Sheet music editor features

This article is a tour of the sheet music editor. To open it, save and leave it, see Edit your sheet music with the editor. To have a correction made from a single sentence, or to ask a question about the sheet music, see Chopy.

How do I select notes?

In Select (V) mode:

• One click on a note selects it. Shift + click adds a note to the selection or removes it.
• Drag a rectangle over the sheet music to select several notes at once.
• Click a measure number to select the whole measure.
• The left and right arrows move to the previous or next note.
• Esc clears the selection.

Clicking the title, the composer, the tempo, the time signature, a clef or an instrument name opens its settings directly.

How do I add notes?

• Note input mode (N): choose a duration, then click the staff at the pitch you want. Each click places a note.
• Double-click in Select mode: places a quarter note where you click and switches to note input mode.
• Rest (R): in note input mode, places a rest instead of a note; with notes selected, turns them into rests.

How do I change the pitch, the duration or an accidental?

Select one or more notes: a toolbar appears above them.

• ▲ ▼ or the up and down arrow keys: a semitone higher or lower. With Shift, an octave. On a drum staff, they move to the neighboring piece.
• Duration (1–5): from the 16th note (1) to the whole note (5). The dot (.) adds half the duration.
• Accidental: sharp, flat, natural, double sharp, double flat.
• Tie (T): joins the note to the next one of the same pitch.
• Delete (the Del or Backspace key, or the trash can).
• Move to: moves the note to another staff.

Which signs and playing techniques can I add?

The More menu in the toolbar offers the signs for the instrument:

• Piano, voice, guitar, bass: staccato, tenuto, accent, marcato, fermata.
• Bowed strings (violin, double bass): down-bows and up-bows, natural and artificial harmonics, open string, spiccato, staccato, tenuto, accent, and playing techniques (pizzicato, arco, sul ponticello, sul tasto, col legno, con sordino, tremolo…).
• Winds (flute, saxophone, trumpet): breath mark, fermata, trill, staccato, tenuto, accent, marcato, fall, scoop, and playing techniques (legato, détaché, flutter-tongue, growl, mutes…).
• Organ: fermata, trill, mordent, staccato, tenuto, accent, toe and heel on the pedalboard, and registrations (Great, Swell, Full organ, Tutti…).
• Drums: the Piece menu changes the piece played (kick drum, snare drum, toms, hi-hat, crash, ride), with accent (A), ghost note (G), flam (F), roll and hi-hat open / closed (O).

For guitar and bass, the String menu sets the string of the selected note, and Display shows the staff, the tablature or both.

How do I write or correct lyrics?

• One syllable at a time: click a syllable, or select a note and press L (Aa Lyrics button). Type the syllable: Tab or Space moves to the next note, a hyphen “-” splits the word, Esc finishes.
• The whole text at once: the Lyrics card in the Corrections panel. Paste the text with a space between words and a hyphen between syllables (moon-light): each syllable goes on one note, in order.

The Lyrics card appears for a voice, a choir, or an instrument that already carries lyrics.

What does the Corrections panel contain?

Cards that correct the whole piece in one move. Only the ones useful for your instruments are shown:

The key is changed with Transpose. Dynamics and chord symbols can't be edited in the editor.

How do I manage instruments?

The Instruments tab lists every staff. For each one, you can rename it, change its type (piano, voice, choir, violin, flute, saxophone, guitar, bass, double bass, trumpet, organ, drums), move it up or down, hide it on the sheet music or delete it. + Add an instrument creates a new staff.

A hidden staff is neither displayed nor played when you listen.

How do I listen to my corrections?

• Space bar: starts or stops playback.
• ▶ Listen in the toolbar: plays 4 beats from the selected note.
• Original | Transcription: compare the original recording with the corrected sheet music. This choice only appears if the original recording is available; Original is greyed out when the sheet music no longer matches the recording.
• Speed: 1×, 0.5× or 0.75×, to check a fast passage.

What are the keyboard shortcuts?

The digits also work on AZERTY keyboards and on the numeric keypad. Shortcuts are disabled while you are typing in a text field.

What is the action search for?

Cmd/Ctrl + K opens a search: type what you want to do, without worrying about accents. For example “transpose”, “lyrics”, “tuning”, “3/4” or “measure 5”.

And on a phone?

The editor adapts to the phone:

• Tap a note to select it, drag it up or down to change its pitch, and long press to select several.
• The Note tools bar offers duration, rest and delete.
• Add notes: tap the staff at the pitch you want, and slide to adjust before releasing.
• The Tools button opens the Corrections and Instruments tabs. Chopy opens from its bubble.
• Only one instrument is displayed at a time: tap its name in the row of instruments to switch.

The keyboard and the Cmd/Ctrl + K search aren't available on phones.