Quick Start Guide
Master UndeadChords in 5 minutes!
What you'll learn
1 The Home Page
When you launch UndeadChords, the Home page greets you with a video showcasing the app in action. Below the video, quick-access buttons let you jump straight to the features you need:
- Songs — Open your song library
- Style Search — Find harmony grids by artist
- Tuner — Tune your guitar or ukulele
- Settings — Customize the app
💡 Tip: The Home page is your dashboard. Use the quick-access buttons to navigate faster instead of switching tabs.
2 Interactive Tutorial
New to UndeadChords? The app includes a built-in 6-page illustrated tutorial presented as a swipeable carousel. It walks you through the key features step by step:
- How to create and edit songs with chord notation
- How to use Style Search to find harmony grids
- How to read chord diagrams and explore fingerings
- How to use the tuner and reference tones
- How to practice with rhythm and picking patterns
- How to organize your songs in Books
💡 Tip: You can access the tutorial at any time from the Home page. Swipe left and right to navigate between pages, or tap the dots at the bottom to jump to a specific page.
3 Create Your First Song
Open the editor
- Launch the app (wait 2s for the splash screen)
- You're automatically in the Songs tab
- Tap the + button in the top right
Fill in the details
- Title: "Wonderwall" (required)
- Artist: "Oasis" (optional)
- Key: Leave "C" or choose from the dropdown
Add content with chords
Use brackets around chord names:
[Em7]Today is [G]gonna be the day
That they're [Dsus4]gonna throw it back to [A7sus4]you
That they're [Dsus4]gonna throw it back to [A7sus4]you
💡 Tip: Use the chord toolbar at the top to quickly insert common chords (C, D, E, F, G, A, Am, Em, Dm) without typing brackets.
Save
Tap Save in the top right. Your song now appears in the list!
4 Organize Songs in Books
As your song library grows, Books help you keep things organized. Books are like notebooks or binders where you group songs by theme, setlist, or practice session.
Create a book
- In the Songs tab, tap the book icon in the toolbar
- Tap + to create a new book
- Give it a name (e.g., "Campfire Songs", "Jazz Standards")
Add songs to a book
- Open a song and use the add to book option to assign it
- A song can belong to multiple books
💡 Tip: Each book gets a unique grimoire-style cover. Books are perfect for building setlists for gigs or organizing your practice repertoire.
5 View Chord Diagrams
With a song open:
- Tap any chord displayed in the lyrics (e.g.,
Em7) - A modal opens showing:
- The chord diagram with finger positions (cyan dots)
- Open strings (O) and muted strings (X)
- Switch between Guitar/Ukulele with the selector
- Tap Listen to hear the chord
- Scroll through positions if multiple fingerings exist
💡 Reading the diagram:
• Vertical lines = strings (low E on left, high E on right)
• Horizontal lines = frets
• Cyan dots = where to place your fingers
• Vertical lines = strings (low E on left, high E on right)
• Horizontal lines = frets
• Cyan dots = where to place your fingers
6 Transpose a Song
- Open a song
- Tap the controls icon (sliders) in the toolbar
- Use the + / − buttons to shift all chords by semitones
Example: Press + twice → Em7 becomes F#m7
💡 When to transpose:
• Song too high → transpose down (−)
• Song too low → transpose up (+)
• Simplify difficult chords → find an easier key
• Song too high → transpose down (−)
• Song too low → transpose up (+)
• Simplify difficult chords → find an easier key
7 Tune Your Guitar
- Go to the Tuner tab (tuning fork icon)
- See all 6 strings displayed
- Tap the tuning selector to choose Standard, Drop D, Open G, etc.
- Tap a string to hear its reference tone
- Tune your guitar string to match the sound
- Repeat for all 6 strings
💡 Tuning fork: Tap the tuning fork icon at the top to hear A 440Hz — the universal reference pitch.
8 Use Style Search
- In the Songs tab, tap the globe icon 🌐
- Enter an artist name
- Browse the results — these are estimated chord progressions
- Tap a result to preview the harmony grid
- Tap Save to add it to your songs
Compact / Extended view
When viewing a harmony grid in the song sheet, you can toggle between two display modes:
- Compact — Shows only the chord names in a dense grid layout, ideal for quick reference while playing
- Extended — Shows the full harmony grid with placeholder text (░) and chord positions, giving you a better sense of the song structure
Use the toggle button in the song sheet toolbar to switch between modes.
💡 Note: Style Search provides estimated harmonies for practice, not copyrighted lyrics. Text is replaced by placeholder characters (░). Use Compact mode for a cleaner chord-only view.
🎉 You're Ready!
You now know how to:
- ✅ Navigate from the Home page
- ✅ Follow the interactive Tutorial
- ✅ Create and organize songs
- ✅ Group songs in Books with grimoire covers
- ✅ View chord diagrams
- ✅ Transpose to any key
- ✅ Tune your guitar
- ✅ Find chord progressions with Style Search
- ✅ Switch between Compact and Extended views
🎸 Rock on, even after midnight! 🔥