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The Song Cage manual

Song Cage is a songwriting capture and development tool. This is the reference manual for the desktop app: what each feature does, when to reach for it, and how the pieces connect.

If you're new, start with Chapter 1: Welcome to Song Cage. If you're stuck on a specific feature, jump to its chapter from the table further down. Every chapter lists its prerequisites so you know what to read first when you land mid-manual. The manual is growing one chapter at a time; chapters that aren't linked below are being written and will appear here as their prose is finished.

What this manual covers

This is the reference for the Song Cage desktop app, the browser-based canvas where songwriters turn ideas into arrangements. It covers every panel, tool, and theory feature you'll run into while writing: the chord palette with its diatonic, borrowed, and secondary-dominant tabs, the modulation panel and its chord-by-chord routes between keys, the melody keyboard with QWERTY and MIDI input, the lyric blocks and syllable splitter, the word tools (rhymes, slant rhymes, synonyms, semantic drift, word collider), the guitar and piano voicing carousels, the playback engine with count-in and accompaniment, and the export pipeline for PDF chord sheets and MIDI files.

What it doesn't cover: the in-app guided tour (use that for a ten-minute orientation from inside the app), the mobile Idea Catcher (its own manual is planned for later), or company and pricing information (see the homepage for that).

Who it's for

Song Cage is built for three kinds of songwriters, and this manual serves all three:

  • Complete beginners learning their first borrowed chord. Every theory tool explains why a chord or a voicing works, so concepts like modal interchange, voice leading, and prosody stick as side effects of using the app. You don't need to know any of it beforehand, and nothing is gated behind a theory concept you haven't met yet.
  • Intermediate writers who get stuck mid-session. If you know what you want ("something that lifts out of this verse") but can't remember which parallel modes share a chord with your key, the manual is a faster reference than a browser tab full of theory sites.
  • Experienced songwriters who already know their theory cold but want to think faster than they can Google. The manual lives inside your songwriting canvas instead of three apps away.

How it's organized

The chapters are grouped by workflow, not by component or by theory topic. That means you can read linearly from Chapter 1 and learn the app in the order a new songwriter naturally needs it, or you can jump straight to the section that covers the thing you're stuck on.

  • Start here sets the mental model: what Song Cage is, what the interface looks like, how to create a first song, and the "start anywhere" philosophy (there's no required step one).
  • Structure & lyrics covers the timeline, sections, beat grid, and the lyric-first entry path, including the word tools and syllable splitter.
  • Chords & melody is the theory-heavy middle of the manual: the chord palette, ghost-chord suggestions, melody input across four methods, and the modulation panel that treats key changes as navigation rather than a theory problem.
  • Instruments & playback covers guitar and piano voicing carousels, capo, voice leading, and the accompaniment engine with its metronome and count-in.
  • Output & collaboration covers PDF and MIDI export, the ideas inbox that receives captures from the mobile app, and the Band-tier sharing and roles.
  • Account & reference covers account tiers, preferences, and keyboard shortcuts for power users.

Chapters

Start here

  • 1. Welcome to Song Cage: the philosophy, the four principles, and who this tool is for.
  • 2. The Interface: a tour of the toolbar, sidebars, lanes, and the two ways to view a song.
  • 3. Getting Started: create your first song, pick a key and tempo, add sections, and understand how auto-save and sync work.
  • 4. Starting Anywhere: why there's no step one, and how to start a song from lyrics, chords, or a melody.

Structure & lyrics

  • 5. Sections and the Beat Grid: how sections, bars per line, grid divisions, and section overrides shape the timeline.
  • 6. Writing Lyrics: writing, editing, moving, and resizing lyrics in Sheet view and Timeline view.
  • 7. Word Tools: rhymes, slant rhymes, synonyms, semantic drift, and the Word Collider.
  • 8. Syllable Splits and Rhythm: how syllable splits give each syllable its own beat position on the grid.

Chords & melody

  • 9. Building Chord Progressions: the three-tab chord palette, ghost chord slots, melody-fit scoring, extensions, voicings, and voice leading.
  • 10. Writing Melody: the inline piano, Musical Typing, MIDI input, Follow Chord mode, recording with pitch detection, and the Note Corrector.
  • 11. Changing Keys (Modulation): the Key Map, pivot chords, cadential routes, section key overrides, return routes, and the difference between key change and transposition.

Instruments & playback

  • 12. Guitar & Piano Modes: the instrument toggle, fretboard diagrams, guitar voicing carousel, capo, keyboard diagrams, piano voicing types and inversions, custom voicings, and how your instrument shapes playback and export.
  • 13. Playback & Accompaniment: transport controls, tempo, metronome, count-in, section looping, rhythm patterns, Mellotron melody voices, mute/solo, and the settings panel.

Output & collaboration

  • 14. Exporting Your Song: PDF chord sheets with voicing diagrams and metadata, MIDI files with chord and melody tracks, capo handling, and file naming.
  • 15. Ideas Inbox — coming soon
  • 16. Collaboration: sharing songs via link or email, owner/editor/viewer roles, accepting invites, real-time sync, managing access, and the tier summary.

Account & reference

  • 17. Account & Subscription — coming soon
  • 18. Keyboard Shortcuts & Tips — coming soon