Every shortcut, every setting, and the workflow patterns that make sessions faster. This chapter is a reference you can come back to whenever you forget a key binding or want to explore a feature you haven't tried.
What you'll learn
- Every keyboard shortcut in Song Cage, grouped by what they do
- How Musical Typing turns your QWERTY keyboard into a piano
- The Settings menu (instrument, melody voice, rhythm patterns, input devices) and the View menu's display options
- How chord audition and melody editing work from the keyboard
- The piano rolls' keys and scroll gestures, the Listen through keys, and the desktop app's menu shortcuts
- Tips for faster songwriting workflows
The previous chapters walked through every feature in Song Cage, from chords and lyrics to export and collaboration. This chapter collects the keyboard shortcuts and settings into one place, along with patterns that help you work faster once you know the basics.
In the app, press ? to see the keys you'll use most in a panel over your song. Help > Keyboard Shortcuts in the menu bar opens it too.
18.1 Playback
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Play from the insert marker, or pause if already playing |
| Shift+Space | Continue from where playback stopped, instead of returning to the marker |
| Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Space | Move the insert marker to the playhead, snapped to the grid |
| Enter | With nothing selected, move the insert marker back to the start of the song. If the song is playing or paused, the playhead jumps there too |
| R | Record into whatever the toolbar's record picker names. When stopped: starts playback and captures. When playing: punches in. When recording: stops. With no track picked, opens the picker. |
| Shift+R | Record your microphone, whatever the picker named before |
| L | Toggle loop on the current section (only while playing) |
Space always starts from the insert marker, not from wherever you last stopped. Pause with Space and the playhead freezes where it is, but the marker stays put, so pressing Space again returns to the marker and plays the phrase over. That is the loop you want when you're working a bar until it sits right. When you'd rather carry on from the stop point, press Shift+Space. And when the playhead has run somewhere you want to keep working from, Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Space picks the marker up and drops it there.
Space also clears any block selection before toggling playback, so the pitch selector closes cleanly.
A recorded take can have Space too. Click inside a take (its waveform, its piano roll or the bar under it), and Space plays that take instead of the song; click anywhere else and Space goes back to the song. Whatever is sounding, Space stops it. In the plugin, Space plays Song Cage while your DAW is stopped and belongs to the DAW while it plays.
L loops whichever section the playhead is currently in. Press L again to clear the loop. Looping only activates during playback. If playback is stopped, pressing L does nothing.
18.2 Editing
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+E | Switch between Timeline and Sheet view |
P | Show or hide the section piano roll under the timeline. Timeline view only, and it works with Musical Typing on |
Shift+P | Show or hide the section as guitar tab in the same dock (guitar instrument only). Timeline view only, and it works with Musical Typing on |
| Cmd/Ctrl+Z | Undo |
| Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Z or Cmd/Ctrl+Y | Redo |
| Cmd/Ctrl+A | Select all chord and lyric blocks in the active section |
| Cmd/Ctrl+C | Copy selected blocks |
| Cmd/Ctrl+X | Cut selected blocks (copy, then delete) |
| Cmd/Ctrl+V | Paste at the cursor position |
| Delete or Backspace | Delete selected blocks or selected lines. The cursor stays on the cell they vacated, so the arrows carry on from there. On a single word that carries a melody note, the first press removes only the note and the second removes the word |
| Alt+Left / Right | Move the selected chord and lyric blocks one grid space earlier or later (Option on a Mac). Timeline view only |
/ | Open chord search in the chord sidebar, ready to type a chord name |
? | Show the keyboard shortcuts panel. Press ? again or Escape to close it |
| Escape | Deselect all, close pitch selector, cancel audition, leave split mode |
Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+E (Option+Cmd+E on a Mac) flips between Timeline and Sheet view, and it works from anywhere, including mid-sentence while you're typing lyrics. You don't have to click out of the line first: the word you're on is committed before the view changes. Switching from Timeline to Sheet stops playback, since Sheet view has no playhead to follow. Going the other way leaves playback alone.
