Detailed feature reference
Compose guide
CHORD SYMBOLS — NEW IN 0.17 Use Chord symbols to place and edit the changes above a bar. See Chord symbols guide.txt for spelling, slash chords, MusicXML, PDF review and preservation. CADENCE — COMPOSE Open Studio → Write & arrange (Command-3). Quit an older running copy before opening this build. Existing scores and progress remain in ~/Library/Application Support/Cadence/. TRY THE TWO NEW STUDIES New → Fingerstyle guitar study opens “Quiet strings”: an original four-bar melody over sustained bass. Click a melody note or a bass note in either the notation or tab. The Voice picker follows the selected note. Voice 1 is the upper line; voice 2 is the bass. Play the passage to hear both together. New → Piano inner-voice study opens “Between the hands”: a long-note melody, a moving inner line in the same right-hand staff, and a left-hand bass. The third bar gives the inner line staccato; the fourth begins with an accent. Use Hand and Voice to work on each line. These examples are included in the CC-BY-SA-4.0 original examples and can be changed, exported or used for practice. TWO VOICES PER STAFF Add second voice creates a complete layer of rests on the selected staff, then selects its first event in the current bar. Each voice has its own rhythms, rests, ties, dynamics and slurs. A–G, R, arrows, Write mode and instrument entry work in the selected voice. Automatic stems point up for voice 1 and down for voice 2 when both exist. Stem can override that direction. Voice tools can remove the second voice; Undo restores it. Every active voice fills every bar. Shortening a note makes rests in that voice. Lengthening consumes following rests in that voice; it refuses to erase notes or dynamic markings. The other voice stays at the same positions. Guitar edits reserve strings for sustained notes in the other voice. Choose a different string or a shorter duration when two lines need the same string. Suggested fingerings still need to be comfortable for your hand. EXPRESSION Select a note and use the inspector: • Staccato shortens its audible length; Accent increases its attack level. • Dynamic offers ppp, pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff and fff. Continue removes a marking at this event, inheriting the preceding dynamic in this voice (default mf). • Slur to joins a phrase to a later note in the same voice. The menu names its bar, beat and pitch. Slurs cannot cross rests, cross voices or overlap. Choose None on the starting note to remove a slur. A tie still requires the same notes immediately afterwards; it joins their sound into one attack. • Stem offers Automatic, Up or Down. Playback uses a simple synthesiser: staccato has a 45% gate, ordinary marked notes 90%, and notes leading through a slur 103% for a small legato overlap. Accents add velocity; dynamics set the continuing level. These are practical audio approximations, not instrument-specific performance or guitar hammer-ons. Expression is applied to the entire chord. Tied notes sustain as one sound. MusicXML retains the symbols; MIDI carries velocity, audible note lengths and separate voice channels. Both work at the chosen practice speed. WRITE AND EDIT New → Guitar score or Piano score. Choose a key and meter, then turn on Write. Choose a note value and sounding octave. Enter A–G, click exact guitar frets, or use the piano. Each entry advances in that voice; R writes a rest. Reaching the end adds a bar. Turn Write off to edit without advancing. Letter shortcuts pause while editing the score title. Click a note to restore note entry. The inspector changes pitch spelling, octave, rhythm, chord tones and ties. SCORES AND PASSAGES Scores contain 1–128 bars, viewed in four-bar pages. Bar tools insert, duplicate or delete; Add four bars extends the score. From / Through selects up to 16 bars. Copy and paste include every voice and both piano hands. Copies get independent identities, and slur endpoints follow their copied notes. Slurs and ties crossing a copied boundary are clipped. The current dynamic is carried into the start of a copied passage. Paste can insert or replace; replace extends the score if needed. Scores must share instrument and meter. Guitar pitches are retained while positions adapt to destination tuning/capo. Transform transposes, clears or deletes the selected bars. Clearing preserves the active voices. The clipboard stays in Compose for this session. Undo/Redo cover score changes. Switching scores resets that score's undo stack. Common meters: 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/8, 9/8, 12/8 and 2/2. Whole through sixteenth values, dotted values and complete triplet-ratio groups are supported. Meter changes keep existing note positions, adjusting trailing rests. A shorter bar is refused if notes would be lost; the editor does not automatically rebar. Eighths and sixteenths beam within beats, with dotted-quarter groups in compound time. BPM uses quarter notes; the beat inspector