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. A dot does not survive the change — the new value starts plain (re-dot it with the dot key if that is what you meant).

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
`alt + b`	auto-beam measure	any time
`⌥←/→`	shorten / lengthen duration	any timefixed
`shift + r`	reflection cycle: inversion → retrograde → retr. inversion → backplugin	block selection