Song rows
Song rows are lines for the whole song, pinned under the ruler of an Editor or Arranger pane: its sections, time and key signatures, chords, lyrics, rhythm and tempo. They scroll sideways with the pane but stay put when you scroll down through the tracks, so the song’s shape is always in view while you write.
Song rows: markers, signature, key, chords, tempo
Available on every platform.
Showing them
Choose which rows a pane shows with Song Rows, in the View menu or the pane’s ⚙ menu. Each pane keeps its own choice, and saves it with the song’s layout. A new Arranger pane starts with Markers, Signature and Tempo; a new Editor pane starts with none.
The rows are always drawn in the same order, top down: Markers, Signature, Key, Chords, Lyrics, Rhythm and Tempo. Right-click any of them for the ruler’s menu at that bar (its tempo, time signature and key), or, on the Markers row, the markers’ menu.
Markers
The song’s sections as coloured bands. Click one to put the caret there (and the playhead, while playing), drag one to move it, and double-click to rename it. They work as they do in the ruler: see Markers and sections.
Signature and Key
Each time signature, or each key signature, at the bar where it starts. Click the row to put the caret on that bar; double-click it for that bar’s menu, to set one.
Drag a signature (any but the song’s first) to another bar, and the barlines follow as you go. Hold OptionAlt as you drag to copy it instead. Drag it out of the row to remove it. See Tempo, time and key.
Chords
The song’s chord symbols. When the song has a Chords track with chords in it, the row shows those; otherwise it gathers every track’s, one per moment.
- Click a chord to select it and, for a chord on a fretted track, open its diagram; double-click it to rename it. ⌫Backspace, DeleteBackspace, Delete (⌫, ⌦ on a Mac) deletes the selected chord.
- To add one, double-click an empty place, or click it and press ReturnEnter, and type its name.
More in Chords.
Lyrics
The lyrics of the selected track (or the caret’s), with the syllable being sung lit as the song plays. Click a syllable to put the caret on its note. Double-click to type the clip’s lyrics from that note on, with hyphens between syllables (“Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb”). See Lyrics and verses.
Rhythm
The rhythm cells of the track you’re working in: a box over the beats each covers, labelled with its division (“3”, “5”, “straight”). Click a beat of a clip for its menu: Automatic, Triplets, 16th Triplets, Sextuplet, Quintuplet, Septuplet, Quarter Triplets (Two Beats), Straight Eighths, Straight Sixteenths, and Quantize Notes to the Rhythm. See Rhythm cells and tuplets.
Tempo
The tempo as a line, with a dot at each change.
- Drag a dot up or down to change its tempo, or along to move it (all but the first). Hold Shift to change it in tenths.
- Double-click a dot to type its tempo, or the line anywhere else to add a change there.
- OptionAlt-click a dot to ramp from it to the next change, and again to hold the tempo instead. A ramp shows as a slope.
See Tempo, time and key.