Welcome to SongPane

While it has been out in the wild and open to the public for quite some time, I haven’t really had a chance to properly introduce you to this handy app.

I call it SongPane and it is an application aimed at musicians to help manage songs and set lists. It is the perfect companion in live performances for the entire band. You can interact with the demo to get a sense of what’s possible.

How it all started

Having moved to a new country, I found myself needing to perform regularly in a church setting where a large number of songs where new to me. Being a worship leader for close to a decade, I knew all of the songs that we were frequently performing back in my home country by heart, but given the new environment and constraints, I had to resort to carrying around a binder with a couple hundred songs printed on paper.

The binder was heavy to carry around, putting together set lists was always an intimidating task and while performing I was surrounded by paper.

I had to have a pen and extra paper on me to write down the title of the songs I was planning on doing for the worship service ahead. Most of the time I would lose or misplace those pieces of paper as soon as the service was over, making it difficult for me when trying to make sure not to perform the same songs in two consecutive weeks.

Then there was the problem with song keys. If I needed to play a song in a different key than I had on paper, it meant I had to either transpose it in my head or print a new sheet of paper with the song in the correct key.

In that odd state between being awake and falling asleep I saw a mental image of an application layout.

One night though, as I was about to fall asleep—a state called hypnagogia—in my mind appeared an image, the layout of an application. I instantly knew what it was and that I had to build it. Never did it cross my mind to build such an app before that night—I truly believe it was divine inspiration.

Current state

After many months of development, I opened the door to SongPane and people have started using it—and they love it. I myself have been using it for over a year, and it has made my life as a musician and singer much easier.

At the moment, the product carries a beta label and that means that there are still bugs and things might break. But don’t let that stop you. Give SongPane a try, and if you like what you see and would like to support the ongoing development of the app, don’t hesitate to create an account. Accounts created during the beta period bear a 50% discount for the entire subscription lifetime!

Any updates on SongPane will be shared on this blog. There is also a help section where I will make available documentation and articles that help you make the most out of using the app.