User Guide

Key, Tempo and Instrument

Tap the C maj · 120 button (or whatever key is displayed) to open the picker:

• Choose the root (C, D♭, D…) and mode (maj / min)
• Adjust the tempo in BPM using the arrows or by typing directly
• Select the instrument: Piano, Guitar, Organ, Strings or Synth
• Enable the arpeggiator: choose between ↑ (ascending), ↓ (descending), ↑↓ (up-down) or shuffle (random). The arpeggiator plays the notes of each chord one at a time instead of all together. Tap the active mode again to turn it off.
• Set the range (Low, Mid, High) and spacing (Close, Open) of the chords. Range decides how high they are played, spacing how far apart the notes sit: close gives a compact block, open spreads the notes over more than an octave. Every change is heard right away.

Changing the key automatically transposes all chords already placed in the grid.

Chords are spelled to match the key signature: in B flat minor the sixth degree is written G♭, not F♯, because each letter from A to G is used once in the scale.

Song Title

The text field in the header lets you rename your song.

Choosing Chords

The dropdown offers three ways to choose a chord:

• Key : The diatonic chords of the current key. The simplest starting point.
• Custom : Build any chord: choose the root, accidental (♭ / ♯), quality (maj / min), extension (7, maj7, min7, dim, sus4, sus2, add9, 6) and, if you want, a different bass note (slash chord, e.g. G/B).
• Suggested : Select a chord in the grid, then filter by intention (Resolution, Tension, Melancholy, Surprise, Softness) to get suggestions based on music theory. The genre defines the chord vocabulary: rock favours modal degrees and the major dominant in minor keys, metal the Phrygian bII and open fifths, jazz sevenths, blues dominant sevenths on every degree. With no genre selected, suggestions stay general. The genre also sets the range and spacing of new songs: metal creates them low and open. They also take into account the key, the previous chords (a ii-V brings the tonic forward, a descending bass line carries on), the position (at the end of a section, conclusive chords rise to the top) and the length of the cell: on a half-bar, passing chords come first; on two bars, the pillar chords of the key. The list mixes diatonic chords, slash chords (inversions such as G/B or C/G, bass pedals such as F/G, descending lines such as C/B) and out-of-key colours (modal borrowings, secondary dominants), favouring smooth bass lines.

The Grid

The grid is organized into sections each containing lines of chords. A line holds four measures. The section type can be changed via the dropdown. Tap the more_vert button on a section or line to add, copy or delete.

Each section header shows a 1 x button giving its repeat count. Tap it to open the setting: type the number or use keyboard_arrow_down and keyboard_arrow_up. During playback, the button shows the current repeat (e.g. 2 / 4).

In that same line menu, you can also shorten or lengthen a line to quickly adjust the number of cells.

Each cell can contain a chord. Tap an empty cell to select it, then pick a chord from the dropdown and tap add to place it.

Tap a filled cell to select it. A more_vert button appears. Tap it to open the context menu:

• Delete the chord
• Copy the chord
• Paste a chord
• / Merge the cell with an adjacent one
• Split the cell in two

Chords that are out of key are marked with a small diagonal line in the top left corner of the cell.

Drag and Drop

The more_vert button serves as both a context menu and a drag handle (long press). Drag it to move:

• a chord along its line
• a line within its section
• a section within the song

Playback

The play_arrow Play button starts or resumes playback. Press again to pause pause. The skip_previous Restart button restarts playback from the beginning. The Record button () captures sound from the microphone while you play or sing. To repeat the grid continuously, enable Play in a loop in the main menu.

On a touch screen, during playback, Lock in the main menu makes the screen inert, so you can walk with the device in your pocket without triggering anything. The menu is the only way out, with Unlock. Lyrics close when you lock, and reloading always brings the screen back unlocked.

Piano Keyboard

The piano button in the header (next to the lyrics button) shows or hides the keyboard at the bottom of the screen.

