1 Getting Started
App Navigation
GuitarPT has 4 main tabs:
| Tab | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Songs | Your music library — all imported and recorded songs |
| Leadsheets | All your chord charts |
| Projects | Organize songs and leadsheets into themed groups |
| Setlists | Ordered lists for gigs or practice sessions |
You can reorder tabs by long-pressing and dragging them.
Loading Your First Song
From the Player (quickest): Tap the folder icon in the top-right corner, pick an audio or video file. The waveform and analysis (BPM, chords) start automatically.
From the Library: Open the Songs tab and tap any song — the player opens immediately.
Import Menu (+)
Tap the + button in the Songs tab to open the consolidated import menu:
| Menu Item | Sub-menu / Action |
|---|---|
| Import Song | File / Media Library / Band Folder |
| Recording | Opens the recording screen |
| Leadsheet from Photo | Camera / Gallery |
| Create Leadsheet | Opens the Leadsheet Creator |
| Import Leadsheet | Pick a .json or .zip file |
Supported Formats
| Type | Formats |
|---|---|
| Audio | MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, FLAC |
| Video | MP4, MOV |
2 Playing Music
Basic Playback
- Play / Pause — tap the large button in the center.
- Skip forward / back — use the + and − buttons. The skip distance scales with your current zoom level (e.g. at 10× zoom, each tap skips only 1 second).
Navigating the Waveform
| Gesture | Action |
|---|---|
| Tap on waveform (audio only) | Jump to that position |
| Swipe horizontally | Pan the view |
| Swipe vertically (up/down) | Zoom in / out |
| Two-finger pinch (audio only) | Zoom in / out |
The zoom range goes from 1× (full song overview) to 15× (detailed view). Skip buttons automatically adjust to the zoom level.
Playback Speed
Change the tempo without affecting pitch — perfect for practicing difficult passages.
- Tap the Speed button (shows current percentage).
- A slider appears: 25% to 150% with snap points at 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, 125%, 150%.
- Double-tap the Speed button to instantly reset to 100%.
- The button glows when speed ≠ 100%.
Transpose
Shift the pitch up or down without changing the tempo — useful for matching a different tuning or key.
- Tap the Transp. button → slider from −12 to +12 semitones.
- While calculating, a progress bar fills across the panel.
- Double-tap to reset to 0.
- The button shows the active value (e.g.
+3) and glows when active.
3 BPM & Chord Detection
After loading a file, analysis runs automatically in the background:
- BPM appears next to the time display (e.g. "92.5 BPM").
- Re-analyze — tap the refresh icon (↻) next to the BPM display to restart the analysis.
- Chord ribbon — a horizontal band below the time display, scrolling left through the song. The current chord sits at the centre playhead; upcoming chords approach from the right with their actual durations, so you can see how long each one lasts before it changes. Cell colours follow the app accent and get darker towards the song's tonic.
- Key badge — small pill above the ribbon showing the song's current key (e.g. "G Dur"). Updates live as the playhead crosses modulations; a ↔ icon appears while a non-initial key is active. Only filled in for Mac-analysed songs with the LLM layer.
- Layer toggle — three-segment switch Analysis · Simplified · Theory above the ribbon, available for Mac-analysed songs (see Chapter 4). Segments without data are dimmed.
- Confidence indicator — uncertain chords are dimmed and labelled with a "?" suffix in the Analysis layer.
- Silence detection — silence at the beginning is recognised and not filled with placeholder chords.
Scrubbing the Ribbon
The chord ribbon is also a navigation surface:
- Drag horizontally to scrub — the waveform, time text and (in video mode) the video frame follow live.
- Release with momentum for a wheel-style fling: the band keeps rolling and decelerates exponentially, the way a spinning record settles. The longer your flick, the further you travel.
- Modulation markers — for Mac-analysed songs with the LLM layer, a thin accent line + a "→ C Dur"-style label appears on the ribbon wherever the key changes, so you see a modulation coming before the badge above flips.
How Chord Detection Works
The chord analysis runs entirely on-device — your audio never leaves the phone, and there's nothing to set up. For an even better result on dense productions, a paired Mac can take over via stem separation + an optional music-theory layer — see Chapter 4 (Mac Analysis & Stems).
