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Musicians’ guide

Holding the guitar? You lead the sing-along: you create the campfire, pick the songs and set the pace. Here is how to keep everyone in sync from start to finish.

The musician is the campfire’s conductor. You create the room, line up the songs and start the one to play; every participant’s screen follows automatically. You can transpose, set a capo and move line by line so no one loses the thread. You stay in control from the first chord to the last, and everyone else simply follows your lead.

1. Create the campfire

   Create a campfire and give it a name — with or without an account. The quickest way starts from a song page: at the very top, “🔥 Play with friends” sets up a campfire with that song already playing and a ready-made name you can change, then opens it straight on its QR code. Share that QR code or the link: singers join without an account. With an account, your campfires are kept in “My campfires”: you can reopen them and turn them into playlists. And right next to “🔥 Play with friends”, “＋ Add to a playlist” files the song into one of your playlists (see the next step).

2. Line up the song queue

   Add songs from the songbook to the queue, reorder them and start the one to play. Everyone then switches to the same chord chart and the same lyrics, at the very same moment. You can also add songs on the fly as requests come in. To prepare the evening in advance, fill a playlist from each song’s page: “＋ Add to a playlist” adds the song to one of your playlists, or starts a new one with it. This takes an account: without one, the “Log in to add it to a playlist” link brings you back to the song once you are logged in. At the campfire, the “🎵 Add to queue” tab, then “My playlists” and “Load into the campfire”, pours the whole playlist into the queue.

   

3. Transpose and set a capo

   Change the key with a single button, up or down, to fit the group’s voices. Set the capo position too: the guitar chords are recalculated and redrawn for everyone.

4. Lead the song

   Move the current line forward as the singing goes: it highlights on every screen to guide the singers. You set the pace, and the sing-along stays in sync from the first verse to the last.

5. Automatic scrolling

   Rather than moving by hand, you can let the page scroll down on its own. Auto-scroll goes from 0 to 20 with the − and + buttons; pick a speed close to the singing. The screen stays awake while it scrolls, and a single pause hands control back to you. It stops on its own at the end of the song. A song can also slow down or speed up by itself at some passages (“× 80%” then shows): its author planned it in the editor.

6. Adjust the text size

   Whether you stand your phone on a holder or keep it in hand while playing, make the text bigger or smaller with − and +. The setting is specific to your device and changes nothing on the other participants’ screens.

7. Give your opinion on the song

   Share your opinion by giving the current song stars based on how much you liked it: the group’s average rating shows live. It’s a handy cue to see what works and build your next sing-alongs. Over time, the ratings help you spot the crowd-pleasers worth keeping in rotation.

In short: you create, you choose and you lead; the singers just follow. Between transposing, the capo, auto-scroll and ratings, you have everything for a smooth sing-along, on any device around the fire. A song of your own, still private? Let the group read it with a link and an access code: see Share a private song.

🎼 Create and edit a song — how to add and edit a song, step by step.

Join a campfire Songbook