Song Lab — Complete Guide

Adding Chords

• ›Click + Add Chord — pick a root note and one of the 14 chord types: major, minor, dom7, maj7, min7, dim, dim7, m7♭5, aug, sus2, sus4, add9, maj6, 7sus4, or power (5th).
• ›Each chord card shows a mini voicing diagram. Use the ‹ › arrows to cycle through available voicings — the position label (e.g. "Open", "A Shape") updates as you cycle.
• ›Drag chord cards to reorder them; click the × on a card to remove it.
• ›Click Play to hear the full progression using the selected voicings and the guitar sample set in your Preferences.

Progression Templates

• ›Click Load template to browse 28 curated progressions organised by genre (Pop, Rock, Metal, Blues, Jazz, Country, and more).
• ›Set the root note in the picker before selecting a template — the progression is automatically transposed to that key.
• ›Use the genre filter to narrow the list. Each entry shows the Roman numeral pattern (e.g. I–V–vi–IV) and whether it's a major or minor key template.
• ›Selecting a template replaces the current chord list. The song's Key Analysis updates immediately once the template loads.

Loading a Saved Progression

• ›Click Load saved progression (requires sign-in) to fill the chord list from one of your saved progressions.
• ›Loading a saved progression links the song to it — edits in Song Lab will sync back to Saved Progressions when you save.
• ›To break the link, click the × next to the "Linked" badge in the song name row. The song keeps its chords; the Saved Progression is unchanged.

Style, Tuning & Capo

• ›Set Style (Rock, Metal, Blues, Jazz, Country, Pop, etc.) — this influences which scales and lick approaches are surfaced in the Key Detail view.
• ›Set Tuning — affects scale insertion positions in the Tab editor. Choose the tuning that matches what you're playing on your guitar.
• ›Set BPM (40–240). This controls both chord progression playback and tab sheet playback speed.
• ›Set Capo (None, Fret 1–7) to indicate the capo position. The capo fret shifts the sounding pitch in MIDI export — tab fret numbers remain as written.

Starting the Metronome

• ›Click Metronome in the Song Lab toolbar (between the Examples and Save buttons).
• ›The metronome immediately starts clicking at the current song BPM.
• ›A row of beat LEDs appears next to the button — one dot per beat in the measure, pulsing with each click.
• ›The first beat (downbeat) uses a higher-pitched click and a slightly larger LED for easy counting.
• ›Click Metronome again to stop.

BPM and Time Signature

• ›The metronome always uses the song BPM set in the Chord Progression panel.
• ›The beat count per measure matches the time signature of the first tab sheet (e.g. 4/4 = 4 LEDs, 3/4 = 3 LEDs, 6/8 = 6 LEDs).
• ›Change the BPM in the Chord Progression panel while the metronome is running — it resyncs automatically.

How It Works

• ›Once you have 3 or more chords, Song Lab scores every major and minor key by how many of your chords appear diatonically in that key.
• ›A Full match means all your chords are naturally in the key — it's the home base for your song.
• ›A Partial match lists how many chords fit, with the outside chords flagged. These keys work with borrowed or passing chords.
• ›Click any key result to open its Key Detail View.

Reading the Results

• ›Results are ranked by match percentage (highest first). Ties are sorted alphabetically.
• ›The chord symbols shown in grey are the ones that don't fit the key — these are your "outside" chords.
• ›Multiple keys with full matches are common — your progression might be intentionally ambiguous (modal interchange, modulation).

Diatonic Chord Structure

• ›Shows all seven diatonic chords (I through vii°) for the selected key, color-coded by quality: gold = major, indigo = minor, red = diminished.
• ›Your progression chords are highlighted in the structure — instantly see which Roman numerals you're using.
• ›Chords outside the key are flagged as borrowed / passing, with an explanation of where they come from (e.g. "borrowed from parallel minor").

Scale Suggestions Tab

• ›Lists the most relevant scales for your key and selected style — not just the major/minor scale, but mode choices suited to the genre.
• ›Each scale shows a note preview. Click Insert Scale next to any scale to drop its notes directly into the Tab editor at the cursor position.
• ›Your saved Favourite Scales also appear here for quick insertion.

Lick Ideas Tab

• ›Descriptive lead guitar approaches for your key and style — e.g. pentatonic box positions, hybrid picking ideas, chord-tone targeting.
• ›These are phrasing concepts, not specific tab patterns. Use them as a creative prompt when you're stuck on a solo.
• ›Pre-built lick patterns (generated from scale degrees) can be inserted directly into the tab sheet with one click.