Copy and paste use an internal clipboard (not the system clipboard). When you copy blocks, their beat positions are normalized so the earliest block starts at beat 0. When you paste, the blocks land at the transport cursor position in whichever section the cursor is in. If no cursor is set, blocks paste at the start of the active section. If the blocks run past the end of that section, the section grows by whole lines to fit them, and one undo takes back the new lines and the blocks together.
Undo and redo apply to song data (chord placements, lyric edits, section changes). UI state like selection and sidebar position is not part of the undo stack.
In a text field, such as a word you're typing on the timeline, Cmd/Ctrl+Z takes back your typing first, one burst of typing at a time, and then carries on into the song's own steps, and redo works back the other way. This works the same in the web app, the desktop app and the plugin.
Alt+Left / Right (Option on a Mac) moves what you've already placed. The whole selection moves together and stops at the edges of its section, and one undo puts it back. A block sitting between two grid lines goes to the next line in the direction you pressed, so the first press tidies it onto the grid. The plain arrows keep their own jobs: they walk the chord lane or the melody cursor (see 18.4 and 18.5).
18.3 Lyrics and lines
| Shortcut | Action | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Shift+Enter | Add a line under the one you're on and open it for editing | Works inside a lyric input, or once you've clicked a line |
| Shift+Backspace | Remove the last line and edit the previous one | Works inside a lyric input or with a block selected |
| Tab | Commit the word and move forward, exactly like Enter | Timeline view only, while editing a lyric |
| Shift+Tab | Commit the word and open the previous one for editing | Timeline view only, while editing a lyric |
| Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Enter | Add a new section after the active one | Works anywhere, including inside a lyric input |
| C | Turn split mode (the scissors) on or off, to cut words into syllables | Timeline view only, and not while Musical Typing is on |
Shift+Enter is especially useful for building up a section line by line. Write a lyric, press Shift+Enter, and the cursor moves to a new line ready for the next phrase. In Sheet view, the new line is positioned based on where your text cursor sits. In Timeline view, it goes under the line you're on: the one you're typing in, the line you picked (the lowest, if you picked several), or the line holding the note cursor, a selected block or a marked chord beat. Failing those, it goes under the line you last clicked.
Tab is interchangeable with Enter while you're editing a word: both commit what you typed and carry you forward to the next slot, whether that's the adjacent word, a fresh input, or a new line. Shift+Tab is the same move backwards, committing first and then opening the previous word. Neither leaves the edit sitting where it was. A word you land on that already has text opens fully selected, so typing replaces it; press an arrow key first to put the caret at one end and change it instead. Both are Timeline view only; in Sheet view, Tab has its default browser behavior within the text area.
18.4 Melody editing
When a single lyric block is selected, the pitch selector opens and arrow keys control its melody notes. Select several blocks (shift-click, or drag a marquee across them) and the pitch keys move every note in the selection together:
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Arrow Up | Raise the current syllable's pitch by one scale tone. On an empty cell, places a new note one scale step above your previous melody note |
| Arrow Down | Lower the current syllable's pitch by one scale tone. On an empty cell, places a new note one scale step below your previous melody note |
| Shift+Arrow Up / Down | Move the pitch a whole octave instead of a scale tone. Nothing moves at all if any note in the selection would run off the end of the piano |
| Arrow Right | Move to the next note slot: the next syllable, then grid cells at the current snap, including empty ones |
| Arrow Left | Move to the previous note slot: the previous syllable, then grid cells at the current snap, including empty ones |
| Tab / Shift+Tab | Hop to the next / previous block, skipping over rests |
| Enter | Edit the selected block's lyric. On an empty cell, opens the lyric input there |
| 1 to 7 | Once the song has a key: the notes of the key, from the root up. 8 is the root an octave up, and Shift borrows the note from the parallel key (Shift+3 is the flat 3 in a major key). The cursor steps on to the next syllable. With no key yet, it tells you to pick one |
| M (hold) | Hold and sing the note you want, then let go: the pitch you sang lands on the selected syllable. Same gesture as the Hold to sing button under the keys |
| N | Give this syllable another note. The syllable halves onto the next grid line and the cursor lands on the new empty slot, so the next pitch you play fills it. The word keeps its spelling |
| 0 | Clear the pitch on the selected syllable |
Pitch nudging respects the song's key and mode. If a chord is present at the syllable's beat position, the nudge favors chord tones within reach, and across a multi-block selection each note steps against the chord under its own beat, so nudging a whole line keeps every note in the harmony it was written over. Each note plays back as you move, so you hear the melody taking shape in real time; a move across several blocks stays silent, since a dozen pitches at once tells you nothing.
