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Section Notes

The piano roll toolbar includes two distinct section toggles that control different behaviors. Understanding the difference is important for an efficient workflow.

Section-Note Linking (link + music note icon)

When the link + music note toggle is active in the piano roll toolbar, moving or resizing a section also moves the notes within it. When unlinked, only the section boundaries change — notes stay in place.

This is useful when you want to reposition a section and its transcribed content together, for example when you realize a verse starts a beat earlier than you initially marked.

Section Fill Visibility (eye icon)

When the eye toggle (section fills) is active, each section’s colour fills the corresponding time range in the note grid at 8% opacity. This makes it easy to see song structure while editing notes without the fills being distracting.

When the toggle is off, the note grid has no section colour overlay — only the section strip at the top shows section boundaries.

Section Notes

Every section on the waveform can have its own text note. Use this to capture what you’ve figured out about that part of the song — chords, key, feel, anything that helps you understand it better.

Enabling Linked Notes

Section notes work through the Linked Notes toggle:

  1. Open a section’s settings by tapping it (make sure Section Lock is off).
  2. Enable Linked Notes.
  3. A notes field appears linked to that section.

When Linked Notes is on, each section gets its own independent note. When it’s off, all sections share a single project-level note.

What to Write

Section notes are freeform text — write whatever is useful:

  • Chord progressions — e.g., “I — IV — V — IV in G major”
  • Key changes — e.g., “modulates up a half step at bar 32”
  • Structural observations — e.g., “second chorus has an extra 2 bars”
  • Feel and dynamics — e.g., “drummer drops to brushes in the bridge”
  • Transcription status — e.g., “bass line done, melody still to do”

Accessing Notes

The note for the active section appears automatically in the Notes panel when you tap a section. You don’t need to search for it.

Section Notes vs. Loop Notes

  • Section notes — broad observations about a structural part of the song
  • Loop notes — specific details about the passage in a loop pair

Both tools complement each other. See Loop Notes for loop-level annotation.