Navigation

• ›Click the ← back arrow to return to the full list of matching keys.
• ›The key result strip below the two-column area lets you jump between matching keys without losing your tab work.

Entering Notes

• ›Click any cell in the 6-string grid (or 7/8-string if your tuning uses more strings) to select it.
• ›Type a fret number (0–24) and press Enter to confirm. The notation panel updates immediately.
• ›Press Tab to advance to the next beat on the same string. Shift+Tab to go back.
• ›To clear a note from a cell, select it and press Delete or Backspace.
• ›String layout: row 1 = high e (string 1), bottom row = low E (string 6) — standard guitar tab orientation.

Beat Duration

• ›Each column is a beat. The dur row under the grid shows each column's length as a number: 1 = whole, 2 = half, 4 = quarter, 8 = eighth, 16 = sixteenth, 32 = thirty-second. (These are the note-value denominators — a "16" is a sixteenth note. We use numbers, not music symbols, because the note glyphs don't render in every browser font.)
• ›Click the number in the dur row to cycle a beat through the lengths.
• ›The Default duration for new beats is set from the sheet controls — now including Sixteenth and Thirty-second for fast passages.
• ›+ Add Beat appends a new beat at the end. × above a column removes it.
• ›Measure boundaries are drawn automatically based on the time signature.

Time Signature

• ›Select the time signature per sheet from the dropdown in the sheet controls: 4/4, 3/4, 6/8, 5/4, 7/8, 9/8, 12/8, and more.
• ›The measure bar lines in the tab grid update immediately when you change the signature.
• ›Each sheet can have its own time signature — use this to mix sections (e.g. 4/4 verse, 6/8 bridge).

Chord Symbols Row

• ›When your song has chords in the progression panel, a chord↕ row appears in the tab grid header, just above the duration (♩) row.
• ›By default, chords are spread evenly across the sheet automatically — these appear in purple.
• ›Click any beat in the chord row to pin a specific chord there. The first click sets the first chord in your progression; each subsequent click cycles to the next chord. One more click after the last chord resets that beat back to auto.
• ›Pinned chords appear in amber with a dot (•) so you can tell at a glance which beats have been manually assigned.
• ›Pinned chords always show their symbol on that beat; auto chords only show at the point where the chord changes.
• ›Hover any cell in the chord row to see a tooltip describing the current state and what a click will do next.

Playback

• ›Click Play Tab to hear the current sheet's notes played back at the song's BPM.
• ›Bends and vibrato are reflected in audio playback — a full bend raises the pitch by a whole step, a half bend by a half step.
• ›Click Stop (or the same button again) to stop playback.
• ›Playback uses the guitar sample type set in your Preferences (Acoustic Steel, Electric Jazz, etc.).

Move Mode

• ›Toggle Move Mode to drag individual notes to a different string or beat within the sheet.
• ›Click the source cell, then the destination cell. The note moves and the source cell is cleared.
• ›Useful for quickly adjusting string assignments after inserting a scale.

Per-Sheet BPM

• ›Each sheet can have its own BPM override — set it in the sheet controls row.
• ›Leave the BPM field blank to use the song-level BPM (shown as a placeholder).
• ›Click ✕ next to the BPM field to remove the override and go back to the song BPM.
• ›Useful for a rubato intro, a double-time chorus, or a slow outro.

Multiple Sheets

• ›Click + Add Sheet to add a new tab sheet (Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Solo, Outro…).
• ›Double-click a sheet tab to rename it.
• ›Each sheet is independent — separate beats, time signature, default duration, and BPM override.
• ›All sheets are saved together when you save the song, and all sheets are included in MIDI and PNG/PDF export.
• ›Click the × on a sheet tab to delete it (requires at least 2 sheets).

Tab Note Analysis

• ›Below the notation, a key analysis of the notes you've played in the tab sheet is shown automatically when 3+ distinct notes are entered.
• ›If a key is selected in the Key Analysis panel, notes outside that key are highlighted with an explanation of what interval they represent (e.g. "b7 — Mixolydian / bluesy dominant feel").
• ›This helps you identify which notes are chromatic/outside and why they work (or don't).

1. The column length (grid step)

• ›Every column has a length shown in the dur row (1/2/4/8/16/32 — see Beat Duration above).
• ›This length is the grid step: how much musical time passes before the next column begins. It is what keeps playback in time.
• ›Think of it as the spacing of the columns along the beat — quarter columns are twice as wide (in time) as eighth columns.