A few things are worth knowing about how the recognizer behaves, so you can read its output at a glance:
- Beat-aware — chords are anchored to the detected beats and bars, so the chord strip stays in sync with the actual groove instead of drifting on a fixed clock.
- Key-aware — the recognizer figures out the song's key (and follows modulations within a song). It uses that both to favour chords that fit and to spell accidentals correctly (so you'll see
A♭in F minor, notG♯). - Confidence-aware — every chord ships with a confidence value. Uncertain chords appear in orange with a
?suffix, and the coloured bar underneath the chord strip tells you at a glance which segments to trust. - Tasteful slash chords — slash chords show up only when they actually carry musical meaning (1st-inversion bass, walking-bass passing tones), not whenever the bass plays a different note — see the rules below.
- Silence- and junk-aware — silent intros stay empty, and short low-confidence events at the very start are dropped instead of cluttering the strip.
Slash Chord Display Rules
To keep the chord strip readable, only musically meaningful slash chords are shown:
| Bass note | Displayed? | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Third in bass (1st inversion) | ✓ shown | Am/C, G/B, C/E |
| Walking-bass / passing tone | ✓ shown | Am/G |
| Fifth in bass (2nd inversion) | ✗ collapsed to the plain chord | |
| Non-diatonic / cluster | ✗ blocked |
4 Mac Analysis & Stems
GuitarPT can run its analysis in two places:
- On-device (Chapter 3) — runs straight inside the iPhone/iPad app. Always available, but limited by what the phone's CPU can do in a reasonable time.
- On a paired Mac — runs the same analysis on a real desktop with a dedicated stem-separator and an optional music-theory LLM pass. Much higher accuracy, especially for dense mixes.
This chapter explains what the Mac pipeline does, how to install the companion app, and how the iPhone/iPad app delegates work to it.
What the Mac Pipeline Adds
- Stem separation — the song is split into drums, bass, vocals and the rest before chord analysis runs. The recogniser then looks only at the harmonic stem, which makes chords on cluttered productions (90s pop, modern rock, dense electronic) substantially cleaner.
- Music-theory interpretation (LLM-based, optional) — adds key, mode, Roman-numeral analysis, song sections (Verse / Chorus / Bridge / …) and modulations on top of the chord stream. Cost ≈ 1–3 cents per song through an OpenAI API key you provide. See Settings → LLM Interpretation (Chapter 14).
- Enharmonic spelling — chord names follow the song's key per circle-of-fifths conventions: F-major uses ♭'s, D-major uses ♯'s, and modulations within the song re-spell accordingly.
- Key-change markers — the chord ribbon shows where modulations happen, the top-bar key badge follows the playhead and pre-announces the next key change.
Installing the Companion App
The companion app's job is to pick up analysis jobs from iCloud, run them locally, and write the results back into iCloud where the iPhone picks them up. On the Mac you don't interact with it during normal use — once it's installed it just sits in the menu bar.
What you'll need to provide once:
- Same iCloud account as your iPhone/iPad (the app uses your private iCloud container — no cloud storage outside Apple).
- An OpenAI API key if you want the music-theory layer. Without one the chord analysis still benefits from stems, only the Roman-numeral / section / modulation pass is skipped.
Triggering a Mac Analysis from the iPhone / iPad
Once the companion app is running on a reachable Mac, every song's analysis button gets a new option:
- Tap the ↻ icon next to the BPM in the player.
- In the menu, choose Better analysis (Mac). The dot next to the icon shows your Mac's state: green = online, amber = checking, red = offline, grey = not configured.
- The iPhone uploads the song to iCloud, the Mac picks it up, and the player shows live status: waiting → loading iCloud → separating stems → analysing chords → done. Typical end-to-end time on Apple Silicon: 30–90 s per song.
While the Mac analysis is running you can keep using the player with the existing on-device analysis. When the new result lands it replaces the previous one in place.
Layers in the Chord Ribbon
Mac-analysed songs expose three layers in the player's chord ribbon — switch between them with the segmented control above the band:
- Analysis — the raw output of the recogniser, every chord event the model decided on. Closest to "what the model heard".
