Forge your riffs
into songs.

Click ⚔ Forge New Song to start a new song. It will appear in the left sidebar and open in the editor automatically.

Each song has fields for title, artist/band name, genre, key, tempo/feel, and capo. None of these are required — fill in whatever is useful to you.

Click + New Folder to create a folder. You can use these however you like — for example: Drafts, In Progress, Finished, Album 1, etc.

To move a song into a folder, hover over the song in the sidebar and click the ⇄ arrow icon that appears. Or use the folder dropdown menu at the top of the song editor.

Songs that aren't in any folder appear in the Unfiled section at the bottom of the sidebar. If you delete a folder, the songs inside it don't get deleted — they just move to Unfiled.

Inside any song, each section (Verse, Chorus, etc.) has a ☐ duplicate button in the top right corner of that section. This copies the lyrics, chords, and tabs — but not voice recordings (those are large audio files and are kept separate).

Click and drag the ⠿ handle on the left side of any section header to move it up or down in the song.

Lyrics are written inside sections. Add sections using the buttons at the bottom of the editor — Intro, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Bridge, Outro, and more. You can also click + Custom to name a section whatever you want.

Each section has an optional label field next to the section type badge — you can use this to number your verses ("Verse 1", "Verse 2") or add any other note.

Each section has two view modes. Edit is the plain text writing mode. Chords is a read/annotate mode that shows your lyrics character by character and lets you place chord names above specific letters. Switch between them using the small toggle buttons above the lyrics area.

Above the lyrics sections, there's a Vibe & Vision text area. Think of this as your song's creative brief — describe the mood, the story, the sonic world, what it should feel like. It has nothing to do with lyrics; it's just a space to capture your vision so you don't lose it.

Draftlord lets you place chord names above specific letters in your lyrics, just like a standard chord sheet. This means you can place a chord exactly where it falls — even mid-word or on a specific syllable.

1. In the lyrics section, click the Chords button (next to "Edit") to switch to chord view.

2. Click on any letter or character in your lyrics. A small popup appears.

3. Type the chord name (e.g. Am, G, F#m7) and press Enter.

4. The chord will float above that exact character. Letters that have a chord attached turn red so you can see them at a glance.

Click the letter that has a chord on it, then click the Clear button in the popup. The chord is removed.

When you export to PDF, Word, or plain text, chords are printed above the lyrics just like a professional chord sheet — with the chord name sitting above the exact word it corresponds to. You can turn chords off in the export options if you want a clean lyrics-only version.

Every song section has an ♩ Add Tab button. Clicking it opens a full guitar tab editor in a popup. When you're done, click ✓ Save Tab and the tab gets embedded into that section of the song. You can add multiple tabs per section.

The setup panel on the left lets you choose your instrument: 6, 7, 8, or 9-string guitar, or 4, 5, or 6-string bass. Each comes with its standard tuning pre-loaded. You can also manually adjust individual string tunings using the dropdowns in the tuning grid.

The default mode is Note. Click any fret on any string on the fretboard diagram to add that note to the tab. The note appears immediately in the tab preview below.

Drag left or right on a fret to create a slide or hammer-on/pull-off. A picker will appear asking which technique you want.

Drag upward on a fret to add a bend.

Click the string name buttons on the left side of the fretboard (E, A, D, etc.) to add a muted string (shown as "x" in the tab).

Switch to Chord mode to click multiple strings and add them as a single chord. Click each string you want included, then click Add Chord.

Switch to EZChord mode for the fastest way to add common chord shapes. Click on any fret — that becomes your root note. A popup appears letting you choose the chord type (Major, Minor, Dom 7, Sus2, Power Chord, Octave, and more). Draftlord automatically figures out the correct fret positions for all the strings and builds the full chord shape for you.

Slide chords: In EZChord mode, you can also click and drag sideways on a fret. This builds a slide chord — the chord shape slides from the starting fret to the ending fret on every string simultaneously.

Use ⎵ Space to add a visual gap between notes. Use ↵ New Row to start a fresh line in the tab (useful for long sections or new phrases).

In the tab preview, you can click any existing note to select it and edit its fret number, note type (slide, bend, hammer-on, pull-off), or delete it. You can also click on any dash (–) in the tab to add a new note directly at that position.

The ↩ Undo button steps back through your changes one at a time. Use it freely — nothing is permanent until you click Save Tab.