2. How long a note actually rings (per-note length)

• ›A note can ring longer than its column's grid step. That's how one voice sustains while another keeps moving.
• ›Example — counterpoint: a bass note held for a quarter while the melody plays two eighths on top. The columns step along in eighths (to carry the melody), but the bass note keeps ringing across both — it has its own, longer length.
• ›During playback, each note sounds for its own length; the grid still advances column-by-column by the grid step. The result is the two voices overlapping the way they do on the instrument.

Editing a note's ring time (and seeing it)

• ›Click a note in the grid to select it. Alongside the bend/vib toggles, a ring button appears.
• ›Click ring to cycle the note's sounding length through the values longer than its column — e.g. on an eighth-note column you can set the note to ring for a quarter, half, or whole, then back to "follows the column."
• ›A note set to ring longer shows a small ↻ badge with its length (e.g. ↻4 = rings a quarter), and its column shows a ~ in the dur row.
• ›Press Play Tab to hear it — the held note keeps ringing while the notes after it play. This edit → play loop is the quickest way to feel exactly how ring time works.

Where per-note lengths also come from

• ›MIDI import sets them automatically: when you import a song (or load an example like the Bourrée in E Minor), each column is spaced by the gap to the next note, and any note the source holds longer is given its own ring time — so imported counterpoint plays back faithfully without any hand-editing.

Sixteenth & thirty-second notes

• ›The grid now supports 16th and 32nd notes (dur values 16 and 32) for fast runs and ornaments.
• ›They appear in the duration cycle (click the dur number) and in the Default-duration menu, and they're rendered in both the standard notation and the PNG/PDF export.

Follow-along auto-scroll + playhead

• ›During playback the currently-sounding beat is highlighted, and the tab view auto-scrolls to keep it centred — so long pieces follow along on their own while you play.

Slow-down (1× / ¾× / ½×)

• ›Click the speed button to cycle full / 75% / 50% tempo. Note values stay the same — only the playback speed changes — so you can drill a hard passage slowly and speed it back up.

Count-in

• ›Toggle Count-in to hear a one-bar click before the tab starts, so you can get ready to play along. The click count matches the sheet's time signature.

Loop

• ›Toggle Loop to repeat the sheet until you press Stop — gapless, so it cycles cleanly for woodshedding.
• ›You can switch Loop on or off mid-playback; it takes effect at the end of the current pass.

Adding a Section Marker

• ›In the tab grid, the § row sits above the chord row. Click any beat column in the § row to open the section editor for that beat.
• ›Choose a preset label (Intro, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Bridge, Solo, Outro, Break) or type a custom label.
• ›Check Repeat End (%)) to add a repeat-end barline just before this marker.
• ›Check Repeat Start (%() to add a repeat-start barline at this marker.
• ›Click Save to apply; click Delete to remove a marker from that beat.

Notation Display

• ›Section labels appear above the treble stave in the VexFlow notation — teal for regular sections, orange for repeat markers.
• ›Repeat barlines (two parallel lines with dots) appear in the notation where you placed them.
• ›Section markers are included in PNG/PDF export — labels print above the stave.

Insert Scale Button

• ›Click Insert Scale in the sheet toolbar to open the scale picker.
• ›Choose from Key Suggestions (scales derived from your key analysis) or your saved Favourite Scales.
• ›Select the scale and a position: Low (starts near the nut) or High (upper neck).
• ›The scale's notes are inserted as individual beats starting at the current cursor position, one note per beat, on the most practical string for the active tuning.
• ›After insertion, use Move Mode to rearrange individual notes to taste.

Insert Chord

• ›Click Insert Chord in the sheet toolbar to insert a chord voicing as a single tab beat.
• ›Choose a chord from your progression, or pick any root + type. Available voicings for the active tuning are shown.
• ›The chord is inserted at the cursor position with all strings in one beat — useful for marking chord positions in a solo or adding chord stabs.

Lick Insertion from Key Detail

• ›In the Key Detail view, the Lick Ideas tab shows lick patterns for your key and style.
• ›Click Insert Lick next to any idea to drop a generated lick pattern into the active tab sheet at the cursor.
• ›Lick patterns use the key's scale degrees — the actual fret positions are calculated for your current tuning.

From the Scale Visualizer

• ›Select a root note and scale type in the Scale Visualizer.
• ›Click Use in Song Lab (violet button in the scale info panel header).
• ›Song Lab opens and the scale is automatically inserted into the active tab sheet at the cursor — as if you had clicked Insert Scale.
• ›Position defaults to Low (nut-end box). Adjust fret positions or switch to a High-position insert afterward if needed.