- Simplified — a popcore-style cleanup that collapses transient passing chords and short low-confidence events. Easier to read, still in chord names.
- Theory — Roman-numeral view with T / SD / D function pins, the actual chord names shown small underneath. Only available after the LLM-interpretation pass has run.
When Things Don't Work
- Mac shows offline. Check the companion app's menu-bar icon. Most common cause: the Mac went to sleep with iCloud sync paused.
- Analysis stalls at "loading iCloud". iOS hasn't pushed the audio file yet — keep the iPhone awake with GuitarPT in the foreground for a minute. The companion app uses
brctl downloadto nudge iCloud once the file shows up. - "Demux: Timeout" snackbar. The Mac didn't respond within ~5 minutes. Either the file is very long, or the Mac is overloaded. Tap re-analyse to re-queue.
- Theory layer stays empty. Either the LLM mode is set to Off, the OpenAI key isn't configured, or the LLM call failed (network / quota). Switch the mode in Settings → LLM Interpretation.
5 Markers & Loops
Setting Markers
Markers let you bookmark important positions in a song (e.g. verse, chorus, guitar solo).
- Set a marker — tap the Marker button to place a marker at the current playback position.
- Markers are automatically named alphabetically (A, B, C…) and sorted by time.
- If a marker already exists within 100ms, no duplicate is created.
Working with Markers
| Action | How to |
|---|---|
| Jump to a marker | Tap the play icon next to it, or double-tap the list entry |
| Select a marker | Tap it in the list (it glows), or tap it on the waveform |
| Move a marker | Select it, then drag it horizontally on the waveform |
| Move marker to playback position | Double-tap a selected marker on the waveform |
| Delete a marker | Swipe left on the list entry |
When dragging a marker, precision scales with the zoom level — zoom in for fine adjustments.
Looping
A loop automatically repeats a section between two markers:
- Set at least two markers (e.g. A and B).
- Tap the Loop button — if two markers are already selected, the loop starts between them. If markers exist but none are selected, the first two are auto-selected.
- Tap the Loop button again to deactivate.
- Double-tap the Loop button (while looping) to jump back to the loop start.
- When a loop starts, the waveform zooms to show the entire loop section.
- Moving a marker while looping updates the loop range instantly.
- Manually zooming overrides the auto-zoom; the view then follows the playback position.
- The loop is automatically deactivated if a marker is deleted or deselected.
Loop Sections
Two markers can be merged into a Loop Section — a persistent, named loop region.
| Action | How to |
|---|---|
| Create loop section | Start a loop between two markers — they merge into a loop section |
| Switch sections | Tap a loop section button during playback |
| Dissolve section | Swipe left on the loop section |
- Up to 3 loop sections per song are supported.
- Waveform highlighting — the active loop section is shown prominently; inactive sections are displayed subtly.
- Persistence — loop sections are saved to the database and restored when you reopen the song.
6 Songs Library
Browsing & Searching
- Search — use the search field at the top (autocorrect is disabled). Results filter live as you type.
- Sort — tap the sort button (top right) to sort by date, title (A–Z), or manual order.
- Manual sorting — drag and drop songs to reorder them.
Managing Songs
Each song has a three-dot menu (⋮) with options:
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Add to Setlist | Add the song to a setlist |
| Link Leadsheet | Attach a leadsheet to this song (creates a bundle) |
| Unlink Leadsheet | Remove the leadsheet link |
| Rename | Change the song title |
You can also swipe left on a song to delete it.
Song-Leadsheet Bundles
Songs and leadsheets can be linked together so they function as a unit:
- A linked leadsheet shows a key badge in the song's subtitle (e.g. "A" or "Cm") — tap it to jump to the leadsheet editor.
- A larger leadsheet icon appears next to the three-dot menu — tap for quick access.
- A linked song shows an icon in the leadsheet's subtitle — tap it to open the player.
- Links are preserved when saving the leadsheet.
7 Leadsheets Library
Browsing & Searching
- Sort — tap the sort button (top right) to sort by date, title (A–Z), or manual order.
- Manual sorting — drag and drop leadsheets to reorder them.
