Stage mode

Overview

Stage mode shows one song at a time, full screen, with controls that stay out of the way. Open it from a setlist to move through the whole set without touching your library.

This topic describes Stage mode in the web app. The iPhone and iPad app has its own Stage tab with a Pages / Scroll layout button, pinch zoom, and pedal and MIDI settings in Stage settings; the app's Help includes a Stage setup guide for those. See Akordo on iPhone and iPad to get the app.

On the web, Akordo asks the browser to keep the screen awake while Stage mode is open. Not every browser allows this, so check your device's sleep setting before a show. Tapping a chord opens its chord overview. It never turns the page or changes songs, and Escape closes it.

Stage uses the same light or dark appearance as the rest of the app, set under Appearance in Settings. System follows your device. On a dark stage, choose Dark. In Pages, the page itself is always white, like a printed copy.

Opening Stage mode

• From Your next set on the web home, open the set's song list, then press Start set. See Your next set for how it is chosen.
• On a setlist, press Start set to start from the first song.
• In the setlist sidebar on the Songs page, the pinned Next card for your upcoming event has its own Start set button.
• On a song, press Perform in the View toolbar to open just that song.

Press Escape or Leave Stage (the close button) to leave.

Scroll and Pages

The Scroll | Pages switch chooses the layout. The highlighted side is the one on screen.

• Scroll shows the chart as one long page. This is the default and the layout that supports auto-scroll.
• Pages shows the same US Letter portrait pages as PDF export. Columns, line breaks, and page breaks stay the same on every screen. Tap or click the left and right edges of the screen to move between pages. At the last page, moving forward goes to the next song in the set.

The layout you pick is remembered. In Pages, Akordo also remembers which page you were on for each song.

If Pages can't be loaded for a song, for example when you're offline, Stage shows that song in Scroll with the note "Pages isn't available right now — showing Scroll". Choose Retry or Pages to try again. The next song tries Pages again on its own.

Text size and zoom

The two A buttons make the chart smaller or larger. In Scroll they step the text size, chords included, and the default text size already grows with the screen, so a tablet or laptop starts larger than a phone. In Pages they magnify the fixed paper without changing the chart layout. The label between them reads Text or Zoom at the default, or shows how far you've moved, such as Text +2 or 115%. Choose it to reset. On narrow screens the default Pages fit is the page width; on wider screens it fits the whole page. Scroll to reach the rest of a magnified page.

Auto-scroll

In Scroll, use the play button to start and pause auto-scroll, and the − and + buttons on either side of Speed to adjust it. Speed is remembered per song.

Full screen

The full-screen button hides the browser chrome. Press F to toggle it and Escape to leave.

Moving through a setlist

When you open Stage mode from a setlist, the control strip shows your position, such as "3 of 12", with previous and next song buttons.

Keyboard shortcuts

• Space: start or pause auto-scroll
• Right arrow or Page Down: next page, or next song at the last page
• Left arrow or Page Up: previous page, or previous song at the first page
• Down arrow: next song
• Up arrow: previous song
• M: show or hide markup
• F: toggle full screen
• Escape: leave full screen, then leave Stage mode

Bluetooth page-turn pedals that present themselves as keyboards, which is most of them, send these same keys and work without any setup.

MIDI pedals and page-turners

MIDI input is in preview. Enable MIDI pedal / page-turner input under Stage input in Settings asks the browser for MIDI access and lists the devices it finds, but there is not yet a way to assign MIDI messages to Stage actions on the web, so a MIDI-only pedal does not control Stage mode today. Use a pedal that acts as a Bluetooth keyboard instead. MIDI input is off by default so Stage mode never asks for a permission you did not expect.

Markup

Markup is available in Pages only; switch to Pages first. If the arrangement has markup, a Markup button shows or hides it. Stage and PDF preview share markup anchored to the printed page. Showing or hiding it does not change the layout. Older Stage marks drawn on screen-shaped pages remain saved but are not shown on the printed page.

Choose Edit markup to add to it. Place text notes, or switch on Ink to draw freehand. Choose Done to finish. Markup is saved for your account on that arrangement and is also available in PDF preview and annotated PDF export. If another device edited the same page, Akordo asks whether to Keep mine or Reload.

Tips

• Test the layout before the gig. Pages with a larger zoom is easier to read at a distance. Scroll layout with auto-scroll suits songs you play at a steady pace.
• Fill in durations and set the setlist order first. Stage mode follows the setlist exactly.
• Keep a PDF as a backup in case the venue's connection fails. See PDF export.

Next steps

• Setlists to build the set you will perform
• Songs for transposing and arrangements
• Account settings for MIDI input and display preferences