Skip to main content

Stage & audience

One of the main features of this app is its usability for performing. You can be on Stage, or you can be part of the Audience.

Audience

Having an audience is a feature that requires a running server (money). You can join an audience for free. Making a lobby will be a premium feature - it is free for everyone during testing and may become paid later.

Stage​

This view is optimized for performing. You select a songbook and enter a performing mode. There you see only the song you're playing and navigation bar. You have these buttons:

tip

A songbook row in the Songbooks list has its own Perform button, so you can start from there without picking the book twice.

  • Prev: previous song
  • Summary: list of songs in the songbook with search for opening specific song
  • Menu: shows menu with options
    • Fullscreen: shows song in the fullscreen view, navigation bar hides and can be shown by clicking / tapping on the song
    • Dark page: renders the song light-on-dark, easy on the eyes in a dark room. Settings can tie it to the dark theme so it comes on by itself everywhere, and this button overrides that for the performance you are in, and forgets it when the performance ends
    • Transpose: opens a small panel at the bottom of the screen with a down arrow, the current offset and an up arrow. The row says where you are, the same way the audience row says which act it is. See Transposing
    • Create an audience (or "Manage audience" after): creates a lobby with a PIN, a link and a QR code
    • Exit: leaves the performing mode and goes back to the songbook list
  • Next: next song

You can swipe on the song to go back and forward instead of using the prev and next. On a keyboard the arrow keys move between songs too.

note

An empty songbook cannot be performed.

A performance is not lost when you leave it. Going to another module and coming back resumes on the same song, and so does reloading the page or coming back to a tab your phone closed while it was locked, including the lobby, if you had one. Only Exit ends a performance. A session you have not touched for twelve hours is not resumed.

Audience​

To be part of an audience you need a PIN. You can insert it manually or scanning a QR code.

Audience view is similar to the stage view. You see the full render of the song the performer selected and the summary. You have these options:

  • Summary: list of song in the songbook with search, read-only
  • Lobby: info about the lobby - PIN and QR code
  • Song: song selected by the performer, changes automatically
  • Re-sync: fetch the performer's current song again
  • Transpose: your own key for the song on screen. See Transposing

The lobby is one-time and ends when the performer ends it.

A phone that was locked or in another app catches up on its own when you come back to it, so Re-sync is there for the case where you suspect you are behind and do not want to wait.

Transposing​

The song is written in one key and you may not be playing in it - a capo, a different instrument, or a voice that does not reach the top note. Both views can shift the chords while you play:

  • On a phone, Transpose in the menu opens a panel at the bottom of the screen. It stays open while you step, so you can see what the song does. Tapping outside it or pressing Esc puts it away
  • On a desktop the arrows and the offset sit in the bar itself
  • The number between the arrows is how many semitones, signed - +2, -3. Press it to go back to the written key
  • Twelve semitones is the same music an octave away, so the twelfth step wraps back to 0 rather than pretending to be a setting

The offset holds for the whole performance, not just the song you set it on - a capo does not come off between numbers. It goes when you Exit, and it is not saved: after a reload you are playing what is written again.

Transposing changes nothing but what you are looking at. Your song is not rewritten, nothing is saved to the songbook, and the offset does not travel to the audience - each viewer has the same control for the instrument in their own hands. To transpose a song for good, use the editor (Editing).

Zooming in​

The song fits your screen, but on a small one it can still be hard to read. You can zoom into the page in both views - performing and audience:

  • Pinch with two fingers, or scroll the wheel on a desktop
  • Double-tap (double-click) on the spot you want to read - again to go back
  • On a keyboard, + and - zoom, 0 gives you the whole page back

While you are zoomed in, dragging moves the page instead of turning it, the same as in a photo gallery. Prev and next still work, and so do the arrow keys. A pill in the corner shows how far in you are and takes you back out in one tap.

Zoom is yours alone: the audience does not see it, and every viewer can zoom their own screen. It is not saved anywhere - each song starts as the whole page.

note

Your browser's own zoom (Ctrl and +) does not make the song bigger. The page is drawn to fit the screen it is on, so it re-fits and comes out the same size. This is why Achordeon has a zoom of its own.