Managing Leadsheets
Each leadsheet has a three-dot menu (⋮) with options:
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Rename | Change the leadsheet title |
| Assign to Project | Assign or change the project assignment |
| Link with Song | Attach a song to this leadsheet |
| Unlink from Song | Remove the song link |
| Delete | Delete the leadsheet |
You can also swipe left on a leadsheet to delete it.
Subtitle Information
The leadsheet subtitle shows:
- Linked song name (with audio icon — tap to open player)
- Assigned project name (with folder icon)
- Time signature and section count
Tap the + button (bottom right) while on the Leadsheets tab to create a new chord chart.
8 Projects & Setlists
Projects
Projects group songs and leadsheets into themed collections (e.g. "Band Project", "May Concert").
Project Detail View
- Songs and leadsheets are shown in separate sections.
- Each item has a three-dot menu for management.
- Linked leadsheets are integrated into the song list — they don't appear separately. Instead, a tappable key badge (e.g. "A" or "Cm") appears on the linked song.
Adding Items
- Songs: Import files directly into the project using the + button, or assign from the Songs tab.
- Leadsheets: Use the three-dot menu → "Assign to Project".
Removing Items
Three-dot menu → "Remove" (only removes the assignment, not the item itself).
Setlists
Setlists contain songs and leadsheets in a defined order, perfect for gigs and practice sessions.
Adding Items
- Tap the + button.
- Choose "Add Song" or "Add Leadsheet".
- Pick from the available items.
| Action | How to |
|---|---|
| Reorder | Drag and drop entries |
| Remove | Three-dot menu → "Remove" |
Position numbers are displayed automatically.
9 Band Folder
The band folder import is available through the import dialog in the Songs tab:
- Tap the + button in the Songs tab.
- Choose "From Band Folder".
- First time: select an iCloud folder using the iOS picker.
- The folder contents are listed with name, size, and modification date.
- Only audio and video files can be imported — non-supported files (PDFs, images, text files) are shown dimmed without an import button.
- Tap the Import button next to a file.
- A loading indicator shows the download progress.
- Once imported, the file appears in your Library immediately.
- Change folder — tap "Change Folder" in the top right.
- Search — the search field filters the file list.
10 Leadsheet Creator
Create chord charts directly in the app — fast and intuitive using gestures.
Creating a Leadsheet
- From a song: tap the three-dot menu → "Create Leadsheet".
- Standalone: tap the + button in the Leadsheets tab.
Key & Time Signature
A circle of fifths appears when creating a new leadsheet, with colorful pie/wedge segments:
- Major keys on the outer ring, minor keys on the inner ring.
- Swipe across the keys — each highlights and enlarges as you touch it.
- Release to select the key.
- Time signature above the circle: 4/4, 3/4, 6/8, or 7/4.
- Segment colors reflect your chosen accent color from Settings.
Working with Sections
Sections represent parts of the song (Intro, Verse, Bridge, Chorus, etc.).
| Action | Gesture |
|---|---|
| Activate a section | Tap it |
| Clear a section | Tap the clear icon (⊘) on the right of the header |
| Delete a section | Swipe left |
| Copy chords to next section | Swipe right |
| Change repeat count | Tap ×1 / ×2 / ×3 / ×4 |
| Reorder sections | Long-press and drag up/down (inactive sections only) |
| Add a new section | Tap "Add Section" button |
| Add a 1st / 2nd ending (volta) | "+ 1st ending" / "+ 2nd ending" chips below the bars of the active section. Without a 1st ending the 2nd slot doubles as a tail / coda ("+ Tail / 2nd ending"). |
Section colors: sections sharing the same name (case-insensitive) automatically get the same color from an 8-slot palette. The mapping is deterministic by first appearance, so the editor, roadmap strip and Performance View always show identical colors across devices.
Entering Chords
Chords are entered from the palette at the bottom of the screen (diatonic + extended harmonies based on the selected key).
| Gesture on a Chord | Result |
|---|---|
| Tap | Up to 4 chords per beat |
| Short swipe up | Up to 2 chords per beat |
| Long swipe up | 1 chord per beat (starts a new bar) |
Editing Chords
| Action | Gesture |
|---|---|
| Delete a bar (and mark position) | Swipe the bar down |
| Move a bar | Long-press and drag horizontally |
| View/delete chords in a bar | Tap the bar to open the editor sheet |
| Halve the beat length (1 → 2) | Button in the section header |
| Double the beat length (2 → 1) | Button in the section header |
After deleting a bar, a pulsing colored marker appears. The next chord swiped up fills that position automatically.
