Chart format
Every chart is plain text, always in concert pitch. In the editor, ⋯ → Show source opens it: the same chart as the bars, and you can edit either. This page lists every line the app reads, and what it says when it can't read one.
An example
The lines before the first section: are the header, about the tune. Each section: line opens a section: its own fields straight under it, then one row per chord, its bar counted from 1 in the section, until the next section:.
title: Autumn Leaves
composer: Joseph Kosma
style: Medium Swing
key: Gm
form: AABC, 32 bars
aka: Les Feuilles mortes
section: A1
# bar | chord | scale | function
1 | Cm7 | C Dorian
1 | F7
2 | BbMaj7
3 | EbMaj7
3 | A7 | | V7/ii
4 | D7
section: A2
copy: A1
section: B
bars: 8
@key 5 Bb
1 | Am7b5
2 | D7
3 | Gm6 # held two bars
5 | Cm7
6 | F7
7 | BbMaj7- Bars 1 and 3 of A1 have two chords each: two rows with the same bar number. A chord lasts until the next bar number; the section's last chord lasts to its end.
- Most rows leave the scale off, so the analysis chooses it.
C Dorianon bar 1 is written in, so it plays whatever the level. V7/iiin the fourth cell tells the analysis whatA7does; it still chooses the scale.- A2 repeats A1. B holds its last chord through bar 8, so it says
bars: 8, and changes key at bar 5.
The header
Fields about the tune, one a line, before the first section. All are optional in your own charts.
| Line | What it does |
|---|---|
| title: | The heading on every sheet. |
| subtitle: | A second line under the title, in the style’s place. |
| composer: | Who wrote it, in the line under the heading; a library tune links to its composer’s page. |
| style: | The feel: Ballad, Medium Swing, Latin. The click takes its tempo from it. |
| key: | The tune’s key (Eb, Fm, Bb minor): the analysis starts from it. |
| form: | The form: AABA, 32 bars. Intros and codas don’t count. |
| time: | The meter: 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 (without it), 5/4, 6/4 or 7/4. The Changes sheet writes its slashes and guide tones in it. |
| context: | How the analysis reads the chart: functional (cadences and key areas, the usual), modal (each chord its own mode) or blues. Without it the analysis decides; Read as, in the heading, sets it. (a blues) |
| kind: | tune (without it), form (a progression with no composer: F Blues, Rhythm Changes) or exercise. |
| aka: | The tune’s other titles, a ; between them. The library search finds them too. |
| version: | Which version of the tune this chart is, when there are several (version: Jazz Mind Accelerator). Without it, the tune’s main chart. |
| recording: | A notable recording: artist; album; label; year (the label and year may be empty), shown on the song page. |
| youtube: | The recording’s 11-character YouTube video ID, with (link only) after it if it won’t play embedded. Only with recording:. |
| source: | Where the chart came from. Kept with the chart, not shown. |
| contributor: | Who sent the chart for the library: “Chart contributed by …” on its song page. |
| orientation: | How a Brazilian groove’s two-bar figures start: A-B (the default) or B-A, a bar on, as the tune’s melody asks. |
| minor: | Reserved: read and ignored. |
Sections
A section’s fields go straight under its section: line, before its rows. Each lasts to the section’s end.
| Line | What it does |
|---|---|
| section: A1 | Opens a section. Its name has no spaces, and each name appears once. |
| key: D | The section’s key area, where the analysis would get it wrong. Afterwards the analysis finds the key again. |
| time: 3/4 | The section’s meter. |
| bars: 8 | The section’s length, when its last chord is held past its last written bar. Without it, the section ends with its last row’s bar. |
| copy: A1 | Repeats a section above it: its rows, alternates, key, meter and length, unless this one sets its own key: or time:. It has no rows of its own, but may have its own endings and marks. |
| outside: yes | The section is outside the form, like an intro or a coda. |
| section: Intro | Intro, Coda, Tag and Ending (and Tag2) are outside the form by name: they print where they stand, but the turnaround goes back to the form’s bar 1. |
| groove: samba | The groove the band plays in this section, where it isn’t the chart’s style’s: swing, ballad, bossa, samba, partido, baiao, afoxe, choro, frevo or marcha, like a partido-alto tune’s samba bridge. |
| context: modal | A section’s context. Read and checked, but the analysis keeps the chart’s for now. |
Rows
One row per chord, cells split by |, in the section’s bar numbering.
