The Boring Stuff We Gotta Tell Ya

Metatags are basically the gossip about your song — who wrote it, what key it's in, all that juicy metadata stuff crammed into a lil' section at the tippy-top before any actual lyrics show up. They're just name/value pairs (name on the left, value on the right, separated by a colon, obvs). One metatag per line, or OnSong will judge you. For all the nerdy ChordPro deets, peep the ChordPro File Format.

OnSong's lazy & will just yeet the first line as your song title if you can't be bothered with metatag syntax. Plus it assumes line two is the artist/byline unless you actually tried. Here's what peak metadata energy looks like:

Amazing Grace
Daniel Thomas
Key: D
Tempo: 76

Lyrics and chords start here...

The Tea on Metadata Tags

OnSong supports these absolute units of tags:

• Title: Like, the name of your bop. Can also just be line one if you're fancy.
• Artist: Who sang it (or made the chart, or whatever). Goes on line two usually. Wanna list multiple peeps? Slap a semicolon between 'em. - Kim Walker-Smith; Chris Quilala
• Author: The person who actually did all the chord chart work cuz you're lazy. Shows up at the bottom & in lyrics projection.
• Key: What key this absolute banger's in — letter + optional "m" for minor vibes. - alphabetic, e.g. Bb or Em
• TransposedKey: The key you actually wanna play it in (different from how it's written, because you're extra). - alphabetic, e.g. Bb or Em
• In: Fancy synonym for transposed key. Totes optional.
• Capo: How many frets to capo up (or down if you're feelin' chaotic). - numeric, usually 1–11 but go rogue
• Tempo: BPM, baby. How fast the drummer's supposed to NOT mess up. - numeric
• Time: The time signature because 4/4 isn't always enough. - numeric beat over bar e.g. 3/4
• Duration: How long this track is, for autoscroll shenanigans. - seconds or mm:ss
• Book: Which songbook(s) this lives in. Comma-delimited, & OnSong will create books on the fly if they don't exist yet.
• Number: Song # for hymns & stuff you wanna sort by. - numeric
• Flow: The section arrangement roadmap. - list of section labels. Peep Flow for the full lowdown.
• MIDI: MIDI commands to fire when you view the song. Check MIDI Syntax for the syntax nerds.
• MIDI-Index: MIDI commands that'll open this jam in the Song Viewer. See MIDI Syntax.
• Keywords: or Topic: Search tags for finding your tune. Peep Topics for the deets.
• Copyright: or Footer: or f: Who owns this bop legally. Appears at the bottom of the chart & projection.
• CCLI: The CCLI # cuz lawyers exist. Shows up at the bottom.
• Restrictions: Lockdown settings to prevent whoopsies. See Restrictions.
• Pitch: What note(s) to play when you use Pitch Pipe. Space-separated list with optional octaves. - e.g. A3 C#4 E5
• Subdivision: or Beat: Pick your subdivision vibe: whole, half, quarter, eighth, shuffle, or sixteenth. Or just use 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 if numbers are your thing.
• Transpose: How many half steps to shift mid-song for that dramatic modulation moment. Positive or negative integer.
• Scene: Which scene loads when this track opens. Just type the scene name, ez pz.

Inline Tags (The Plot Twist Tags)

Some tags can flex mid-song for transposition shenanigans:

• Capo: Throw this in the middle of your song to modulate on the fly. OnSong will auto-adjust the chords to match. Typically 1–11, but negative integers are allowed if you're unhinged. - numeric
• Key: Set the key explicitly mid-song. Wrap the value in brackets with bracketed chords & the new key transposes too. - alphabetic, e.g. Bb or Em
• Transpose: Shift the song by X half steps mid-performance. Use 2 or +2 to go up a whole step, or -3 to drop three half steps. - numeric

Section Tags (For Nerds Who Organize)

These tags give each section its own personality:

• MIDI: MIDI commands to send when you tap that section. See MIDI Syntax.
• Scene: Which scene plays when you select this section. Just put the scene name after the colon, duh.

Heads up: Metatags don't care about uppercase/lowercase — go wild