Setting BPM
- BPM is shown in the key picker area.
- Tap Tempo: tap the BPM button rhythmically — BPM is calculated automatically.
- +/− buttons adjust BPM by 1. Range: 40–240 BPM.
Playback
Play back your leadsheet with a full backing track (Piano, Bass, and Drums via General MIDI SoundFont).
| Style | Character |
|---|---|
| Rock | Kick on 1 & 3, snare on 2 & 4, steady hi-hat |
| Jazz Swing | Swing feel, walking bass, ride cymbal |
| Bossa Nova | Syncopated Latin groove |
| Latin | Latin percussion with tumbao bass |
| Reggae | One-drop drums, skank chords on 2 & 4 |
| Funk | Syncopated bass, ghost notes |
| Country | Boom-chuck pattern, country feel |
| Ballad | Gentle groove with brushes |
BPM changes take effect immediately during playback. Double-tap a section name to start playback from that point.
Performance View
- Tap the full-screen icon in the app bar to enter Performance View.
- Chord symbols are rendered in Real Book style: full-size root + small accidental (♯/♭), superscript extensions (
7,△7,add9,♭9,♯11, …) and subscript bass (/X) — with a constant baseline so all chords align across rows. - Repeat counters (×2, ×3, etc.) appear prominently on the right side of each section.
- The currently playing chord is highlighted in color.
- Tap the invert button to switch between white-on-black and black-on-white.
Song Roadmap (overview strip)
- A persistent strip at the top shows every section as a colored pill — initials on iPhone, full name on iPad — so the entire song flow is visible at a glance during a hands-free performance.
- The active pill is highlighted, and a thin underline progress bar moves across it bar-by-bar in sync with the BandArranger.
- Empty sections stay visible (dimmed) so the structural overview is always complete.
- The strip auto-scrolls so the active pill is always in view.
Dynamic Row Layout & Merge Gesture
- Bars per row adapts to the device: 8 on iPad in landscape, 4 otherwise. A 5- or 6-bar section sits on a single row instead of being force-split.
- Long-press a short row and drag it up to merge it into the row above it (e.g.
4+4+2→4+6). A one-time onboarding banner explains the gesture; it disappears after the first successful merge or when dismissed manually. - The Reset chip in the section header reverts the layout to the automatic distribution.
- Per-section layouts are stored with the leadsheet and synced.
4+4+2.
4+6.Volta Endings in Performance View
- 1st and 2nd endings appear as their own colored rows underneath the body bars (amber for 1st, accent color for 2nd).
- During playback the highlight automatically follows the volta path.
Song Flow (explicit play order)
- A compact flow preview bar sits above the section dashboard in the editor: small colored mini-pills show the current order including repeats, with an Edit chip on the right.
- Tapping the bar opens the dedicated Song Flow Editor:
- Drag-to-reorder of sections, remove individual entries.
- + Section FAB to append a section to the flow (the picker shows bar count and any 1st/2nd ending markers).
- Default reset button (top right, only visible when a custom flow is set).
- An empty list collapses back to the implicit default ("each section once, in editor order").
- Why it exists: a chorus played 3 times is now stored as one section and listed three times in the flow — instead of duplicating chord data across three identical sections.
Photo Import (OCR)
Import handwritten or printed lead sheets by photo:
- Tap the camera icon in the key picker (circle of fifths).
- Take a photo or choose one from your gallery.
- The OpenAI Vision API analyzes the image automatically.
- A preview shows the recognized key, sections, and chords.
- Tap Import to apply.
Recognized elements: Chord symbols (Cm, D7, G7, E♭△7, Aø7, etc.), section markers (A, B, Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge), repeat counters (2×, 3×, 4×), repeat signs (./. or %), bar lines, and style hints (Medium Swing, Bossa, etc.).
