Keyboard shortcuts

You can fix a whole song from the keyboard: play it, walk from chord to chord, change a chord or a fingering, split, copy and paste, all without reaching for the mouse. These are all the keys, grouped by where they work. Where a Mac and Windows differ, both are shown: ⌘ on a Mac is Ctrl on Windows, and ⌥ is Alt.

Before you start

• Shortcuts work in the editor on a computer, in a narrow window too: the timeline’s keys and the keys of the chord or line picked work there as they do on a wide one. On a phone or tablet everything is done by touch.
• A key is never taken from you while you type: in a text field, the chord search or a time field, keys write as usual. In an open menu or dialog, keys belong to it.
• Letter keys act on the chord or lyric line you picked. Click it on the timeline first, or reach it with the arrows.

Options

Anywhere in the editor

Keys	What they do
Space	Play or pause the song, wherever the focus is
⌘ Z / Ctrl Z	Undo
⇧ ⌘ Z / Ctrl Shift Z or Ctrl Y	Redo
F7 / F9	The previous or next chord, opened in its card. On a Mac, the rewind and fast-forward keys do the same
⇧ F10 / Shift F10	Open the menu of the chord, lyric line, marker or note that has the focus: the menu a right click opens

The timeline, from anywhere on the page

These work without picking anything first.

Keys	What they do
A or −	Zoom out
S or +	Zoom in
Q	Playhead back a step: to the previous line of the beat grid as it is drawn
W	Playhead on a step: to the next line of the grid
1	Previous chord: the playhead to its start
2	Next chord
3 or Home	Go to the start of the cut
4 or End	Go to the end of the cut
X	Split the chord at the playhead
⇧ X	Split the tab or strum pattern at the playhead
M	Add a marker at the playhead
R	Turn loop on or off: the video plays from its end straight back to its start
L	Play, faster each press: twice as fast, then four times, up to 8×
J	Play backwards, faster each press. Backwards, the video moves without sound
K	Stop where the song is. The next play is at normal speed
K held with L or J	Play slowly, at 0.5×, forwards or backwards, for as long as you hold them

J, K and L work as in a video editor. While the speed is not normal, it shows beside the clock under the timeline. The speed is only for watching and listening: the project and the exported video keep the song’s own speed. They work while the timeline is shown in full, not in a narrow window.

The timeline’s lanes

The column of buttons at the left of the timeline shows or hides the chords, the lyrics and the guitar tab. The keys do the same from anywhere on the page. They carry ⌥ because the numbers alone move the playhead, and type a fret on the tab.

Keys	What they do
⌥ 1	Show or hide the chords
⌥ 2	Show or hide the lyrics
⌥ 4	Show or hide the guitar tab
⇧ ⌥ 1, 2 or 4	Show that lane alone; press it again to bring the others back. ⌥-click a button does the same
⌥ 0	Show all layers

A chord picked

Keys	What they do
C	Change chord
F	Change fingering
D	Edit shape
T	Edit timing
P	Play chord
I	Insert chord after
N	Insert pause after
H	Hide from video, or Show in video once hidden
[ / ]	Merge with previous / Merge with next: the chord takes over the time of the one touching it, keeping its own name and fingering
⌘ X / Ctrl X	Cut: the chord’s name and fingering, and the chord taken out
⌘ C / Ctrl C	Copy: the chord’s name and fingering
⌘ V / Ctrl V	Paste over the chord picked
Delete	Delete

A lyric line picked

Keys	What they do
E	Edit text
X	Split line
T	Edit timing
P	Play line
I	Add line after
M	Merge with previous
H	Hide from video, or Show in video once hidden
⌘ C / Ctrl C	Copy text
Delete	Delete

With a line picked, X and M are the line’s: they split it and merge it, rather than splitting a chord or adding a marker.