| Line | What it does |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cm7 | A chord on bar 1. Two chords in a bar are two rows with the same bar number. |
| 1 | Cm7 | C Dorian | A scale written in plays at every level, over the analysis. Left off, the analysis chooses it, at the sheet’s level. (levels) |
| 5 | A7 | | V7/ii | The chord’s function, after the scale cell (empty here). The analysis takes it as given, and still chooses the scale. (writing a function) |
| alt 8 | Abm7 | An alternate row: the chords that bar plays in the alternate changes, with the same scale and function cells. Bars with no alt rows are shared. Rows and alternate rows go in bar order. (alternate changes) |
| # a note | A line starting with # is a note to yourself. A row can end in one too, after a space: 6 | D7 # V7 of G minor. |
Changes inside a section
Lines starting with @, among a section’s rows, each at one of its bars.
| Line | What it does |
|---|---|
| @key 5 D | A key change from bar 5 to the section’s end. |
| @time 11 2/4 | A meter change from bar 11 to the section’s end. Follow it with @time 12 4/4 for a single 2/4 bar; the bar menu’s Bar in 2/4 … 7/4 writes both. |
| @ending 1 7 8 | A 1st or 2nd ending over bars 7 to 8 (the last bar may be left off for one bar). Write the endings as bars in turn: 7–8, then 9–10. The Changes sheet draws the repeat. |
| @segno 1 | A segno (𝄋) over bar 1. @coda 9 puts a coda (⊕) over bar 9. |
| @nav 16 D.S. al Coda | An instruction over bar 16: D.S. al Coda, D.C. al Fine, To Coda, Fine. |
| @context 9 modal | A context from bar 9 to the section’s end. Read and checked, not yet used. |
Chords and scales
- Chords are written the way you'd write them on a napkin:
Cm7,C-7,Cmi7,Am7b5,D7#5,G7#9b13,EbMaj7,C9,Csus,C7sus4b9,D7/F#,Cm6/Eb. Minor chords are shown with an en dash (C–7). Chords lists every quality. N.C.(no chord) is a rest: it's drawn on the Changes sheet, with no scale and no staff on the Scales sheet.- A scale is its root and its name:
Bb Dorian,D Half-Whole,G Altered. Scales lists every one. - A function is a Roman numeral in the row's key area, or in another before a colon:
V7/ii,subV7,D: V7/ii. Functions and rules has the whole pattern and the scale each gets. - A chord the app doesn't recognize comes up amber; give it a scale and it draws (until then).
When a line can't be read
Anything the app can't make sense of is listed under the source, with its line number, and the rest of the chart still plays. The messages, each with a line that gets it:
| You wrote | It says |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cm7 | bars go in a section: add section: A above |
| A | 1 | Cm7 | old chart format: put rows under a section: line, numbered from 1 |
| 1 | Cm7 | C Dorian | ii7 | ? | expected bar | chord [| scale [| function]] |
| section: A (twice) | section A is already in the chart |
| section: A B | section: a name without spaces, at most 40 characters |
| key: F (after a row) | section fields go straight under section:, before its bars |
| composer: Monk (in a section) | composer: belongs in the header, before the first section: |
| copy: A | copy: belongs to a section |
| copy: B (no section B above) | copy: B must name a section above it |
| 1 | F7 (under copy: A) | a section with copy: has no bars of its own |
| bars: 2 (its last row on bar 4) | bars: 2 is shorter than the section (its last bar is 4) |
| bars: 0 | bars: a whole number of bars |
| alt 3 | Dm7 (a section of 1 bar) | alt bar 3 is past the section’s end (bar 1) |
| 1 | F7 (after bar 2) | rows and alt rows go in bar order |
| outside: maybe | outside: yes or no |
| groove: polka | groove: swing, ballad, bossa, samba, partido, baiao, afoxe, choro, frevo or marcha |
| key: H (in a section) | key: a key like Eb or Cm |
| time: 9/8 | time: 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/4 or 7/4 |
| @time 3 9/8 | use @time BAR METER (2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/4 or 7/4) |
| kind: song | kind: tune, form or exercise |
| context: jazz | context: functional, modal or blues |
| @key 5 H | use @key BAR KEY (a key like Eb or Cm) |
| @ending 3 7 | use @ending N FIRST [LAST] |
| @ending 1 8 7 | @ending LAST must be at least FIRST |
| @segno | use @segno BAR or @coda BAR |
| @nav D.S. | use @nav BAR TEXT |
| @context 9 jazz | use @context BAR CONTEXT (functional, modal or blues) |
| @segno 1 | directives go in a section: add section: A above |
| @fine 8 | can't read @fine |
| @copy A | @copy is gone: write copy: SRC under the section’s section: line |
| recording: John Coltrane | recording: artist; album; label; year (artist and album required) |
| recording: John Coltrane; Blue Train; Blue Note; 58 | recording: the year is four digits |
| youtube: abc | youtube: the 11-character video ID |
| youtube: AbCdEfGhIjK | youtube: needs a recording: line |
A chart can be at most 20,000 characters and 500 rows (1,000 once copy: is played out), a cell 40 characters and a header field or comment 120. Past those it doesn't load.