Transpose and capo
Move the song to a key that suits your voice in one click, and get a capo suggestion so you can keep the easy shapes.
Every song's chords. Free, on your own computer.
Paste a YouTube link and Strum gives you a chord sheet in about 30 seconds: chords over the lyrics, transposable, with a capo suggestion, chord diagrams and playback that follows the recording.
- Free and open source (MIT)
- Runs on your Mac with open-source AI models
- No account, no subscription, no cloud
How it works
Three steps, all of them on your Mac.
- 1
Paste a YouTube link
A song, a whole playlist or a channel. Strum reads the title and artist, and you can keep browsing while it works.
- 2
Strum listens to the song
It separates the vocals from the band, recognises the chords, and lines up the lyrics with the music. Everything runs locally, on your Mac.
- 3
Play along
Turn on auto-scroll, or play the recording and let the sheet follow it, the current line highlighted. Slow it down to learn a tricky part.
Everything you need to play the song
A chord sheet you can actually play from, plus the tools to keep your songs organised.
Chord diagrams
Every chord in the song, with several voicings to choose from. Diagrams follow the transpose.
Synced playback and speed
Play the recording and the sheet scrolls with it, the current line and chord highlighted. Slow down to 0.5x with the pitch kept.
Edit mode
Fix a chord or a word in a ChordPro editor with a live preview. The machine version is always one click away.
Playlists
Group songs for a gig, a lesson or a camp session, drag to reorder, and play them from the top.
Booklets as PDF
Turn a playlist into a printable songbook with a cover, a table of contents and one song per page.
Import and export
Share a song as ChordPro, a Strum bundle or a PDF, and import ChordPro files from anywhere.
Light and dark
Easy on the eyes on a stage, around a campfire or at your desk. Follows your system, or pick one.
Free, and it stays on your Mac
Everything is free. The AI models are open source and run on your computer. No account, no subscription, no cloud. Your audio never leaves your Mac.
- The only thing Strum downloads is the song you asked for, and the models, once.
- Your library is a folder of plain files on your disk. Back it up, sync it, or open it in any editor.
- No analytics in the app, no tracking, nothing to sign up for.
What you need
Two ways to use Strum. Start with the full install today; the lite install is on the way.
Full install
Available nowRenders any song on your own Mac.
- A Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or later)
- 16 GB of memory recommended
- About 6 GB of free disk: the models download once, on first use
- uv, ffmpeg and deno from Homebrew:
brew install uv ffmpeg deno
Lite install
ComingNo models, a small download. For older Macs, less disk, or if you just want to play.
- Play shared sheets from other Strum users
- The full player, editor, playlists, booklets, import and export
- Install the models later with one click, whenever you want to render songs yourself
Download Strum
Get the latest release from GitHub. Open the DMG and drag Strum into Applications.
Download for MacApple Silicon, macOS. Windows and Linux are on the roadmap.
The build is not signed with an Apple Developer ID yet, so the first time, right-click Strum in Applications and choose Open, then confirm. After that it opens normally.
Sharing mode
ComingPass your sheets and fixes straight to other Strum users, peer to peer. There is no central server holding lyrics or songs.
- Paste a link and see the versions other people already made, next to "Render it yourself"
- Improve a sheet and publish it as a new version, linked to the one you started from
- No accounts: each install has its own key and an optional display name
- Only the sheets you choose to publish are shared. Never your audio or your library
Open source
Strum is MIT licensed and built in the open. The code, the plans and the tickets are all on GitHub.
- Report a song that came out wrong, with its YouTube link, in Issues
- Pick up a good first issue and read the contributing guide
- The models keep their own open licences, listed in the README
Questions
Is it legal?
Strum makes a chord sheet for your own practice, on your own computer, from a recording you chose. Nothing is published anywhere unless you share a sheet yourself, and when sharing mode arrives it will be peer to peer, non-commercial, with no central server hosting lyrics or audio and a way to take a sheet down.
What is sent anywhere?
Nothing from you. Strum downloads the song you asked for from YouTube and the open models once. Your audio, your library and your edits stay on your Mac. Sharing mode, when it comes, only shares the sheets you choose to publish, and it asks you first.
How much disk does it need?
About 6 GB for the full install: about 3 GB of models and about 1 GB of Python environment, plus room for your songs. The lite install will need much less.
How fast is it?
About 25 to 30 seconds per song on an Apple Silicon Mac once the models are on disk. The very first song takes a few minutes longer, while the models download.
How good are the chords?
On our reference songs, the chords Strum hears agree with the published sheets 93 to 98 percent of the time. Most songs are playable straight away, and edit mode is there for the rest.
Which Macs does it run on?
Macs with Apple Silicon (M1 and later). 16 GB of memory is recommended for the full install. Intel Macs are not supported.
When is Windows coming?
Windows and Linux are on the roadmap, after the open-source launch. Follow the repository to hear when they land.
Why are the models free?
They are open-source models (source separation, chord recognition, speech to text) published by researchers under open licences. Strum runs them on your computer, so there is no server to pay for and no reason to charge you.