Songscription blog & music transcription resources
Explore Songscription’s guides to music transcription, sheet music, MIDI, piano roll, and AI-powered music learning, plus product updates and company announcements from the Songscription team.
Everything about getting notation you can read, edit, and print: making sheet music from a song, simplifying and arranging it for your level, and exporting a clean score to PDF or MusicXML.
Sheet music
96 articles- Resources6 min readWhat is a clef?A clef is the symbol at the start of a staff that fixes which lines and spaces mean which notes. Here are the treble, bass, alto, and tenor clefs, and how to read from each.Resources · · 6 min read
- Resources6 min readWhat is an accidental? Sharps, flats, and naturals explainedAn accidental is a sharp, flat, or natural that raises, lowers, or resets a note. Here is what each symbol does, how long it lasts, and how it relates to the key signature.Resources · · 6 min read
- Resources5 min readWhat is an arpeggio?An arpeggio is a chord played one note at a time instead of all at once. Here is what that means, how it is written, and why it turns up everywhere from Für Elise to pop piano.Resources · · 5 min read
- Resources5 min readWhat is a triplet?A triplet fits three notes into the space of two. Here is what the little 3 over the notes means, how to count it, and how to feel triplets against a straight beat.Resources · · 5 min read
- Resources6 min readWhat is syncopation?Syncopation is rhythm that lands off the beat: accents where you do not expect them. Here is what it is, how it is written, and why it makes music feel like it swings or grooves.Resources · · 6 min read
- Resources5 min readSlur vs tie: What’s the difference?A slur and a tie are both curved lines, and they look almost identical, but they mean opposite things. Here is how to tell them apart and play each correctly.Resources · · 5 min read
- Resources6 min readHow to read guitar tabGuitar tab shows you where to put your fingers without needing to read standard notation. Here is how the six lines and the numbers work, plus the symbols for bends, slides, and hammer-ons.Resources · · 6 min read
- Resources6 min readWhat is tempo and BPM?Tempo is how fast a piece moves; BPM is how we measure it. Here is what beats per minute means, how tempo is marked on a score, and how to find the BPM of a song.Resources · · 6 min read
- Resources6 min readEnharmonic notes explainedC-sharp and D-flat are the same key on the piano but two different names. Here is why the same pitch has more than one spelling, and how to know which one a piece of music should use.Resources · · 6 min read
- Resources7 min readWhat is a scale in music? Major and minor scales explainedA scale is an ordered set of notes that gives a piece its key and its mood. Here is what a scale is, how major and minor scales are built, and why they matter when you read or transcribe a song.Resources · · 7 min read
- Resources7 min readWhat is a musical interval? Thirds, fifths, and octaves explainedAn interval is the distance between two notes, and it is the unit almost all of music is built from. Here is how intervals are named and counted, and why they are the fastest way to train your ear.Resources · · 7 min read
- Resources8 min readMusic modes explained: Dorian, Mixolydian, and the restThe modes are seven scales that share the same notes but start in different places, and each has its own character. Here is what the modes are, how to build them, and how to hear them in real songs.Resources · · 8 min read
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