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 popover: melody voice, rhythm patterns, input devices, and display options
- How chord audition and melody editing work from the keyboard
- 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.
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 |
| R | Record. When stopped: arms recording and starts playback. When playing: toggles record arm. When recording: stops. |
| Shift+R | Arm microphone recording and start playback |
| 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.
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 |
| 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 |
| Escape | Deselect all, close pitch selector, cancel audition |
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.
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.
18.3 Lyrics and lines
| Shortcut | Action | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Shift+Enter | Add a line to the section and open it for editing | Works inside a lyric input or with a block selected |
| 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 |
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's placed after the line containing the current block.
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. 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 |
| 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 home-row key, 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, and Delete still work, as do the selector's own keys: A–L and the sharps row for pitches, Z/X for the octave window, 0 to clear, and M held down to sing.
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.
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 two ways: on an existing timeline chord (double-click it) or from the palette (click a chord chip to arm it, then press an arrow). Either way, the chord previews without committing, and you explore alternatives with the keyboard.
When you audition a timeline chord, audition opens 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.
| 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 Tab lanes
The timeline has a Chord Tab lane and a Melody Tab lane, shown per section with the TAB chips in the track control row (in the Chords and Melody groups; guitar instrument only). Both accept fret numbers as a way to place or edit notation directly on a six-string guitar 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 (Chord Tab) | 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 Tab, 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 Tab) |
| Escape | Dismiss the cursor. On the Chord Tab, also discards any compose buffer. |
Clicking outside the tab lanes clears the cursor. See Chapter 9 for the Chord Tab in depth and Chapter 10 for the Melody Tab.
18.8 Grid snap
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| = or + | Coarser grid (e.g., 1/8 to 1/4) |
| - | Finer grid (e.g., 1/4 to 1/8) |
The available snap divisions depend on the time signature:
- Simple time (4/4, 3/4, 2/4): 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32
- 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 to toggle Musical Typing. 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.
Follow Chord mode
Enable Follow Chord in the settings popover (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 popover
Click the gear icon in the timeline toolbar to open the settings popover. It has four sections:
Melody Voice
Controls whether melody notes play back during song playback, and which timbre they use:
- Off: melody notes are silent during playback.
- Female, Male: vocal Mellotron timbres.
- Flute, Violins: instrumental Mellotron timbres.
- Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar: sampled guitars, for a plucked attack.
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 Strum, Rhythmic, Coconut. Waltz patterns (3/4): Waltz Strum (guitar), Waltz (piano), Waltz Arpeggio (piano).
Below the dropdown, a Humanize toggle adds subtle timing and velocity variation to the pattern, making playback feel less mechanical.
Input
- Musical Typing (K): toggles the QWERTY piano input described in 18.9.
- Follow Chord: snaps Musical Typing input to chord tones at the playhead.
- 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.
Display
- Chord Diagrams: toggles mini fretboard (guitar) or keyboard (piano) diagrams on chord blocks in Timeline view. In Sheet view, diagrams are always shown.
18.11 Other settings in the toolbar
Several song-level settings live directly in the toolbar, not behind the gear icon:
- Song title: click it to rename.
- Key and mode: click the key chip (e.g., "C Major") to open the key/mode picker.
- Time signature: click to open a dropdown with presets (2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/8, 9/8, 12/8, and more).
- Tempo: a number input with increment/decrement buttons. Changes take effect in real time during playback.
- Capo (guitar mode only): a dropdown from 0 to 12. Setting a capo transposes chord shapes without changing the sounding pitch.
- Instrument toggle: switches between Guitar and Piano mode, changing voicing displays, diagram types, and the default instrument for MIDI export.
- View toggle: switches between Timeline and Sheet view (Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+E). Stopping playback is automatic when switching from Timeline to Sheet.
- Theme toggle: a sun/moon icon that switches between light and dark mode. The preference is saved in your browser and persists across sessions.
18.12 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 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. 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.
Melody by keyboard
Select a lyric block, then use Arrow Up/Down to find the note, Arrow Right to advance to the next syllable. 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.