Everything ChartBlazer does, in the order you'll meet it.

01Getting started

Create your account

Head to Sign up. You'll pick a handle — 3–20 characters, lowercase letters, digits, - or _. Your handle is your public name (@handle credits your published charts) and part of your chart URLs, so pick one you like. Add an optional display name, your email, and a password (at least 8 characters), and you're signed in immediately — verification can wait.

Verify your email

A brand-new account can create one chart to try the full editor. A banner at the top of the app reminds you that a verification link is in your inbox (with a Resend email button if it didn't arrive). Clicking the link unlocks the full free plan — 25 charts — and starts your 30-day Pro trial. Verifying is also what lets you publish charts and comment in the community, and it protects account recovery.

Logging in and passwords

Log in with your email and password at Log in. Forgot it? Use Forgot password? on the login page — we email a reset link that lets you set a new one.

Finding your way around

After signing up you land on Your charts — home base. The top bar has the main sections: charts, gigs, and community. In the upper right: Help (the FAQ and this guide), Feedback, and your @handle — click it for the account menu (Account, Send feedback, Log out). Whenever this guide says "Account → …", it starts at that @handle menu.

02Plans, trial & billing

The philosophy: Free builds and keeps your charts; Pro makes you gig-ready. Full details on the pricing page.

The 30-day trial

Every account gets a card-free 30-day Pro trial, starting the moment you verify your email. The trial unlocks Pro features — setlists and server PDF — but keeps the 25-chart cap; unlimited charts is a paid-Pro perk. When the trial ends you drop to Free and nothing is taken away (see the note below).

Upgrading, managing, canceling

Go to Account → Billing & plan and pick a plan — $59 / year or $9 / month. If you subscribe mid-trial, your remaining trial days are added on: you aren't charged until they're used. Once subscribed, a Manage subscription button on the same page opens the billing portal, where you can update your card or cancel — cancelling keeps Pro until the end of the period you've already paid for.

03Your first chart

Three ways to start from Your charts:

• + new chart — a blank page.
• Sample charts — a worked demo song, from the sample charts link on your chart list. Read it and play it in full to see how a finished chart is put together, then Use as template to start your own editable copy. It stays there whether your chart list is empty or not.
• Clone from the community — browse public charts and clone any of them into your account as your own editable copy (§09).

The chart header

At the top of every chart: the title and artist, a genre (this is the tag community browsing filters on), the time signature (eight common signatures from 2/2 to 12/8, plus Custom… — this one labels the chart for readers and drives the metronome; each groove sets its own grid in the step editor, see §05), and the bpm — playback and the metronome follow it. A description field below holds working notes; it prints only if you ask (§08).

Reference track

Paste a YouTube or Spotify link into reference track and readers get a collapsed chip that expands into the real song's player, right beside the chart — handy for checking a feel against the record. Nothing loads until it's clicked.

Deleting a chart

The trash icon on a chart's row in Your charts deletes it — after a confirm, and permanently (there's no undo for a deleted chart). Deleting is also how you get back under the 25-chart cap if you've hit it.

04Sections: the rows of a chart

A ChartBlazer chart is a list of song sections — Intro, Verse, Chorus — one row each, not bar-by-bar. That's what keeps a whole song on a page. Each row has:

• Section name — type anything, or hit the ▾ beside it for standard names (Verse, Chorus, Bridge…).
• Bars — how long the section runs. Usually a number, but it's free text, so the way you'd write it on paper works: 8+8 for a section played twice, 8+1 for eight bars and a tag, or OUT.
• Energy meter — a 1–5 intensity bar (green → red), so the dynamic arc of the song is visible at a glance. Tap a segment to set the level; tapping the top lit segment steps it back down (all the way to off).
• Cues — a free multi-line column for short lyric fragments, counts, or anything that tells you where you are. A cue line, not the whole lyric. Drag the column's edge to resize it; double-click the grip to reset.
• Notes & notation — an ordered mix of text notes and grooves (§05).