When the cursor moves onto an empty grid cell it shows as a dashed outline and the piano follows it. Nothing is written to the song by navigation alone: a note is only created when you press Arrow Up/Down, type a number (or a home-row key with Musical Typing on), or click the piano. Arrow away and the cell stays empty.
Deleting puts you back on that dashed outline. Backspace a note you just placed and the cursor is left standing on the cell it came from, which is where you wanted to try again anyway.
When the pitch selector is open, most other keyboard input is blocked to prevent conflicts with Musical Typing. Escape, arrow keys, Tab, Enter, modifier combos (Cmd/Ctrl+Z, etc.), Space for playback, Delete, and the grid keys , and . still work, as do the selector's own keys: 1 to 8 for the notes of the key, A to L and the sharps row for pitches while Musical Typing is on, Z/X for the octave window, 0 to clear, N to add a note, and M held down to sing.
The same syllables can be edited in the section piano roll under the timeline. While you're working in the roll, its own keys take over and the pitch selector folds away; see 18.12.
18.5 Typing chords by scale degree
In Timeline view the number row places chords. Aim at a spot first: click an empty cell in the chord lane to arm a ghost slot, select an existing chord to write after it, or just park the insert marker where you want the chord. Then type.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 - 7 | Place the diatonic chord on that scale degree |
| Shift+1 - Shift+7 | Borrow the same degree from the parallel mode |
| Alt+1 - Alt+7 | Place that degree's secondary dominant |
| 0 | Clear the chord you're aiming at, leaving its cell armed for the next digit |
| Left / Right | Walk the chord lane one grid cell at a time |
A typed chord is exactly one grid cell wide, or the width of the ghost slot if you dragged it wider, so the grid division is also the chord-length control. Loosen the grid before typing a slow progression.
Left and Right walk cells rather than hopping chord to chord, so an empty cell is a place you can stop and type into. Landing on a chord selects it; landing on a gap arms it. A whole progression can go down without touching the mouse. To move a chord you've already placed, hold Alt (Option on a Mac) with the arrow: the selected chord moves one grid space instead.
Deleting a chord leaves its cell armed rather than dropping you out of the lane, so 0 to clear, Right to move on, and a digit to place the next chord is one unbroken run at the keyboard. The armed cell is one grid division wide, the same as any other typed chord, whatever the chord you removed was.
The number keys are Timeline only. Sheet view's lyric row is a text field, and lyrics legitimately contain digits, so numbers type themselves there. Pressing one while the pitch selector is open shows a hint pointing you at the chord lane rather than quietly doing nothing.
18.6 Chord audition
You can audition chords three ways: click a timeline chord and then a palette chip, double-click a timeline chord (or select it and press Enter), or start from the palette with no chord selected (click a chip to arm it, then press an arrow). Whichever you use, the chord previews without committing, and you explore alternatives with the keyboard.
Clicking a timeline chord and then a chip tries the chip's chord in its place. Click the same chip again, or press Enter, to keep it; click another chip to try that one instead; press Escape to put the original back. Walking onto a chord with the arrow keys counts as clicking it. In chord search, Enter puts the highlighted result in place of the chord you clicked.