From the Chord Visualizer

• ›Select a root note and chord type in the Chord Visualizer.
• ›Click Song Lab (violet button in the chord info panel).
• ›Song Lab opens and the chord is added to the Chord Progression panel automatically.
• ›The chord appears at the end of your existing progression — drag it to reorder.

Saving a Lick

• ›Enable Lick Select Mode in the sheet toolbar, then click the beats you want to save (they highlight in green).
• ›Click Save Selected as Lick — a modal opens.
• ›Give the lick a name (required), an optional key tag (e.g. "G major"), an optional style, and choose whether to share it with the community.
• ›Saved licks are tied to your account and available in the My Licks panel in the Key Detail view.

Inserting a Saved Lick

• ›Open the Key Detail view for your key, then go to the Lick Ideas tab.
• ›Your saved licks appear in the My Licks section, filterable by name, key tag, or style using the search bar.
• ›Community licks from other users appear in the Community sub-tab.
• ›Click Insert on any lick to drop it into the active sheet at the cursor.
• ›The lick's beats are inserted exactly as saved — tuning-specific (the lick was saved with a tuning tag, so results are best when active tuning matches).

Favoriting Community Licks

• ›In the Community sub-tab, each lick card has a heart (♥) button.
• ›Click the heart to favorite a lick — the count updates immediately and the heart turns red.
• ›Click again to un-favorite.
• ›Use the Sort: ♥ Popular option to sort community licks by most favorited — great for finding the best licks quickly.
• ›You can also sort by Newest to see recently shared licks.

Editing or Deleting Your Licks

• ›In the My Licks tab, click the pencil icon on any lick to edit its name, key tag, or toggle its public status.
• ›Click the trash icon to delete a lick permanently.
• ›For public licks in your library, a small heart count shows how many community members have favorited it.

Importing a MIDI File

• ›Click Import MIDI in the Tab Sheets header.
• ›Select a .mid or .midi file. MIDI files exported from Guitar Pro, GarageBand, Logic, Ableton, and other DAWs are all supported.
• ›If the MIDI file contains multiple tracks (e.g. rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass, drums), a track selection dialog appears. Choose the track you want — or tick Merge all tracks into one sheet.
• ›The notes are converted to tab beats using your current tuning: each MIDI note is mapped to the lowest-fret, most natural string position, and chords are voiced so no two notes share a string.
• ›Timing is faithful: each column is spaced by the gap to the next note (so playback doesn't drift), and any note the source holds longer keeps its own ring time — see Note Lengths & Counterpoint. Durations snap from whole down to thirty-second notes.
• ›The imported beats are added to the active tab sheet, appended after any existing beats. Song BPM and time signature are read from the MIDI header.

Exporting to MIDI

• ›Click Export MIDI in the Tab Sheets header.
• ›A .mid file is downloaded to your computer, named after your song.
• ›All tab sheets are exported in order as a single MIDI track with Guitar (Acoustic Steel) program.
• ›The exported MIDI uses the song's BPM for tempo.
• ›Import the downloaded .mid file into Guitar Pro, GarageBand, Logic, Ableton, or any DAW that supports MIDI.

Guitar Pro Workflow

• ›From Guitar Pro to Song Lab: In Guitar Pro, go to File → Export → MIDI. Save the .mid file. In Song Lab, Import MIDI and select the guitar track.
• ›From Song Lab to Guitar Pro: Export MIDI from Song Lab. In Guitar Pro, File → Import → MIDI. Set the track to Guitar and assign the tuning you were using.
• ›Guitar Pro's native .gp format is not directly importable — always use the MIDI export/import bridge.

How to Import Text Tab

• ›Click Text Tab in the Tab Sheets header.
• ›Paste your ASCII tab into the text box. The importer accepts the standard six-line format:

e|---0---2-3-|
B|---0---1-0-|
G|---0---0-0-|
D|---2---2-0-|
A|---2---3-2-|
E|---0---x-3-|

• ›A live preview tells you how many beats were parsed. If the count is 0, check that each line starts with a string label followed by a pipe character (e|, B|, etc.).
• ›Click Import Beats to append the parsed notes to the active sheet.
• ›Muted strings (x) are ignored. Multi-digit fret numbers (10–24) are handled automatically.

