Live music lyrics and chord sheets management can very rapidly turn into a total mess. Up till now, many small churches, student groups, or independent worship teams still rely on printed sheets or a random scattering of Word documents. Such a system shows its weaknesses when the songs are to be changed to another key at the last minute or when the service slides must be updated beforehand. OpenSong for Windows is an attempt to close this gap. It doesn’t position itself as a complete production suite; instead, it is a song organizer, lyric projector, and live session keeper, absent unnecessary complexity.
Live Song Management-Specific
OpenSong was mainly developed to provide churches and worship teams with a reliable system for song storage and presentation. The installation of the Windows version is simple, and the program takes up very little space on the computer. The first impression of the interface of the program is that it is very clean and succinct, although not very modern. On top of that, it is logically arranged. A searchable database is used for song storage, and input of any new data can be done just like pasting from the clipboard of chords and lyrics.
In a practical test, the benefit is demonstrated when the musicians rehearse or when lyrics are projected live. It is very easy to arrange songs into one or more sets, change the order of songs by a quick drag of a song, and use consistent formatting of the lyrics you are projecting. Key changes only take a couple of clicks, and this is a nice feature when you have to match the vocalist’s range. Compared to premium presentation software, which offers extensive visual design options, the visual design options here are very basic, but the software is very stable during live use.
Windows PC Practical Workflow
OpenSong runs on a typical Windows notebook connected to a projector without problems and without any significant hardware requirements. This makes it very feasible to use on older computers, which one can find quite often in community halls or small venues. It is with the help of dual-screen support that one display is intended for the audience and the other one for the operator, and this is standard in live performance situations.
If you edit your songs right inside the application, you will save a lot of time compared to the case when you use an external editor. It is also very easy to format slides, and while it’s a bit limited in terms of customization, this consistency input is very helpful in terms of readability and the users’ comfort. Certainly, importing and exporting your songs in various formats is another means of being flexible, particularly if you are working in a team.
Frankly speaking, the user interface is not a modern one, so this is one of the things that some might consider a drawback. Users who are used to contemporary design conventions may find it less obvious and get confused at first. Nevertheless, once they overcome that initial hesitation, the workflow will become very predictable and efficient.
The Pros and Cons
The greatest strength of OpenSong rests in its highly dependable nature. When it is used in live settings, one would always prefer a stable application over a pretty interface. Moreover, during various tests performed on Windows machines, it has been confirmed that rarely does the program crash, and that the performance remains stable, even when the number of songs in the library is large.
It is necessary to point out that OpenSong is not a one-stop multimedia platform. As far as slide animation, video playback, and synchronization are concerned, the presented features are very limited or completely missing when compared to commercial products. If the videography of the team is critical, then their scalar requirement for visuals will be satisfied only when they use extra software. OpenSong is rather an effective lyric and chord management system than a full event production system.
A Good Choice for Worship Teams and Community Groups
To tightly integrate OpenSong into a context where simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and reliability are emphasized over spectacular and fancy production features is not a problem at all. By and large, small and medium-sized churches, campus fellowships, and volunteer-run musical groups stand out as the major stakeholders of OpenSong. For these groups, the capability to organize song sets, change the keys rapidly, and project lyrics in a very straightforward manner has an immediate effect on how well services run.
On Windows, OpenSong is more of a focused tool than a complete solution. People who get the idea of what it’s for usually have no problem with its simple look and uniform performance. If your church is a worship team and you want a very effective yet simple way of managing your worship music, forget about complex presentation software and go for OpenSong. It will support your most basic workflow and won’t give you a headache.