When you open audition with a double-click or Enter, it starts at the first chip in the palette panel: the first Fits Melody or Replace suggestion if a strip is showing, otherwise the first In Key chord. Press Escape to revert to the block's original chord; arrow keys move the cursor from there. You didn't choose that first chip, so clicking away or pressing Space also puts the original chord back. Once you've made a choice (a chip, an arrow, a number key or a voicing), clicking away or pressing Space keeps it.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Arrow Left / Right | Step ±1 through the palette in render order (Fits Melody / Replace, then In Key, Borrowed, Secondary Dominants). Clamps at the first and last chip. |
| Arrow Up / Down | Move to the chord directly above or below in the palette grid. Same column, next or previous row in the current section, flowing into the next non-empty section at the same column when you hit a section's edge. Clamps at the top and bottom of the panel. |
| Shift+Left / Shift+Right | Cycle extensions on the current chord (triad → 7 → maj7 → 9 → sus4 → sus2 → add9 → 6, filtered to what fits the chord's quality). |
| Shift+Up / Shift+Down | Cycle voicings of the current chord (Up = next, matching the pitch-direction metaphor). |
| Enter | Commit the chord. From the palette, inserts at the playhead (if playing) or the end of the last section. |
| Escape | Cancel. If the block was newly placed, it's deleted. If it was an existing chord, it reverts. From the palette, clears the armed chord. |
Every arrow press previews the new chord or voicing, and the timeline chip, the highlighted palette chip, the fretboard, and the keyboard panels all update in lockstep so you can see the cycle across the whole UI. Exactly one chip is highlighted at a time (the cursor), and the panel auto-scrolls so the cursor is always in view. In Guitar mode, voicings respect the capo position: the shapes you hear and see are the ones your fingers would play.
18.7 Guitar tab
With the guitar instrument, Guitar tab at the bottom of the timeline (or Shift+P) shows the section as two six-string staves: the chord shapes, and the melody under them. Both take fret numbers, to place or edit notes directly on the staff. Click a beat × string cell to set the cursor, then type:
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| 0–9 | Type a fret number. Two digits work for frets 10–24. |
| X | Mute the active string |
| Arrow Up / Down | Move the cursor between strings |
| Arrow Left / Right | Move the cursor between beats at the current snap |
| Tab or Enter | Advance and commit any in-flight digits. On the chord staff, Enter also commits a compose buffer as a new chord block. |
| Backspace | Clear the digit buffer; on a second press, clear the note (or mute the string on the chord staff) |
| Escape | Dismiss the cursor. On the chord staff, also discards any compose buffer. |
Clicking outside the staves clears the cursor. See Chapter 9 for the chord staff in depth and Chapter 10 for the melody's.
18.8 Grid snap
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
. or > | Coarser grid (e.g., 1/8 to 1/4) |
, or < | Finer grid (e.g., 1/4 to 1/8) |
| Cmd/Ctrl+scroll or pinch | Over the timeline, step the grid, with the new division shown under the pointer |
A hint names the new division each time it changes, and the grid keys keep working while the pitch selector is open. There's one grid for the whole app: the timeline snaps to it, and both piano rolls pull notes to it (over a piano roll, the grid gesture is Cmd+scroll, or Ctrl+Shift+scroll without a Cmd key; see 18.12).
The available snap divisions depend on the time signature:
- Simple time (4/4, 3/4, 2/4, 5/4): 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, plus 1/1 in 4/4 and 5/4, where a bar holds at least four beats
- Compound time (6/8, 9/8, 12/8): dotted 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32
- Eighth-denominator (5/8, 7/8): 1/8, 1/16, 1/32
If you change the time signature while on an invalid division, the grid snaps to the nearest valid one.
18.9 Musical Typing
Press K with nothing selected to turn on Musical Typing (with a word selected, K is a note key, so it leaves the setting alone). Once it's on, K plays a note, so turn it off with the ✕ on the keyboard strip that appears along the bottom of the window, or from Settings. The setting is remembered between launches. With a word selected, letters only set its note while Musical Typing is on; the number keys work either way once the song has a key. When active, your QWERTY keyboard becomes a chromatic piano using a layout compatible with GarageBand:
Bottom row (natural notes): A=C, S=D, D=E, F=F, G=G, H=A, J=B, K=C (next octave), L=D (next octave)
Top row (sharps/flats): W=C#, E=D#, T=F#, Y=G#, U=A#
Octave shift: Z shifts down one octave, X shifts up. The range spans octave 1 through octave 7, starting at octave 4 by default.
