ChordMark Converters

A set of converters to convert to and from ChordMark format.

Installation

npm install chord-mark-converters

Convert to ChordMark

From "Chords over lyrics" format

This is the most widely used chord charts format on the web: chords are displayed above the lyrics where they are supposed to be played. Websites like Ultimate Guitar use this format.

Use as follow:

import { convert2ChordMark } from 'chord-mark-converters/lib/chord-mark-converters.js';

const input = `[Verse]
  C                 Am
I heard there was a secret chord`;

const chordMark = convert2ChordMark(input, { inputFormat: 'chordsOverLyrics' });

From ChordPro format

import { convert2ChordMark } from 'chord-mark-converters/lib/chord-mark-converters.js';

const input = `I [C]heard there was a [Am]secret chord`;

const chordMark = convert2ChordMark(input, { inputFormat: 'chordPro' });

Result

In both examples above, the following ChordMark string will be generated:

#v
C Am
I _heard there was a _secret chord

Auto detect

If you omit the inputFormat parameter, convert2ChordMark will try to automagically select between ChordOverLyrics and ChordPro.

const chordMark = convert2ChordMark(input);

Convert from ChordMark

To ChordPro

If you use a digital songbook application such as MobileSheetPro or onSong, chances are they will allow importing chord charts in the ChordPro format. To convert a song in the ChordMark format to ChordPro, proceed as follow:

import { chordMarkToChordPro } from 'chord-mark-converters/lib/chord-mark-converters.js';

const input = `#v
C Am
I _heard there was a _secret chord`;

const parsed = parseSong(input);
const chordPro = renderSong(parsed, {
	customRenderer: chordMarkToChordPro({ showBarSeparators: true }),
});

This will produce the following string:

{start_of_verse: Verse}
I [|] [C]heard there was a [|] [Am]secret chord [|]
{end_of_verse}

To Ultimate Guitar format

Use this converter if you want to publish chord charts created with ChordMark to the Ultimate Guitar website. Due to the website publication rules, however, you will lose most of the ChordMark goodies such as the bar separators and the beat count indicators (at least for the bars with lyrics). You also need to use the appropriate chord symbol renderer (e.g. chord-symbol-ultimateguitar) and configure the rendering as follow:

import { parseSong, renderSong } from 'chord-mark/lib/chord-mark.js';
import { chordMarkToUltimateGuitar } from 'chord-mark-converters/lib/chord-mark-converters.js';

import { chordRendererFactory } from 'chord-symbol/lib/chord-symbol.js';
import chordSymbolUltimateGuitar from 'chord-symbol-ultimateguitar/lib/chord-symbol-ultimateguitar.js';

const input = `#v
C Am
I _heard there was a _secret chord`;

const parsed = parseSong(input);
const ultimateGuitar = renderSong(parsed, {
	printBarSeparators: 'grids',
	printChordsDuration: 'never',
	printInlineTimeSignatures: false,
	printSubBeatDelimiters: false,
	customRenderer: chordMark2UltimateGuitar(),
	chordSymbolRenderer: chordRendererFactory({
		customFilters: [chordSymbolUltimateGuitar()],
		useShortNamings: true,
	}),
});

This will produce the following string:

[Verse]
  [ch]C[/ch]                 [ch]Am[/ch]
I heard there was a secret chord