The keyboard highlights the notes of the current chord (the selected cell or the chord being played), which helps you quickly visualize the inversion being played.

The queue_music button in the keyboard header shows dots on the keys that belong to the current key, making it easy to spot scale notes at a glance.

Lyrics

The lyrics Lyrics button opens a view where you can type your song's text. The toolbar offers:

• A BPM field between keyboard_arrow_down and keyboard_arrow_up to adjust the tempo from the lyrics view, by typing the number or using the arrows. The tempo stays synced with the grid.
• A Metronome button () that plays a click at the current tempo. Press again to stop. Use it to sing a melody and count syllables with no accompaniment, when the grid is not playing. It stops when you close the lyrics.
• A content_copy button to copy all the lyrics to the clipboard.
• An abc Syllables button that counts sung syllables on each line. A silent final e does not count, the way it is sung: larmes counts as 1, fenêtre as 2. Header lines in brackets (e.g. [chorus]) are not counted. If enabled, syllable counts are also included in PDF exports.
• A close button to close the lyrics view.

Audio recordings

Recording keeps a melody idea, a text you are trying out, or anything the microphone picks up. Recordings belong to the song: it saves itself when you start recording, asking you to sign in or to give it a title if needed.

• The Record button (), to the right of Play, starts capturing. It then turns into a red square: press it to stop.
• The recording holds everything the microphone picks up: your voice, and the backing if it plays through the speakers. Start playback before or during the recording, or leave it stopped to keep the voice alone.
• Sit close to the microphone and set the speaker volume where you want it: the balance between the two is what ends up in the recording.
• Audio recordings appears in the main menu as soon as a recording exists. The item opens the list of recordings for the song, newest first, with their date, time and duration. While a recording plays, the elapsed time appears before the total.
• A recording lasts at least a second and a half: below that it is not kept.
• If the tab closes while recording, whatever was captured is found again next time the song opens, which offers to save it.
• Click a recording to listen to it. The pause button pauses playback and turns back into play_arrow when the sound ends. Clicking the name does the same. download to download it and close to delete it then appear.

auto_awesome Suggest a Song

The Suggest function (in the main menu) generates a complete song following the classic pop structure. Progressions are built from the most widely used pop chord loops (such as I-V-vi-IV), with variations so every suggestion is unique: slash chords for smooth bass lines (e.g. C - G/B - Am), bass pedals (e.g. F/G before the C), borrowed colours (e.g. Fm in C major, E7 to Am) and varied section endings.

You can specify the Genre, the Key (C, D♭…), the Mode (Major or Minor), the Intention (Resolution: stable, conclusive; Tension: unstable, dramatic; Melancholy; Surprise; Softness) and the Complexity: Simple (diatonic triads, one chord per measure, no inversions or colours), Balanced (the default) or Rich (more sevenths, slash chords and borrowed chords). The chosen intention also colours the chord loops, mode, tempo and suggested title. Genre, intention and complexity are remembered between sessions.

Main Menu

The menu button gives access to the list below. The close button closes the menu.

• login Login / Sign up to save your progressions to your account
• file_save Save your progression and come back to it later
• undo Undo / redo Redo: undo or redo the last change
• add New to start a new song
• auto_awesome Suggest a new song (see above)
• file_copy Save as to create a copy under a new name
• folder_open Open an existing progression
• delete Delete the open song, after confirmation
• library_music Browse Jack Fortin's songs for inspiration
• help User guide to open this help page
• info About to learn more about the app
• translate Français to switch the interface language
• gavel Terms of Use
• logout Log out, once signed in

Keyboard shortcuts

• SpacePlay / pause
• Shift+SpaceRestart
• Ctrl+Z / Cmd+ZUndo
• Ctrl+Y / Cmd+YRedo
• Ctrl+S / Cmd+SSave

Export

• piano MIDI Export : download your progression as a MIDI file to import into your DAW (GarageBand, Logic, Ableton…)
• picture_as_pdf PDF Export : Generate a printable chord sheet