Musical Typing works during both recording and free play. While Musical Typing is active, the R key is released from its record shortcut (since R is near the typing keys), and certain single-letter shortcuts are suppressed to avoid conflicts. The piano rolls leave J and Z to Musical Typing too, so while it's on, merge notes with Merge selected notes in the roll's Edit menu and fit the view with the Fit button.
Follow Chord mode
Enable Follow Chord in Settings (the magnet icon). When both Musical Typing and Follow Chord are active, the A through L keys remap to the chord tones at the current playhead position. As playback moves from an Am chord to a D chord, the keys automatically remap to the new chord's tones. This lets you play melodically without worrying about hitting wrong notes.
18.10 The Settings menu
Open Settings in the menu bar at the top of the editor. Melody Settings... in the lyric lane's right-click menu opens it too. In the desktop app, Settings is a menu in the app's own menu bar, with each of the sections below as a menu or a ticked item. It has these sections:
Instrument
- Guitar or Piano: switches the instrument, changing voicing displays, diagram types, and the default instrument for MIDI export.
- Capo (guitar only): None or 1 to 12. Setting a capo transposes chord shapes without changing the sounding pitch.
- Tuning (guitar only): the guitar tuning.
Melody Voice
Controls whether melody notes play back during song playback, and which timbre they use:
- Off: melody notes are silent during playback.
- Singer (sings lyrics): the default. A synthesized voice that sings each note on its syllable of the lyric.
- Female, Male: vocal Mellotron timbres.
- Flute, Violins: instrumental Mellotron timbres.
- Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar: sampled guitars, for a plucked attack.
The choice is saved with the song. This setting only affects playback. Melody editing (the pitch selector) always plays notes as you assign them, regardless of this setting.
Rhythm
A dropdown of accompaniment patterns that determine how chords play during playback. Available patterns change based on the instrument and time signature:
Guitar patterns (4/4): Single Strum, Folk Strum, Travis Pick. Piano patterns (4/4): Single Hit, Rhythmic, Coconut. Waltz patterns (3/4): Waltz Strum (guitar), Waltz (piano), Waltz Arpeggio (piano). Compound patterns (6/8, 9/8, 12/8): 6/8 Strum (guitar), 6/8 Pulse (piano), 6/8 Arpeggio (both), beside the single strum or hit. A 6/8 song strums in 6/8 rather than as a waltz. Custom: your own picking pattern for the song, drawn in the Picking pattern editor (Chapter 13). Choosing it opens the editor, and an Edit pattern button under the dropdown opens it again.
Below the dropdown, a Humanize toggle adds subtle timing and velocity variation to the pattern, making playback feel less mechanical. Arpeggio plays chords one note at a time instead, and Sustain (Short, Natural, Long) sets how long chords ring on past their block.
Metronome
- Click: Accented stresses beat 1 of each bar (the default); Steady clicks the same on every beat, with no bar to count.
- Click While Recording: every take clicks, whatever the toolbar metronome says. On by default (Chapter 13).
Input
- Musical Typing (K): switches the QWERTY piano input described in 18.9 on or off. The K key itself only turns it on, since K plays a note once it is.
- Follow Chord: snaps Musical Typing input to chord tones at the playhead.
- Borrowed Notes: lets a borrowed chord move one melody note a half step to fit it, from any palette tab, a number key, a MIDI chord or a drop. Off by default (Chapter 9).
- Sing to Pitch: shows Hold to sing (and the held M key) in the pitch selector and on a take's bar, so you can set a note by singing it. On by default, and hidden where the device can't record audio.
- Auto-Split Lyrics: splits a typed word into syllables as it lands (Chapter 8). On by default.
- MIDI Keyboard (desktop app and plugin only): plays a MIDI keyboard into whatever is selected. A note fills the focused syllable, a chord fills the armed chord slot, and the cursor moves on.
Recording
- Pre-roll: how many bars (0, 1, 2 or 4) play before a recording starts from a stopped transport.
- Microphone: a device picker for selecting which audio input to use for voice recording. Defaults to the system default; you can choose a specific microphone if you have multiple connected.
In the desktop app and the plugin, Share usage stats at the bottom changes your answer about sharing which features you use.