Saving
- Save: tap the save icon (top right). The leadsheet is stored with key, time signature, BPM, and style.
- Song and project links are preserved when saving.
- If you leave without saving, a dialog asks to Save / Discard / Cancel.
11 Leadsheet Export / Import
Share leadsheets with other GuitarPT users or back them up as files.
Exporting a Single Leadsheet
- Tap the three-dot menu (⋮) on a leadsheet.
- Choose "Export".
- A
.guitarpt.jsonfile is shared via the iOS Share Sheet (AirDrop, Mail, Files, etc.).
Exporting All Leadsheets in a Project
- Open a project's detail view.
- Tap the upload icon in the top bar.
- All leadsheets in the project are bundled into a
.guitarpt.zipfile and shared via the Share Sheet.
Importing Leadsheets
- Tap the + button.
- Choose "Import Leadsheet".
- Pick a
.jsonor.zipfile from your device. - The leadsheet(s) are added to your library.
The JSON format includes: title, key, time signature, BPM, style, sections, bars, and chords.
12 Recording
Record ideas or practice sessions directly in the app.
- Open the Songs tab and tap the microphone icon (top right).
- Tap the large button to start recording.
- A live waveform scrolls as you record; the timer shows elapsed time (red = recording active).
- Tap again to stop.
After Recording
| Action | How to |
|---|---|
| Save | Enter a title (optional), then tap "Save" — appears in your Library |
| Share | Tap "Share" — iOS share sheet opens with the recording file |
| Re-record | Tap "New Recording" — discards the current take and starts fresh |
If you close without saving, the temporary file is automatically deleted.
13 iCloud Sync
GuitarPT keeps your library in sync across all your devices through Apple CloudKit. Both metadata (songs, projects, markers, leadsheets, setlists) and the actual media files (audio, video, photos) travel through your private iCloud space — nothing is sent to any third-party server.
Turning Sync On
- Open Settings (gear icon, top right of the library).
- Toggle iCloud Sync on.
- The first sync starts automatically and pulls everything that already exists in iCloud.
What Gets Synced
| Data | Notes |
|---|---|
| Songs | Metadata + the audio/video/photo file as a CKAsset |
| Projects | Project structure and song/leadsheet assignments |
| Markers | All markers with positions and labels |
| Loop sections | Defined practice regions |
| Leadsheets | Chord charts including sections, key, BPM, style |
| Setlists | Setlists with entries and order |
Cloud Status Badge
In the Songs library every row shows a small cloud icon next to the date that tells you whether the file is on this device:
| Icon | Meaning |
|---|---|
| (no icon) | The file is on this device and ready to play. |
| Light blue cloud-download | The file is in iCloud but not on this device. Tap the icon to download it (a spinner replaces the icon while downloading). |
| Muted cloud-off | The file is neither on this device nor in iCloud. Re-import or use the recovery action below. |
The badge updates automatically after every sync, heal pass, or download — you don't have to refresh the list manually.
Download on Demand
Opening a song whose file is only in iCloud automatically downloads it before playback. You can also start a download manually by tapping the cloud icon.
Healing & Recovery Tools
| Action | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Re-upload media files | Forces every song with a local file to push its file to iCloud again. Useful if you suspect cloud copies are missing. |
| Recover from iCloud Drive | Restores media files uploaded by an older app version that are stuck in the legacy iCloud Drive container. Hydrates them from iCloud and re-uploads them as proper CKAssets. May take a few minutes. |
| Cloud Reset & Resync | Wipes all GuitarPT data from iCloud and restarts a clean sync from this device. Last-resort option. |
After every sync, an automatic heal pass detects songs with a local file but no cloud copy and queues them for the next push.
Storage View & Sync Log
- Storage usage broken down into Local, In iCloud, and Pending.
- Sync history — a scrollable log of every sync run with timestamp and status, useful for diagnosing problems.
14 Settings
Open the Settings via the gear icon (⚙) in the top-right corner of the library. The screen is one long scroll: theme on top, sync & AI-related settings below, app info at the bottom.
Accent Color
Five themes are available — the colour is applied across every screen: buttons, highlights, the chord-ribbon cells, the circle-of-fifths segments, key-change markers, and more.