Moving through the song

Keys	What they do
← / →	Pick the chord or line before or after
↑ / ↓	Go from a chord to the lyric line sung at that moment, and back
Enter	Go into the card of the chord or line picked
Shift Enter	Add a chord after the chord picked, or a new line after the line picked
Esc	Let go of what is picked
⌥ ← / ⌥ →	Move the start of the chord or line picked a touch earlier or later
⌥ ⇧ ← / ⌥ ⇧ →	Move its end a touch earlier or later

Inside a quick edit

C, F, T, E and X open a small editor right over the chord or line. Inside it:

Quick edit	Keys
Change fingering	← → to light a fingering, Enter or Space to take it, a number 1 to 9 to take that one at once, Esc to close
Change chord	Type the chord, ↑ ↓ to choose, Enter to take it
Edit timing	Tab between the start and the end, Enter to save
Edit text	Enter to save
Split line	← → between the words, Enter to split there

On the video

Click the video on the stage first. The keys then move what is on it.

Keys	What they do
Space or Enter	Play or pause
L	Switch what the keys move, in turn: the chords, the lyrics, the title, the capo tag, your video
← → ↑ ↓	Move it a little
Shift + arrows	Move it further
+ / −	Make it bigger or smaller
F	Fill the space it is in, as a double click does
⇧ 1	Fit to screen: see the whole video again after zooming in
⇧ 0	Zoom the stage to 100%, the video’s real size
⌥ + arrows	When the keys move your video: move the picture inside its frame

An element picked on the video

For a text or an image you added in Extra:

Keys	What they do
Arrows, Shift + arrows	Move it a little, or further
+ / −	Make it bigger or smaller
⌘ D / Ctrl D	Duplicate it
Delete	Delete it
Esc	Let go of it

In the Edit tracks window

When the browser window is too narrow for the timeline, a scissors button under the video opens Edit tracks, where you choose the part of the song that plays and cut out mistakes. It has its own keys. Press ? there to see them.

Keys	What they do
Space	Play or pause
Shift Space	Play from here, what was cut included
C	Cut: once where the mistake starts, once where it ends
I / O	Start here, end here
← / →	Move a tenth of a second
Shift ← / →	Move a second
⌥ ← / →	Move a millisecond
⌥ Shift ← / →	Move ten milliseconds
[ / ]	Go to the edge before, the edge after
Home / End	Go to the start, the end
P	Play the join of the cut
Delete	Put the selected cut back
Esc	Cancel a cut that is being marked
+ / −	Zoom in, zoom out
0	Show the whole song
⌘ Z / Ctrl Z	Undo
⇧ ⌘ Z / Ctrl Y	Redo
?	Show or hide this list

In the projects library

Keys	What they do
/ or ⌘ K / Ctrl K	Jump to the search box, Search by name, chord or lyric
Enter	Open the top result
Esc	Clear the search; press again to leave the box
⇧ F10 / Shift F10	Open the menu of the project that has the focus (reach it with Tab): the menu a right click opens

Tips

• On any page, the first Tab shows Skip to content. Press Enter to jump past the bar, straight to the page.
• Right-click a chord or a lyric line on the timeline: the menu lists every action with its key beside it. It is the easiest way to learn them.
• Hold A, S, Q or W to keep zooming or stepping at a steady pace.
• To copy a run of chords with their timing, click the first chord, Shift-click the last, and press ⌘ C. Pick the chord where the pattern should start and press ⌘ V: it replaces the stretch the pattern lasts, as one step you can undo.
• Hold ⌘ or Ctrl and drag the line between two chords that touch to move the end of one and the start of the next together.
• Going to the next or previous chord never starts the song. Press P to hear the chord picked.

Common problems

A letter key does nothing. Nothing is picked, or the focus is in a field, a menu or a dialog. Click the chord or line on the timeline, then press the key. The timeline’s own keys (zoom, step, the chords, the ends, split, marker, loop) also rest while the timeline is folded to its bar: open it again.

F or L moves something on the video. The video has the focus, and its keys come first. Click the timeline to give the keys back to the chords.

J or L changes a tab note instead of playing. On the guitar tab, J and L belong to the note picked. Click the chords’ lane, then press the key.

⌘ Z undoes my typing instead of my last change. In a text field, undo belongs to the field. Click outside the field, then undo.

X says No chord under the playhead to split. Put the playhead inside a chord first, for example with 1 or 2.