Every section carries the same controls (edit mode). Move up/down, insert below (⌘/Ctrl+Enter), duplicate and delete sit right on the section's header line whenever it's wide enough to hold them — on a narrow screen, or in a two-column layout where each section is only a few hundred pixels across, they move into the ⋯ button beside the name to keep the line intact. The ⋯ always holds three A− / A+ sizers — this section's title, its text (cues and notes) and its grooves, each on its own — and its outline color — a colored accent that tints the row, great for marking all choruses at a glance. Nothing sits inside a row: everything is on the header line above it or in the menu, because a control in the row would change where that row's content falls, and your pen marks are anchored to it.

Sections are numbered automatically — 1., 2., 3. beside each name — and renumber themselves the moment you reorder, insert or delete one.

Text notes

Note lines are rich text: bold and line breaks. To colour text, switch to Select and pick a swatch on the markup bar (see §07) — the same swatches that ink your pen when a pen is selected. Select a few words in a note to tint just those, or click into a section name, bar count or cue and the whole field takes the colour. Black is the default, so the black swatch clears colour back off.

An empty note line doesn't show at all, on any surface. Press + note when you want one and it opens ready to type; leave it blank and it folds away again. So a chart shows exactly the lines you wrote and nothing else — including while you're editing, which is what keeps the editor and the printed page the same shape.

A "repeat" in ChartBlazer is just a note — a section with no grooves and a line saying "Verse groove" reads exactly like a drummer's paper chart.

05Grooves & the step editor

A groove line is real percussion notation, engraved for you. You never drag noteheads on a staff — you tap hits onto a coarse grid with big targets (built for tablets), and ChartBlazer renders proper two-voice drum notation: cymbals and snare stems-up, kick and floor tom stems-down, beamed and spaced like an engraver would.

Add one with + groove ▾ — start from an empty groove, or pick one out of My grooves, the library you've saved. The small bars field says which bars of the section the groove covers, as a plain expression: 1, 1-4, or 1,3,5. The numbers refer to the section's own bar count: a section with 8 bars might carry one groove for 1-4 and another for 5-8. Bars no groove covers are fine — they simply show no staff, which is exactly how a drummer's paper chart reads. Hit ✎ edit to open the step editor.

Inside the step editor

• Meter — signature shortcuts (2/2, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/8, 7/8, 12/8 — the same list as the chart header) or a Custom stepper for any number of beats. Odd meters are first-class: 7/8 is a preset, and 5/8 or anything rarer renders, counts and plays just as exactly from the Custom stepper. Tap 6/8 and you get compound beaming (3+3) — that grouping is the whole difference between 6/8 and 3/4, which are both six eighths, so reach for the preset rather than counting six beats on the Custom stepper. The same trick one octave up is 2/2: eight cells beamed 4+4, counted two to the bar, where 4/4 beams in twos and counts four. Note that the grid is separate from the chart header's time signature — the header labels the chart and drives the metronome, while each groove's grid is set here. Set the header first and a new empty groove starts in that meter, which saves you the step.
• Grid — the subdivision each column represents: 8ths, 16ths, or their triplets. Switching resamples your hits proportionally, so a groove survives the change.
• Hit brush — Normal, Accent (engraved >), or Ghost (parenthesized notehead). Tap a cell to paint, tap again to clear. Playback honors the dynamics.
• Bars — a groove can span multiple bars: + bar adds one, the numbered tabs switch between them, and + 𝄎 adds a repeat-previous-bar, drawn condensed with the one-bar repeat sign.
• Lanes — the full kit: crash, hi-hat (closed and open), ride and ride bell, cowbell, two rack toms, snare and cross-stick, floor tom, kick.
• Footer tools — loop Play at the chart bpm while you tweak, Copy bar / Paste bar / Clear bar, and ★ save to library to keep a groove for reuse in any chart. Saved grooves are managed under My grooves in the account menu (§12).

06Playback

Playback uses real drum samples, at the chart's bpm, with accents and ghosts at their proper dynamics.

• ▶ on a groove — loops just that groove. One groove plays at a time.
• Metronome — the metronome icon in the chart's top-right tools, available in both View and Edit: a click track with a flashing beat row, independent of any groove. Count a song off on stage without playing the chart.

