If your church uses Planning Center Services, the charts and recordings for Sunday may already be waiting for you.
I built Ministry Margin Charts to help you sit down with that music and practice. Your chart and recording stay together on the iPad, whether you're learning a new song or going back over a part you've played for years.
At rehearsal, you can use the same app to follow the service order and turn through the charts.
01
Open your plan
Sign in with your Planning Center Services account and you'll see the upcoming plans you're scheduled for, including invitations you haven't confirmed yet.
Open a plan to see the service order your team has prepared. The readings and other items are there alongside the songs, so you can see how the service fits together.
Tap a song and its chart opens. Charts uses the PDFs already attached in Planning Center, so you don't have to download them yourself or put them in order. Nothing in your church's plan is changed.
02
Practice beyond this week's plan
You might want to get ahead on a song the church will introduce next month, or spend more time on an older song. You don't have to wait for either to appear in a plan.
Songs in the sidebar opens the library you have access to in Planning Center. Find the song, choose its arrangement, key, chart, and recording, then tap Rehearse Selection.
If your church keeps several versions, you can choose the one you need. The key choices refer to files your church has supplied; Charts doesn't transpose PDFs or recordings.
03
Listen to the recording while you read
A chord chart may give you the changes without telling you how long to hold the introduction or where the band drops out. Listening as you read helps you hear how your part fits.
Open the player from the chart and choose a recording. If several are attached, pick the one you want to practice with.
Use the timeline to go back over a passage. Repeat plays the whole track again when it ends; it doesn't loop a section. Play, pause, and switch recordings without leaving the chart. Closing the player stops playback.
04
Follow the charts at rehearsal
Once you're playing through a plan, swipe from page to page and on to the next song. You can also tap the sides of the screen to turn pages. Tap the middle to show or hide controls, and zoom in or use the page previews when you need a closer look.
In a wide landscape window, you'll see two pages side by side. Each turn advances one page, keeping some of the music you've just played in view. Portrait and narrower windows show one page, as do songs opened separately from the library.
Charts doesn't support handwritten notes or other annotations.
05
Choose light or dark
The app opens in light mode. Prefer a darker screen? Choose Dark in Settings. Pick whichever is easier on your eyes where you practice.
06
Get the charts ready before you leave
The PDFs download to your iPad as Charts prepares your library and the plans you open. Once they're saved, you can read them offline.
Before heading to rehearsal, give the downloads time to finish and check the charts you'll need. If your team has changed a plan or replaced a chart, refresh while you're still online.
Recordings stream rather than download, so you'll need internet to listen, as well as to sign in or refresh. Your iPad may also clear saved charts if it needs the storage.
Your church's music goes directly from Planning Center to your iPad, not through a Ministry Margin server. Disconnecting removes the account's saved content. There's more detail in the privacy policy.
07
Try it with sample music
Choose Explore Demo to try the app with fictional plans, charts, and original sample recordings. You can use the reader and player without signing in or buying anything.
For your own music, you'll need an iPad running iPadOS 26 or later, Planning Center Services access, and a Charts subscription. The music comes from your church's files, not an included catalog, and any licenses needed for those files still apply.
In the United States, Charts is $3.99 a month or $29.99 a year. Both plans include the full app. Eligible new subscribers get a free seven-day trial. Prices vary by country, and subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled.
You subscribe for yourself. Your church doesn't need to buy Charts for the whole team or purchase an additional church-wide add-on.
My hope is that Charts makes it easier to put in the practice before everyone gets together. Being comfortable with your part gives you more attention to spare for the people you're playing with.
Get Ministry Margin Charts on the App Store, or see the Charts product page.