How to Use the Interactive Lead Sheet
The Interactive lead sheet is a hymn’s music shown right on the page: the melody on a staff, the chord letters above it and the words underneath. Unlike a printed page, it adapts to you. You can sing it in a different key, tap any chord to see how to play it, and listen while you read. Work through the steps below, one small idea at a time. You do not need to read music.
Jump to a step
What the Interactive sheet is
On the Lead Sheet tab, a hymn can appear in up to four versions:
- Interactive is drawn by the site as you use it. That is why it can change key and answer when you tap a chord.
- Piano and Guitar are the printed pages exactly as they were engraved, always in their own printed key.
- Numbered shows the melody as numbers (see the beginner’s guide to numbered notation).
- The PDFs you can download are fixed pages: use them when you want something to print or share.
Not every hymn has every version. A hymn that has only a piano lead sheet simply opens as Interactive.
Open it
Open a hymn and choose the Lead Sheet tab, next to Text and Learn. If the hymn has more than one version, a row of buttons under the sheet lets you switch: choose Interactive. The link above the buttons, How to use the Interactive sheet, brings you back to this guide.
The site remembers your choice. To make one version the one every hymn opens with, open Settings and, under Hymn pages, choose the Lead Sheet Instrument.
Change the key
Above the sheet, the name of the key (for example D Major) sits between a − and a + button. Press + to go a little higher and − to go a little lower. The notes and chord letters on the sheet are redrawn in the new key, and the audio plays in it too.
Too high or too low to sing? Move the key until the tune feels comfortable. Only Interactive and Numbered follow the key; Piano and Guitar are printed pages, so the buttons are hidden for them.
Tap a chord to see how to play it
Every chord letter above the staff is a button. Tap or click one, such as G or Em, and a small window shows how to play it. Choose Guitar, Ukulele or Piano at the top of the window.
- Guitar and ukulele show where to put your fingers, with finger numbers. The window follows the key you chose, so it always matches the sheet.
- Press Play chord to hear it. Sound only starts when you press the button.
- If the hymn’s guitar chords are played with a capo, a Capo button appears. A chord with a slash, such as C/E, has E as its lowest note.
- On Piano the chord is voiced under the melody, the way a pianist would play it with the tune. The left hand plays the bass note and a filler note, and the right hand plays the chord notes just under the melody note, which stays on top. The melody note is marked so you can find it.
Press Close or the Esc key to put the window away. Chords open the same window on the Text tab, where they stand above the words.
See every chord at once
To see all the chords of a hymn together, open the Text tab and press Display. Turn on Chords, then choose Guitar, Ukulele or Piano Chord Charts. Each chord the hymn uses gets its own diagram. Pick Guitar, Ukulele or Piano at the top.
- The piano diagrams show a keyboard with the bass note and the chord notes marked.
- The same button is in the Learn group of Display while the Learn tab is open.
Handy for learning a new hymn: look at the chart first, then tap chords on the sheet to try them.
Listen while you read
Press Play in the player to hear the hymn while you look at the sheet. On a computer the player is beside the sheet; on a phone it is the bar at the bottom, and its … button opens more choices. The Recording menu lists what the hymn has: Singing, Piano and Guide.
- Guide is a plain, clear version of just the tune, made for learning it.
- Speed plays it slower or faster, from 0.8× to 1.1×.
- With Guide chosen, a Sound choice appears: Melody (just the tune), Melody + chords (the tune with soft chords and a bass note under it) or Chords only (no tune, so you can sing it or play it yourself). It starts on Melody + chords unless you choose otherwise.
- Sound follows the key you chose and the speed. For a hymn that has no chord timing it is greyed out, with the reason.
On the Lead Sheet tab the sheet stays still while the music plays. To watch the words and notes light up as it goes, use the Learn tab (more about Learn).
Choose your defaults in Settings
Open Settings (from the menu on a phone, or the person icon on a computer) so each hymn opens the way you like.
- Audio → Text and Lead Sheet Track and Learn Track show the recording each tab starts on. They are remembered on this device and change whenever you pick a track in the player: Singing, Piano or Guide for Text and Lead Sheet (Automatic starts on Singing or the hymn’s first recording), Guide or Piano for Learn. A hymn that has no recording of that kind starts on its first one.
- Audio → Guide Sound sets what the Guide plays: Melody, Melody + chords or Chords only.
- Under Hymn pages, Lead Sheet Instrument picks the version the Lead Sheet tab opens with, and Chord Chart Instrument picks whether chord windows and Chord Charts open on Guitar, Ukulele or Piano.
When you are signed in, these choices follow you to every device; signed out, they stay in this browser.
Download and print
Signed in with a confirmed email address? Under the sheet, a Downloads row offers the Lead sheet PDF (piano), the Lead sheet PDF (guitar), the Numbered PDF and the MIDI file. A link appears only when that hymn has that file.
- On a computer, the Print button above the lyrics (shown when you are signed in) has the same links, plus Print this page.
- Each account can download 10 files an hour and 20 a day. Downloading the same file again within 10 minutes is free. More about downloads.
Everything else in this guide works without an account.
Good to know
- Not every hymn has every version, recording or set of chords. When something is missing, that hymn simply does not have it yet.
- A few hymns do not have tappable chords yet. The chord letters still show, but they do not open a window.
- Sound never starts by itself: it begins when you press Play or Play chord.
- It all works on a phone too: the sheet fits the screen, and the chord window slides up from the bottom.
Questions? The FAQ explains the Lead Sheet tab, chord diagrams and changing the key. The Features page lists everything else.