window, where you can print or save a PDF to send to the band. On a phone it opens the phone’s own print sheet. On Free you can read every view on screen, follow it as the song plays, and use Simplify, a capo, a new key and Nashville numbers; only the print is for paid plans. A chart is easier to read on a screen than you might think, too. Any player can open the same song in the Studio and follow the chord sheet as it plays, with the current chord lit. That is handy at home, where nobody has a music stand. Words belong to the people who wrote them. If you hand out printed lyrics to a team or a congregation, check what your church’s song licence covers. A chart printed for your own use, to learn and rehearse, is what Chord Lens is for. When the chart is ready, the band still needs to hear where each section turns. [Worship guide tracks](https://chordlens.app/guides/worship-guide-track), the first step in this path, add a spoken count-in and section calls to the same song. 08 / 09 · Do it in one click ## Chord Lens Studio Open any song, set the key and capo, and print its chord chart as Lead, Lyrics or Grid on Premium and Pro. [Open Chord Lens Studio](https://chordlens.app/studio) [Open the Studio](https://chordlens.app/studio) 09 / 09 · Quick answers ## Quick answers. the short answers ### Still stuck? Open the Studio and send us a note with Feedback in its sidebar. A person reads every one. [Send feedback](https://chordlens.app/studio?feedback) ### How do I make a chord chart? Mark the song’s sections, write each chord where it changes, and put the key, tempo and any capo at the top. Chord Lens drafts one from a recording for you to check. ### Is there a free chord chart maker? Chord Lens shows any song’s chart free in the Studio, with a new key, a capo, Simplify and Nashville numbers. Printing the chart is part of Premium and Pro. ### Can I print a chord chart in a different key? Yes. Move the song with Key + or − first. The chart prints in the new key, and the header shows the key and how far it moved. ### Can I print a chart for capo? Yes, for guitar, ukulele or mandolin. Pick a capo and the chart prints the shapes to play with it, with the capo in the header. ### What is the difference between Lead and Grid? Lead prints the chords over the words in two columns. Grid prints the bars, eight to a row, with each section boxed and the bar lines lined up. ### Can I edit the chords on the chart? Not in the Studio. You can rename and move the sections, and the chart follows. Mark any chord you’d change on the printout in pencil. ### Can I save the chart as a PDF? Yes, on Premium and Pro. Press the printer button and choose to save it as a PDF in the print window, then send it to the band. ## Keep going [Previous in Worship and bands **01** Worship guide tracks](https://chordlens.app/guides/worship-guide-track) [Next in Worship and bands **03** Worship set planning](https://chordlens.app/guides/worship-set-planning) ### Related guides - [Worship and bands · Any instrument Worship set planning 9 min](https://chordlens.app/guides/worship-set-planning) - [Chords and keys · Any instrument Nashville numbers 8 min](https://chordlens.app/guides/nashville-number-system) - [Start here · Any instrument Transcribe a song 8 min](https://chordlens.app/guides/how-to-transcribe-a-song)