Flow

Flow be a way t' write th' sections o' a song once and then arrange th' song in a top-down format, savvy? Fer instance, ye may want th' song t' play th' first verse, chorus, second verse and then repeat th' chorus twice. Instead o' rewritin' th' chorus multiple times, ye can express this in a flow metatag or temporarily usin' th' Flow field in th' Playback Menu.

Expressin' Flow

Th' first step t' usin' flow be t' create Sections and label 'em. Ye can specify a flow usin' a metatag in shorthand like this:

Flow: V1 C V2 C C B C C

Ye can also write 'em in a longhand form by writin' out th' full name o' th' sections in a comma-delimited list like this:

Flow: Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Chorus

OnSong creates th' shorthand version by usin' th' first character o' each word in th' section name. This means ye do not have t' use special names fer this t' work. In th' case o' a conflict, OnSong will use th' first section matchin' th' abbreviation.

Pages and Instructions

Ye can also use flow t' add musical instruction and page breaks in th' flow definition instead o' in th' song content, matey! Ye can do this by enterin' flow information that does not match a section label. Because th' values ye may want t' output may contain spaces, ye will want t' use th' comma-delimited method. Here be an example o' addin' musical instruction and page breaks.

Flow: Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus, (Repeat 2x), ----, Bridge, Chorus, (Repeat 2x)

This will output th' musical instructions (Repeat 2x) under th' second and third chorus. Th' four hyphens will force a page break between th' first set o' choruses and th' bridge.

Modulatin' Keys

Ye can also add certain tags in th' flow t' be outputted before th' song be processed. In particular, ye can output th' transpose, key, or capo tags fer mid-song key changes, Arrr! Fer instance, we could modulate th' song up a whole note after th' chorus.

Flow: Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus, Transpose: 2, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus

Notice that we used two half steps here t' make one whole step. We could just as easily set a key explicitly like this:

Flow: Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus, Key: A, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus