Song structure

Beyond the notes themselves, Tabula gives you full control over a song’s shape — its measures, signatures, tempo map, repeat structure, and the instruments that play it.

Measures

• Add a bar with the + Bar toolbar button, or just press → at the end of the song.
• Insert a measure before or after the cursor with Ctrl+I / Ctrl+Shift+I.
• Delete a measure with Ctrl+Delete. The measure is removed from every track at that position.
• To insert or remove a single beat, use I (before) / Shift+I (after) and the delete key.

Time signature

Open the Song menu (or the command palette) and choose Time signature. The default is 4/4. A time-signature change applies from the chosen bar onward across all tracks, and you can set per-bar overrides (and clear them).

Key signature

Also under the Song menu. Key signatures run from seven flats to seven sharps and can be major or minor, with per-bar overrides. The key signature drives diatonic pitch stepping when you enter notes with the arrow keys on a notation staff.

Tempo

• The song’s base tempo (BPM) is shown in the toolbar transport and editable from the Song menu.
• You can set a tempo change at any bar, and create gradual tempo ramps (accelerando / ritardando) across a span of bars — rendered as a tempo line above the staff.

Repeats and endings

Tabula renders repeat structure and plays it back correctly.

• [ toggles a repeat-start barline; ] toggles a repeat-end barline.
• Shift+] / Shift+[ increase / decrease how many times the section repeats.
• Alternate endings (1st-time, 2nd-time bars) and a pickup bar (anacrusis) are available from the command palette.

Tracks and instruments

A song can hold many tracks. Open the track sidebar from the Tracks button.

From here you can:

• Add a track (+ Add Track) and pick its instrument — guitar, bass, piano, voice, brass, winds, or drums. Each track starts with the staff that suits its instrument (a tab staff for fretted instruments, a percussion staff for drums), and you can show standard notation, tablature, or both on any track (see the next item).
• Set a track’s name, tuning, capo, and number of voices, and choose whether to show its tab staff, notation staff, or both.
• Control the mix per track: M (mute), S (solo), and the volume and pan sliders. These feed playback.
• Hide a track from view without deleting it.

Multi-voice tracks (up to two voices) let you write an independent counter-line — useful for two-part writing on one staff.

Song metadata

The Song menu also holds the song’s metadata: title, artist, album, the credit fields (music by, words by, arranged by, copyright), and the initial tempo, key, and time signature. The title is also editable directly from the top bar.