18.11 Toolbar settings and the View menu
Several song-level settings live directly in the toolbar:
- Song title: click it to open the Song menu. To rename, double-click it, or hover it and click the pencil.
- Key and mode: click the key chip (e.g., "C maj") to open the key/mode picker.
- Tempo: drag up or down to change it, or double-click to type a number. Changes take effect in real time during playback. In the plugin, your DAW sets the playback tempo.
- View toggle: switches between Timeline and Sheet view (Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+E). Stopping playback is automatic when switching from Timeline to Sheet.
The time signature chip on the right (it reads "4/4" on a new song) holds the rest:
- Time signature: eight presets (2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/8, 7/8, 9/8, 12/8).
- Bars per line: how many bars each timeline line shows (Chapter 5).
The View menu holds the display options. Each one shows a tick while it's on:
- Compact Rows: tighter row spacing on the timeline.
- Nashville Numbers: shows chords as Nashville numbers instead of letter names.
- Chord Diagrams on Hover: shows a mini fretboard (guitar) or keyboard (piano) when you hover a chord block in Timeline view, and beside the chord sidebar when you hover a chord in the palette. Sheet view has its own switch for a row of diagrams above each line, in the floating controls at the bottom right of the sheet.
- Dark Theme: switches between the light and dark themes. The choice is saved on your device and persists across sessions.
18.12 Piano rolls
Song Cage has two piano rolls: the section piano roll docked under the timeline (Chapter 2) and the roll under a recorded take (Chapter 10). Press P to show or hide the section roll, the same as the Piano roll button at the bottom of the timeline. The rolls share these keys and gestures. The keys act on the notes selected in a roll once you've clicked in it, and a click anywhere else hands the keyboard back to the timeline.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Arrow Up / Down | Move the selected notes up or down a semitone |
| Shift+Arrow Up / Down | Move them an octave |
| Arrow Left / Right | Move the selected notes one grid space earlier or later. A note between two lines goes to the next line first. In the section roll, a note's whole word moves with it |
| Alt+Left / Right | Select the previous or next note (Option on a Mac) |
| C | Split the selected notes in two |
| J | Merge a run of neighbouring selected notes into one |
| Q | Snap the selected notes to the grid. Their lengths stay the same |
| Shift+Q | Snap the selected notes' starts and ends to the grid |
| Delete or Backspace | Remove the selected notes |
| M (hold) | In a take's roll, with Sing to Pitch on, sing the pitch the selected note should be, then let go. The rest of the selection moves with it |
| Escape | Deselect |
+ (or =) / - | Zoom in or out |
| Cmd/Ctrl+0 | Fit the notes to the width and put the rows back to their usual height |
| Z | Zoom to the selected notes, or fit everything when nothing is selected |
, / . | Finer or coarser grid (the timeline's grid, see 18.8) |
The view steers the way a DAW's note editor does:
| Gesture | Action |
|---|---|
| Scroll | Scroll up and down through the pitches. Over a take's roll the page scrolls until you click in the roll, and again once the pointer leaves it |
| Alt+scroll | Scroll sideways (Option on a Mac) |
| Ctrl+scroll or pinch | Zoom in or out on time |
| Ctrl+Alt+scroll | Make the rows taller or shorter (Ctrl+Option on a Mac) |
| Cmd+scroll | Step the grid finer or coarser. Without a Cmd key, use Ctrl+Shift+scroll |
| Drag the ruler | Up or down to zoom, sideways to scroll |
| Click the ruler | Set where playback starts. Double-click to set it and play from there |
| Drag the note names | Make the rows taller or shorter |
| Wheel-press drag | Pan the view |
| Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+drag | Zoom and scroll from anywhere in the roll (Cmd/Ctrl+Option on a Mac) |
With the mouse, a dragged note snaps to a grid line once it comes close (Chapter 5). Hold Shift while dragging to keep its pitch, or Alt (Option on a Mac) to place it off the grid. Shift-click selects a range of notes, and Cmd-click (Ctrl-click on Windows) adds a note to the selection or takes it out. Right-clicking a note, or Control-clicking it on a Mac, opens the roll's Edit menu for everything selected. Clicking a note also moves the play cursor to that note's start, and clicking empty space moves it to the start of that grid space, so Space plays from there.