Click ▶ Play to hear your tab played back using synthesised guitar tones. Adjust BPM (tempo) and time signature in the Controls panel. You can also use the built-in metronome — click the dots to toggle it on or off.

Once a tab is saved into a section, click the ✎ Edit button on the tab block to reopen it in the editor with all your notes still intact.

Each section has a Record button. Clicking it starts recording from your microphone — click again to stop. Your recording is saved directly into that section of the song. You can add as many recordings as you like per section.

Use voice notes to capture melody ideas, rhythm patterns, lyric experiments, or any sound you want to remember while writing. Give each recording a label so you remember what it was.

Each voice note has a ▶ play button. Click it to listen. Click again to stop.

Click the ✕ button next to any voice note to permanently delete it.

Click ↓ Export Song in the header to save a copy of your song to your computer. Available formats depend on your plan.

A formatted, print-ready document. Lyrics are shown with chord names above them, tabs are printed in standard monospace format, and all your song info is at the top. Great for sharing with bandmates or printing for rehearsal.

An editable file that opens in Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Good for additional formatting or sharing with someone who prefers working in a word processor.

The simplest format — just the raw text of your song. Universal — opens in any app on any device.

If your song has voice notes recorded, the export modal will show a Download voice recordings button. Click it to download each recording as an audio file (.webm or .ogg) to your computer.

The complete project file. Includes everything: lyrics, chord markings, guitar tabs, song info, and optionally your voice recordings. Can be imported back into Draftlord on any device. Useful for sharing with collaborators or as a full offline backup.

In the export modal, checkboxes let you choose what to include: Song Info (title, artist, key, etc.), Lyrics, Chord Notation, Guitar Tabs, and Voice Notes (JSON only). Uncheck anything you don't want in that export.

Premium users can click ↑ Import Song in the header to load a previously exported Song File (.json) back into Draftlord. You'll be asked which folder to place it in. The song will open immediately with everything intact, including voice recordings if they were included.

On the Lite plan, your work is session-only. That means it lives in memory while you're working, but it is not saved anywhere — not in your browser, not on a server. If you refresh the page or close the tab, your current song is cleared.

You stay signed in across refreshes — your account session persists. Only the song content clears. This is intentional: Lite is designed for working on one song at a time and exporting when you're done.

Premium users' songs are saved automatically to their account in the cloud. Every change you make is synced within a couple of seconds — you never need to press save. Your library is always there when you sign in, from any device.

Premium also caches your songs locally for fast loading. When you sign in, the latest cloud data is loaded automatically.

Both Lite and Premium users stay signed in when refreshing the page. Your session is remembered until you explicitly sign out from the user menu in the top right.

The panel on the right side of the screen has two tools to help with word choices while you write.

Type any word and you'll get a list of perfect rhymes (words that rhyme exactly) and near rhymes (words that almost rhyme — useful for slant rhymes and half rhymes, which are common in rock and metal songwriting). Click any word to instantly copy it to your clipboard.

Click the Thesaurus tab and type a word to get synonyms (words that mean the same thing), antonyms (words that mean the opposite), and related words. Click any word to copy it.

Click the 🌙 / ☀️ button in the top-right corner to switch between dark mode (the default) and light mode (bright background, dark text). Draftlord remembers your preference.

The Lite plan is session-based. Your song content is held in memory and cleared when you refresh or close the tab. You stay signed in — only the song clears. Always export before closing the browser tab. Upgrade to Premium for cloud saving.

Lite users get one working song. There's no library, no folders, no "Forge New Song" button. If you need to manage multiple songs or projects, upgrade to Premium.

JSON project files (which preserve everything including tabs, chords, and voice recordings in a re-importable format) are a Premium feature. Lite users can export PDF, Word, and plain text. Voice recordings can be downloaded individually from the export modal.

Audio can't be embedded in a PDF or Word document. Download your voice recordings separately using the Download voice recordings button in the export modal. Premium users can include recordings in a JSON export.

The rhyme dictionary and thesaurus pull results from an online word database. They won't work offline. Everything else — writing, tabs, voice notes, and exports — works offline once the page has loaded.

The ▶ Play feature in the tab editor uses synthesised tones for a rough feel of your riff — useful for checking timing, but it won't sound like a real guitar.

Premium cloud saving requires an active internet connection to sync. If you're offline, changes are held locally and sync when you reconnect.