PNG Export

• ›Click Export Tab in the Tab Sheets header to open the export dialog.
• ›Choose Active Sheet to export only the current sheet, or All Sheets to export every sheet (songs with multiple sheets download as one file per sheet).
• ›Select PNG format and click Download PNG.
• ›The image includes: song name, sheet title, tuning, capo, BPM, time signature, key, chord symbol row, duration row, tab grid with fret numbers and measure bars, and bend/vibrato indicators.

PDF Export

• ›Select PDF format in the export dialog.
• ›All selected sheets are exported as a single PDF — one page per sheet, landscape A4.
• ›The PDF uses the same canvas rendering as PNG but scales to fit the page.

Creating a Share Link

• ›Save your song first (a name is required).
• ›Click the Share button in the Song Lab header. This immediately makes your song public and generates a unique link.
• ›A popup appears with the full URL — click Copy link to copy it to your clipboard.
• ›Anyone with the link can view your chord progression and tab sheets in a read-only layout.

Read-Only View

• ›Visitors see the song name, author, capo, BPM, style, chord progression, and all tab sheets.
• ›The view is read-only — no editing, no account required.
• ›A link to open Song Lab lets visitors start their own song with the same tool.

Making a Song Private

• ›While the share popup is open, click Make Private to disable the link.
• ›The share URL is invalidated immediately — anyone with the old link will see a "Not found" page.
• ›You can re-share later, which generates a new unique link.

Naming Your Song

• ›Type a name in the Song name field at the top of Song Lab before saving.
• ›The field is required — you cannot save without a name.
• ›Names can be changed at any time (edit the field and save again).

Save Button

• ›Click Save (or the floppy-disk button) to save your song.
• ›The button shows a dot (•) when there are unsaved changes — the dot disappears after a successful save.
• ›The button turns green (Saved) when the current state is synced to the server.
• ›Saving requires a free account — a "Sign in to save" link appears in place of the save button if you're not signed in.

My Songs

• ›Click My Songs (top right of Song Lab) to open a dropdown list of your saved songs.
• ›Click any song to load it — all chords, tab sheets, style, tuning, and BPM are restored.
• ›Delete a song from My Songs by clicking the trash icon on its row.
• ›The currently open song is highlighted in the list.

Link to Progressions

• ›Tick Link to Progressions before the first save to also save the chord list as a named progression in My Progressions.
• ›Once linked, the progression stays in sync — when you update chords in Song Lab and save, the linked progression is updated too.
• ›A Linked badge appears when a link is active. Click the × on the badge to unlink — the song keeps its chords and the saved progression is unchanged.
• ›You can also sever the link by deleting the progression from My Progressions.

New Song

• ›Click + New to start a fresh song. If you have unsaved changes, a confirmation dialog appears.
• ›Starting a new song clears all chords, tab sheets, and the song name — it does not delete any saved songs from your account.

Starting from a Chord Progression

• ›1. Add 4–6 chords that you've been working with.
• ›2. Let the key analysis run and click the highest-confidence key.
• ›3. Look at the Scale Suggestions — pick the scale that matches the feel you're going for.
• ›4. Click Insert Scale to drop it into the tab sheet.
• ›5. Move Mode rearrange the notes into a melodic line rather than a straight ascending scale.
• ›6. Adjust duration values to create the rhythm of your idea.

Transcribing from Guitar Pro

• ›1. In Guitar Pro, isolate the track you want (mute everything else).
• ›2. Export as MIDI: File → Export → MIDI.
• ›3. Import into Song Lab: Import MIDI → select the guitar track.
• ›4. Add the chord progression from the song to get key analysis.
• ›5. Use the key analysis to understand what scales are being used in the tab.
• ›6. Save to your account for future reference.

Building a Solo

• ›1. Enter the rhythm chord progression in the Chord Progression panel.
• ›2. Key analysis will identify your key — open the Key Detail view.
• ›3. In Scale Suggestions, pick a scale (e.g. A Minor Pentatonic for a blues-rock solo).
• ›4. Insert Scale in Low position gives you the box 1 shape; High position moves you up the neck.
• ›5. Edit the notes — remove some, change frets, adjust durations — to build a phrase.
• ›6. Use Lick Ideas for inspiration on articulation and phrasing approaches.
• ›7. Save the lick you like best to My Licks so you can reuse it in other songs.

Multi-Section Songs

• ›Add a separate tab sheet for each section: Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Solo, Outro.
• ›Each sheet can have a different time signature if needed (e.g. 4/4 verse, 6/8 bridge).
• ›When exporting MIDI, all sheets are combined in order — the resulting file plays through each section sequentially.
• ›Use the sheet rename feature (double-click a tab) to keep sections clearly labeled.