follows the written unit. PLAY AND PRACTISE Play the passage or one bar, with speed 25–150%, loop, count-in and metronome. The visible page follows playback. Editing or changing playback controls stops playback. Practise passage saves a copy in Studies, retaining all voices and expression. Set a tempo target, record comfortable speeds, use the instruments, sing a chosen voice with solfège or ask the coach about the actual notes. Back to Compose returns to the same bars in the original. An unchanged score reuses its practice copy; changed music creates a separate copy. See Passage practice guide.txt for the full practice workflow. GUITAR Notation is written one octave above sounding pitch. Tab, piano, inspector, audio and MIDI use sounding pitch. Changing a string retains pitch when possible; changing a fret changes pitch in both views. Tuning and capo belong to the score. Retuning preserves pitches and proposes positions across the whole timeline so held notes retain a string. Both staves select the same event. MIDI STEP ENTRY Choose MIDI keyboard above the score, select an input, choose a duration and turn on Write MIDI. Play a note or chord and release every key to enter the whole gesture. Selection advances within the current hand/voice. Sustain does not join entries. Input is paused on disconnect, leaving the app or closing the panel. Undo/Redo treats a gesture as one edit. See MIDI and practice guide.txt for details and current limits. This is not real-time recording. PDF IMPORT AND REVIEW Import PDF accepts page ranges such as 29–32, 35. Sol high is the default. Each selected page is sent separately; progress saves after every page. Completed pages form one score, with per-page source links and review marks. Pages & retries resumes waiting pages or retries failed pages individually. Retrying an existing page stages a replacement for review before it can replace corrections. See PDF import guide.txt for details and current limits. LIBRARY Library opens this score’s notebook: collection, goal, notes, saved analysis and coaching. MusicXML opened here is classified as sheet music. Practice copies stay linked to their parent piece. See Library guide.txt for analysis scope and saving. SAVE AND EXCHANGE Scores save locally. Export .cadence-score for exact editable state, MusicXML for linked notation/tab, or MIDI for playback. Original input files remain untouched. Earlier version 1 and 2 scores migrate to schema 3, preserving IDs; older single-voice events become voice 1 with automatic stems and no markings. Keep exact backups if you also use an older Cadence release. Compose imports one part, 1–128 complete bars, one major/minor key, one supported meter, a constant integer quarter-note tempo and up to two voices per standard staff. Each imported voice needs explicit rests in every bar. Guitar needs standard notation written one octave above sound, with matching linked tab when supplied. Piano uses treble/bass staves; a treble-only part gains an empty left hand. Missing guitar positions can be proposed; supplied positions stay. Supported expression: simple slurs within a voice, staccato, accents, ppp–fff dynamics at note/rest onsets and up/down stems. Advanced marks that are recognised but unsupported are rejected with an explanation; read these in Studies. Layout/beaming are regenerated. This is not a general lossless converter. MusicXML round-trips were checked inside Cadence, not certified against every external notation editor. MIDI contains sounding notes, tempo, meter, key, guitar/piano program, voice channels, expression velocity/gates and the complete duration, including empty ending bars. Use MusicXML or .cadence-score for editable notation and fingering. RENDERING OpenSheetMusicDisplay is the offline renderer. Cadence owns editing, audio and export. The renderer and its license notices are bundled locally. Earlier experimental renderer selections migrate to the supported renderer without changing the score. VERIFICATION AND CURRENT BOUNDARIES Core regression tests cover old-save migration, independent voices/rhythms/ties, guitar string occupancy, slur copying/clipping, dynamics/articulation playback, MusicXML round-trips, voice channels, chord expression, beaming and the existing theory/practice tools. Native checks cover voice selection, note/tab mapping, expression editing and undo/redo, persistence, source-grounded practice copies, notation cursors and silent audio output. Synthesised sample checks verify relative dynamics and the shortened staccato envelope. Preview/selfchecks do not call AI models, open a microphone or alter your saved work. Pedal, more than two voices per staff, overlapping/nested or cross-staff slurs, mixed meters/keys, engraving/page-layout tools, automatic whole-book import and audio transcription remain future work. The simple synth approximates expression; it is not a sampled piano or guitar performance. Cadence’s source is AGPL-3.0-or-later. Bundled dependencies retain their notices.