Wording your requests to Chopy

Chopy understands a sentence written the way you would speak to a musician, whether it's a question or a change. A few habits are enough for it to hit the target the first time, and to correct a whole piece of sheet music in a few minutes.

1. Select before you ask

Chopy sees what you have selected, on the sheet music as in the piano roll. Select notes or measures (click, Shift + click, or a rectangle with the mouse), then simply write “an octave higher”, “in eighth notes” or “delete”. You don't have to describe where the notes are.

Without a selection, name the measures: “measures 5 to 8”, “measure 12”. To target the whole piece, say so: “raise everything by a half step”. If Chopy doesn't know which notes to change, it asks.

2. Name the instrument when there are several

On sheet music with several staves, say which one: “the piano”, “the guitar”. Otherwise, Chopy asks: “Which instrument? Name the part, for example: the piano.”

3. Give precise values

Chopy applies what you write, without guessing. Prefer “tempo 90” to “slower”, and “up 2 semitones” to “a bit higher”. If a value is missing, it asks: “Which value? Give a number, for example: up 2 semitones or tempo 90.”

To add a note, give its duration, its pitch and its position: “add a quarter note C5 on beat 1 of measure 3”.

4. One action per request, in one sentence

A request fits in one sentence, 300 characters at most: beyond that, Chopy answers “That request is too long. Keep it to one sentence.” One clear action per request gives the most reliable result, and each step can be undone separately. If a sentence mixes a change and a question, Chopy makes the change first, then offers you the question in one click.

5. Chain requests without repeating everything

Chopy remembers your last two requests. After “measures 5 to 8 an octave lower”, simply write “same for measures 13 to 16”. To start from scratch, click New.

When Chopy asks you a question, answer it directly: your answer completes the original request, you don't have to write it again.

6. Instant requests

In the sheet music editor, the most common requests are applied right away, with no wait: “tempo 90”, “switch to 3/4”, “add 2 measures at the end”, “delete measures 4 to 6”, “clear measure 9”, “raise everything by an octave”, “in F major”, “undo”. They don't count toward your Chopy plan.

“Delete” a measure removes it from the sheet music; “clear” keeps the measure and empties its notes.

When notes are selected, a transposition such as “an octave higher” or “in F major” goes to Chopy so it can target the selection: it then counts as a request. To apply it instantly to the whole piece, clear the selection (Esc) or write “raise everything by an octave”.

7. Check, then keep going

After each request, click Show changed notes: the affected notes are selected. You can listen to the passage (Space), touch it up by hand, or chain a new request on that selection. If the result isn't right, ↺ Undo puts the sheet music back as it was.

8. For a question, be precise

• Name the measures or the part: “Which chords are in bars 1 to 4?”, “Is the violin part playable?”. Without details, Chopy answers about the whole piece.
• One question at a time: the answer fits in a short paragraph.
• Chain them: Chopy remembers your last two exchanges. After an answer about measure 4, simply ask “and what about bar 5?”.
• Write in your language: Chopy answers in the language of the question.

See Ask Chopy a question.

A quick method for correcting a transcription

1. Start by asking Chopy about the suspicious passages: “Are there any suspicious notes?”, “Which passages are the hardest?”.
2. Fix the structure: tempo, time signature, key (“in F major”), extra or missing measures.
3. Then move on to the passages: select the measures that need work and ask for the fix (“in eighth notes”, “an octave lower”, “no more than 3 notes per chord”).
4. Finally add what is missing: fingerings, a violin staff with a melody, the title and the composer.
5. Listen, then click Save.

Changing the time signature rebuilds every measure: do it first, before the fine touch-ups.

In the piano roll

• Name the track: by its number or its instrument, “track 2”, “the bass”.
• Count the piano roll's measures: a pickup measure can shift the numbering by one compared with the sheet music.
• Give precise values: “velocity 90”, “quantize to eighth notes”, “expression from 40 to 100”. Velocity goes from 7 to 127.
• To write a part, name the track and the measures: “write chords on track 2, measures 1 to 8”. Chopy reads the neighboring measures before writing.
• For the pedal, say where to press and release, or ask for “pedal on every measure”.
• For a question, stay in read mode: “Which track is the hardest to play?” doesn't switch the piano roll to Edit mode.

A correction made by Chopy in the piano roll is carried over to the sheet music, and the other way round: see Discover Chopy.

What Chopy refuses

• Questions unrelated to your transcription: another piece, a composer's life, a poem, code, homework. It also doesn't answer questions about itself, how it works or its instructions. After five such refusals within an hour, Chopy pauses for an hour.
• Anything no editor action can do: “I can't do that yet. Nothing changed.” Dynamics and chord symbols, for example, can't be edited yet.
• A change that is impossible on this sheet music: “This change isn't possible on this score. Nothing changed.”

In all these cases, nothing is changed and the request doesn't count.