18.13 Listen through
In the Ideas inbox, Listen on a date heading (or Listen through in the Ideas room) plays your recordings one at a time so you can decide about each one:
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Play or pause the recording |
| Arrow Right | Skip to the next recording |
| Arrow Left | Go back to the previous one |
| M | Mark it with a star and move on |
| A | Archive it and move on. On one you archived during this run, put it back instead |
| R | Rename it |
| Escape | Finish, the same as Done |
In the plugin, Space and Escape reach this screen on a Mac. On Windows your DAW keeps those two keys, so use the on-screen play button and Done.
18.14 Desktop app menus
The desktop app's menu bar is the system one: File, Edit, View, Settings and Help (plus Song Cage and Window on a Mac). It holds the same menus as the menu bar at the top of the editor in the web app. Use Cmd on a Mac and Ctrl on Windows:
| Shortcut | Menu item |
|---|---|
| Cmd/Ctrl+N | File > New Song |
| Cmd/Ctrl+O | File > Open Song File… opens a song file you exported, as a new song |
| Cmd/Ctrl+S | File > Save. Songs save on every edit, so this only confirms that they do |
| Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+M | File > Export MIDI (Simplified Chords)… |
| Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P | File > Export PDF… |
| Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+B | View > Toggle Sidebar shows or hides the chord sidebar |
File > Export Song File…, File > Import Voice Memos… and File > Export MIDI (Guitar Fingering)… have no shortcut. Edit > Undo and Edit > Redo use the shortcuts in 18.2. Cut Text, Copy Text and Paste Text in the Edit menu act on the text field you're typing in; for timeline blocks, use Cmd/Ctrl+X, C and V as usual, or the menu's Cut Blocks, Copy Blocks and Paste Blocks.
18.15 Workflow tips
These aren't hidden features. They're patterns that become second nature once you know the shortcuts.
Build a section line by line
Start in Timeline view. Double-click a lyric block to edit it, type your first line, then press Shift+Enter. A new line appears and the cursor jumps to it. Keep going until the section is complete. You never need to leave the keyboard.
Audition before you commit
When exploring chord options, click a chord chip in the palette (or double-click any existing chord on the timeline) and use the arrow keys: Left/Right steps through the palette in order, Up/Down moves to the chord directly above or below in the grid (across section boundaries), Shift+Left/Right cycles extensions like 7ths and sus chords, and Shift+Up/Down tries alternate voicings. Press Escape to back out, Enter to keep the chord. This lets you hear dozens of options in seconds without cluttering the timeline with blocks you'll delete.
Copy a progression to a new section
Select all the chord blocks in a section (Cmd/Ctrl+A), copy them (Cmd/Ctrl+C), click in the target section to set the cursor, and paste (Cmd/Ctrl+V). The chords land at the same relative positions, and a shorter target section grows by whole lines to fit them. This is faster than re-entering chords one by one when two sections share a progression.
Use the grid for precision
Tighten the grid (, key) when you need to place a chord or lyric on an off-beat. Loosen it (. key) when you're working at the bar level and don't want to accidentally snap to a sixteenth note. The grid label in the toolbar shows the current division so you always know where you are, and Alt+Left / Right then nudges a selected block along that grid.
Melody by keyboard
Select a lyric block, then type the line as numbers: each one is a note of the key and steps on to the next syllable, so 5 5 6 5 fills four syllables. Or use Arrow Up/Down to find the note and Arrow Right to advance. Each note plays as you assign it. For a whole line, this is faster than clicking notes on the pitch selector one at a time.
Loop while you write
Start playback (Space), then press L to loop the section you're working on. The section repeats while you listen to how your chords and melody sound together. Press L again to clear the loop and hear the full song.
That completes the Song Cage manual. If you've read from Chapter 1 through here, you now know every feature the app offers, from the philosophy behind it to the keyboard shortcut that makes it faster. Open Song Cage, start with an idea, and see where it takes you.