07Reading, performing & markup

View and Edit modes

The View / Edit toggle sits at the top of every chart. View strips the editing controls for a clean, gig-readable page — charts open in View by default (a chart you just created opens in Edit). The layout is the same either way, down to the pixel: whatever you set — A− / A+ zoom, per-section title, text and groove sizes, page width, one column or a two-column newspaper flow — you build the chart in exactly the shape you'll read it in, so nothing shifts under your pen marks when you switch. Notation auto-fits its column in both modes, so a groove never runs off the page.

The title line stays with you as you scroll a long chart — the mode toggle, the size steppers, the print button, and while editing the pen and colour swatches. It holds its place on your own charts, on the gig stage, and on the sample charts.

Chart size

A− / A+ in the title line sizes the whole chart — section names, bar counts, cues, notes and the notation together. Tap the percentage between them to size the two halves separately: Titles (the section name and bar count, and the notation with them) and Text (the cues column and your note lines). Handy when the names are the thing you glance at from behind the kit but the notes want to stay small — or the other way round. Any one section can then be nudged off that setting from its own ⋯ menu.

The View ▾ menu

The caret beside the toggle holds the two layout choices, and both apply while you edit as well as while you read:

• Columns — one, or a two-column newspaper flow that fills the first column top to bottom, then the second. Good for getting a long song onto one screen or one sheet.
• Page width — Normal, Wide or Full. Normal keeps a comfortable reading width; Full lets the chart use the whole screen, which is what you want on a tablet in landscape that would otherwise sit boxed in the middle with dead space each side. Remembered per device.

Two smaller switches sit in the chart's top-right tools: the metronome (below), and a ▶-with-a-slash that hides the per-groove play buttons for a paper-clean look on stage.

Markup

You draw in Edit mode — that's where the Markup toolbar lives — and the ink then shows everywhere you read the chart: View mode and the gig stage. The toolbar draws over the chart like pencil on paper: Pen, Highlight, Erase, and Note (placed text), with a pressure-sensitive stylus fully supported — the pen carries six ink colours and the highlighter a fixed yellow. Switch back to Select and the chart underneath is editable again — your markup stays put, and that same swatch row colours text instead of ink (§04). Clear wipes it all (after a confirm). Markup is a screen-and-stage layer: it stays on your chart wherever you read it in the app, but it is not included when you print or export a PDF. Printing re-lays the chart out to fill the paper, which is what keeps the notation big enough to read on a stand — and ink drawn against the screen's width would not land in the right place once it did.

Offline & install

ChartBlazer is installable — add it to your home screen from the browser menu and it opens like an app. Any chart or gig you've opened online is cached for offline reading, so a windowless venue basement can't take your charts away. (Editing offline is on the roadmap; an offline pill appears if you lose connection while editing.)

08Printing & PDF

The Print ▾ menu in the chart header offers a Description checkbox (off by default — those are working notes) and then:

• Print (browser) — free for everyone. Opens a clean print view and your browser's print dialog; "Save as PDF" there gives you a PDF at zero cost.
• Download PDF — Pro. A finished PDF rendered on our servers, reproducing the chart's sections, cues and notation as the reading view shows them, sized to fill the page — one click, no print dialog. Gigs get a whole-setlist version (§10).

If you turned on the two-column layout, printing keeps it. Page width is a screen setting — print always lays the chart out to fill the paper.

09Sharing & the community

Private sharing with your band

Every chart starts private. The share button in the chart header opens Sharing & visibility: under People, add a bandmate by @handle or email. They need a ChartBlazer account already — no invite email is sent, so pass your @handle around the band and have everyone sign up first. Private sharing is a Pro feature; receiving a shared chart is free.

A share gives them exactly what publishing does — they can view it, play it, print it, and clone it into their own account — without the chart being listed publicly. Editing, publishing, sharing, and deleting stay yours alone: if a bandmate wants to change something, they clone it and the copy is theirs. Charts shared with you appear in a Shared with you list on your chart page, with a clone button on each row.

