Apps for Digital Charts: By Chris Vasquez

It is 10 minutes until service kickoff. You prepared and practiced. You completed sound check and even managed to squeeze in a quick pre-service group prayer with the band. You’re still a little anxious about that new song, but you have the chord chart on a music stand just in case. At least you did during practice. It’s still here somewhere…right? Where is that thing? 5 minutes till service begins. Can you print one out in time? Maybe you can text the sound guy and ask him to print one. Seriously, it was right there…where did it go? You are frozen in terror. The countdown clock ends and service starts. You worry about the lyrics to the new song all the way through the first 2 songs, messing up a few of those lyrics because you can’t stop wondering where your chart went. Time for the new song. You sing the first line and then blank. The song grinds to a screeching halt. Service is ruined. God was not glorified. People begin leaving the room in disgust. A few even throw some insults your way. Two days later, your church closes its doors forever and is the topic of numerous scandalous national news shows. And all because you lost your chart. How dare you? 

Let’s assume you’ve managed to change your name, your appearance, and have begun a new life on the opposite side of the country. The last thing you want is a repeat of the Lost Chart. You begin to think if only you had access to every chart at your fingertips you might be able to avert any disastrous church-closings in the future. Below are a few tools and apps for managing digital versions of those precious charts and lyrics. 

Planning Center Online: Subscription (Web, iOS, Android) 

If your church doesn’t use Planning Center to manage its services, talk to whoever you need to in order to make that happen. In addition to acting as an online repository for all your charts and lyrics, it can handle all your personnel and scheduling. It isn’t free but if your church can swing the subscription it can be well worth the cost. 

GoodReader: $4.99 (iOS) 

Good Reader is iOS (iPad and iPhone) only, but works great for having offline access to Word documents and PDFs. Organize your files and create folders for each setlist. 

Dropbox: Free (Web, iOS, Android, Windows) 

Dropbox is awesome. In addition to having a web and desktop client, Dropbox has an app for just about any platform you can think of. The best thing about Dropbox is being able to organize your files and folder however you want and have access to them wherever there's an internet connection. You can also download them for offline use.