- Warm Gold (default), Blue, Copper, Violet, Teal
Your choice persists across app restarts.
Language
The app follows your iOS / iPadOS system language automatically. English and German are fully supported. Switch your device language in Settings → General → Language & Region and GuitarPT picks it up on the next launch.
Audio Analysis
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Show Chord Detection | On | When off, no chord analysis runs after loading a song. BPM, chord ribbon, layer toggle, and confidence indicators are hidden in the player. |
Turn it off if you only need the player for playback, looping or recording without the analysis overhead.
iCloud Sync
Status header showing whether sync is active, how much storage is used in iCloud, and how many songs / leadsheets are pushed up vs. pending. Recovery actions live in the same card:
- Re-upload media files — re-queues any audio/video file whose local copy diverged from iCloud.
- Recover from iCloud Drive — pulls orphaned files in the iCloud container back into the library as fresh songs.
- Import orphaned iCloud files as songs — wraps stray files without local copies as new songs (asks first).
- Show cloud content (diagnosis) — a read-only dump of what's currently in your iCloud container, useful for spotting accidental duplicates.
- Cloud reset & resync — wipes the cloud and uploads everything from this device again. Last-resort fix for sync drift; takes a few minutes.
See Chapter 13 (iCloud Sync) for the full story.
Leadsheet Photo Import (OpenAI API Key)
An OpenAI API key powers the photo-to-leadsheet OCR import (Chapter 10). Without a key the OCR features are simply hidden — everything else continues to work.
- Get a key at platform.openai.com → API keys. Expect a few cents per OCR pass.
- The key is stored encrypted on-device and is also re-used for the LLM Interpretation feature below.
LLM Interpretation (experimental)
Adds a music-theory layer on top of the regular chord analysis: key, mode, Roman numerals, sections (verse / chorus / …), and modulations. The chord events themselves are never modified — this is strictly an enrichment pass.
Runs only on songs that went through the Mac analysis pipeline (see Chapter 4). Costs roughly 1–3 cents per song.
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Off (default) | No LLM enrichment. The Theory layer in the chord ribbon stays empty for songs without a previously cached interpretation. |
| Manually per song | Enabled via a toggle in the player's analyse menu. Useful when you want the theory layer only for the song you're currently studying. |
| Automatic | Every Mac analysis is run through the LLM. Recommended once you trust the pipeline. |
Once the interpretation has run, switch the chord ribbon to the Theory layer in the player to see Roman numerals, T/SD/D function pins, and key-change markers along the ribbon.
About
The footer card shows the app version + build, links to this manual, the privacy policy, and the open-source licences used by the app.
15 Video
Video files (MP4, MOV) are fully supported. The video fills the available area and the waveform is overlaid at the bottom (semi-transparent). Video thumbnails in the library are captured at the 5-second mark for more meaningful preview images.
All features — markers, loops, speed, zoom, BPM, chords — work identically to audio mode. Transpose is not available for video.
Video-Specific Controls
| Action | Gesture |
|---|---|
| Zoom the video (1×–4×) | Two-finger pinch or vertical slider on the right |
| Pan the video | One-finger drag on the video |
| Reset video zoom | Drag slider all the way down |
| Zoom the waveform | Vertical drag on the waveform bar |
| Move waveform position | Double-tap the waveform to toggle between top and bottom |
16 Tips & Shortcuts
| Shortcut | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Double-tap Speed button | Reset speed to 100% |
| Double-tap Transp. button | Reset transposition to 0 |
| Double-tap Loop button (while looping) | Jump to loop start |
| Double-tap marker on waveform | Move marker to current playback position |
| Zoom in before dragging a marker | More precise marker placement |
| Tap loop section button | Switch between loop sections during playback |
| Swipe left on loop section | Dissolve back into individual markers |
| Swipe right on a section | Copy chords to the next section |
| Double-tap section name during playback | Start playback from that section |
| Three-dot menu → Export | Export a leadsheet as .guitarpt.json |
| Long-press + drag tabs | Reorder the main tabs |
| Three-dot menu on songs/leadsheets | Rename, link, assign, share, export, delete |