Publishing to the community

Flip a chart to Public (verified email required) and it's listed in the community: signed-in drummers can view it, play it, and clone it — every public chart is clonable. You keep ownership; publishing grants the community license (view, play, print, clone) described in the Terms. The share panel shows your chart's views and clones, and a Copy link for its friendly URL (/u/your-handle/chart-title). That pretty URL follows the title, so retitling moves it — use Show permalink in the share panel for the link that never changes.

One thing to keep in mind before you publish: a chart is your own work, but the Cues column can quote someone else's. Keep cues to a fragment that tells you where you are rather than the whole verse, and publish only what's yours to share — Copyright & takedowns explains why, and how to ask us to remove something.

Cloning

Cloning a public chart gives you an independent, private, fully editable copy in your account (it counts toward your chart cap) and credits the original. The community page can be searched by title or artist, filtered by genre, and sorted by clones or last-updated.

Comments

Owners can allow comments on a public chart. Posting requires a signed-in, verified account; authors can delete their own comments, owners can delete any (or all), and anyone can ⚑ report a comment that crosses a line — enough distinct reports hide it automatically pending moderator review.

10Gigs: setlists on stage

Gig Blazer (a Pro feature — included in your 30-day trial, so try it) turns charts into an ordered setlist you page through on stage. A gig references your charts — edit a chart and every gig shows the latest version; removing a chart from a gig never touches the chart itself.

• Build it — + new gig on the Gigs page, then + charts opens a picker of your charts. Reorder with the arrows beside each song in the setlist; add a date, venue, and notes under details ▾.
• Transition cues — each song has a yellow cue line ("count-in, segue…") that stares back at you between songs.
• On stage — swipe, tap a song, or use ←/→ to page through the set. One tap goes fullscreen, and the screen stays awake automatically for the whole gig. The small tab under the setlist collapses everything above and beside the chart — menus, gig bar, setlist and all — leaving the chart's own header line as the title bar, with the transition cue above it when the song has one. Need a mid-gig tweak? The chart's own View / Edit toggle drops it into the editor without leaving the set, and it saves as you go.
• Where the setlist sits — the three little buttons on the gig bar put it above the chart as a strip you swipe, down the left as a column, or away entirely. Each device remembers your choice. Above is the default because that is where the chart gets the most width, which matters most on a tablet in portrait; the column suits a wide landscape screen, where the height it saves is worth more than the width it costs. When the list is longer than fits, arrows at its ends scroll it — and on a narrow screen it is always the strip, whichever you picked.
• Paper backup — print stacks the entire setlist for the browser's print dialog; PDF (Pro) downloads the whole set as one server-rendered PDF.

If your trial ends, gigs you built stay viewable and printable — you just can't create or edit setlists on the free plan.

11Keyboard shortcuts

Press ? anywhere in the editor for the in-app cheat sheet (it can show Windows or Mac keys). ⌘ below is Ctrl on Windows.

12Your account & getting help

Managing your account

Click your @handle (top right) → Account. The account page shows your handle and email (with verification status and a resend button), lets you change your password, holds Billing & plan (§02), and — at the very bottom — Delete account, which permanently removes your account and all its data after you type your email to confirm. Log out lives in the same @handle menu.

Settings

Account → Settings holds your preferences, separate from your identity and billing. Today that's your standard kit — which drum lanes the step editor shows by default, so a kit you never play stays out of the way (the editor's Standard / Expanded toggle flips between that set and the full twelve, and a lane with hits on it is never hidden) — and a switch for product email, the occasional note about new features. Turning that off never affects account email like verification, password resets, or anything about your subscription.

My grooves

Account → My grooves is your saved-groove library — everything you've kept with ★ save to library in the step editor (§05), each drawn on a real staff so you can tell Money 6/8 from Money 6/8 alt at a glance. Rename, edit, or delete them here; these are the same grooves + groove ▾ offers under My grooves in any chart.

Getting help

Stuck, found a bug, or want a feature? Use Send feedback in your account menu — you can attach screenshots and it comes straight to us — or email support@infoblazer.com. Common questions are answered in the FAQ, and the support page has every way to reach us. Support is a real person; expect a reply within a day or so.