Rhythm

Everything on this page obeys the same rule: the measure keeps adding up. That is what makes these operations safe to lean on — and what makes them refuse occasionally.

Changing a note’s duration

alt + → lengthens the event under the caret one step, alt + ← shortens it. Lengthening takes the time from what follows; shortening gives it back as rests.

Compare with the duration digits, which only set what the next note will be. The target here is the same as the dot’s: the note you just entered while in input mode, otherwise the note under the caret.

Merge and split

Keys	Action	Applies
`m`	merge with next · grace cycle (2 pitches)	any time
`x`	split in half	any time

m merges the caret’s event with the next one. They have to be mergeable: the same pitch (or two rests, or two chords with identical pitches), adjacent in the same container, and their sum has to be writable as a single note.

A quarter note tied to an eighth note on the same pitch — Before: a quarter tied to an eighth.

The same rhythm merged into a single dotted quarter note — After m: one dotted quarter. The tie between them dissolves.

A quarter plus an eighth is a dotted quarter, so it merges. A half plus an eighth has no single notehead, so it is refused — use a tie for that.

x splits any note, rest or chord in half, in place: a half note becomes two quarters, a dotted half becomes two dotted quarters, ties are redistributed across the halves.

A dotted half note split into two dotted quarters — A dotted half split into two dotted quarters.

Whole-measure rests join in, which is what makes a freshly inserted measure workable: x on a whole-measure rest gives two half-measure rest runs (meter-aware — in 6/8 that’s two dotted quarters), and merging rests back up to a full measure collapses them into a whole-measure rest again.

Tuplets

Select exactly 3 notes and press shift + t for a triplet (3:2), or 6 for a sextuplet (6:4).

A 3:2 triplet of quarter notes followed by a quarter rest — Three quarters become a 3:2 triplet; the quarter of freed time becomes a rest after it.

A 6:4 sextuplet of eighth notes followed by rests — Six eighths as a 6:4 sextuplet.

The run shrinks to its tuplet duration and the time it frees becomes rests immediately after — which is why the measure stays legal without you doing anything. Select notes inside a tuplet and press the same keys to unwrap it; the rests are consumed back and you get the original bytes.

It refuses, with a reason, when: the count isn’t 3 or 6, the notes aren’t consecutive, the durations are mixed in a way whose freed time can’t be written as rests, or you try to unwrap a tuplet whose rests are gone.

Auto-beaming

alt + b beams the caret’s measure — or every measure your selection touches, in one press.

The same eighth notes grouped into two beams, one per half measure — After alt+b: two groups, one per half measure.

The policy is simple and meter-independent: no beam spans more than half the measure, the note’s onset decides which half it belongs to, and rests or notes longer than an eighth break a group. A group of one stays unbeamed. Running it again is harmless — existing beams are lifted and regrouped.

Beams are formatting

Beams are a presentation decision, and rhythm edits dissolve them. Note entry, duration changes, merge, split and delete all un-beam the measure first, so that entry never gets stuck at a beam boundary and no broken beams survive an edit. Re-beam with alt + b once the rhythm has settled.

The un-beam travels with the edit as one undo step, and if the edit itself is refused, the un-beam rolls back too.

Grace notes

Select two adjacent notes of different pitches and press m: the first becomes a grace note, cycling acciaccatura (slashed) → appoggiatura → none.

An acciaccatura and an appoggiatura before their main notes — An acciaccatura and an appoggiatura.

Its written time folds into the main note — like a merge — and is handed back on the way out of the cycle. Two notes of the same pitch merge instead, as usual. Non-adjacent pairs and sums that can’t be folded are refused.

Simile and measure repeats

Keys	Action	Applies
`'`	simile slash (one beat)	any time
`"`	measure repeat % → %%	any time

One beat: the unshifted key replaces the beat at the caret with a simile slash, consuming the events inside that beat exactly the way overwrite entry does. Press it again and the slash becomes a beat rest. It refuses to cross the barline.

A beat of music followed by a simile slash standing for the repeated beat — A beat of music, then the simile slash standing in for the repeated beat.

Whole measures: the shifted key cycles the caret measure’s voice through content → % (repeat the previous measure) → %% (repeat the previous two, claiming the next measure as well) → empty. Your original content comes back with undo.

A written measure, a measure repeat sign, and a two-measure repeat sign — A written measure, a one-measure repeat, a two-measure repeat.

All rhythm bindings

Keys	Action	Applies
`m`	merge with next · grace cycle (2 pitches)	any time
`x`	split in half	any time
`shift + t`	tuplet 3:2 / 6:4 (selection)	any time
`shift + r`	reflection cycle: inversion → retrograde → retr. inversion → back	block selection
`alt + b`	auto-beam measure	any time
`⌥←/→`	shorten / lengthen duration	any timefixed