Song text format

A NØISE song can be written as a few lines of text. The website shows songs in this form, and the app reads the text with IMPORT — pick a text file in the file dialog. The text is meant to be pasted into a chat, a mail or a forum post and to survive it unchanged.

This page is the grammar reference. It is verified against the parser in the app (ChartTextFormat in the NOISETheory package) and the round-trip tests that guard it.

A complete example

NOISE SONG 1
name: Amber Skyline
author: NØISE
notes: Demo song for the website — sparse intro, a lift, a swung stop-time bridge
style: rock
kit: rock.classic
feel: straight
preset: LAID_BACK
bpm: 112
key: Am
end: once

[INTRO x2 energy=sparse color=cyan fillin=none]
| Am | - | F | G |

[VERSE x2 fill]
| Am | F | C | G |
| Am | F | C(2) G(2) | G |

[CHORUS x2 energy=lift color=orange fillin=crash preset=DRIVING rhythm=on]
| F | G | Am | Am |
| F | G | C | E7 |

[BRIDGE energy=stop color=magenta feel=halfTime fillout=none]
| Dm7 | G7 | Cmaj7 | Bm7b5(2) E7(2) |
| N.C. |

Three kinds of lines exist: header lines (key: value), section headers ([NAME …]) and bar lines (| … |). Empty lines and lines starting with # are ignored, and so is the NOISE SONG 1 signature line.

Line types

The signature

NOISE SONG 1

The first line. Any line that starts with NOISE SONG (case-insensitive) is skipped by the parser, so the signature is optional when you type a song by hand. Keep it: it tells people (and the website) what the text is.

Header lines

A header line is key: value. Keys are case-insensitive; the value runs to the end of the line. They come in this order; empty values are left out:

Any other key is read and dropped, so you can add your own (source: …) without breaking import — it just does not survive the round trip.

Keys

key: takes a tonic and an optional mode. Accepted spellings:

• Tonic: C D E F G A B with #/♯ or b/♭. Flats and sharps map to the same pitch class (Bb = A#); sharps are written (C#, F#m).
• Minor: a trailing m, min, minor, min or minor — Am, A min, A minor.
• Major: nothing, or maj/major/ maj/ major — G, G major.

Only major and minor exist as modes, in the text format and in the KEY module alike.

Section headers

[VERSE x2 energy=lift color=orange feel=shuffle fillin=crash fill preset=DRIVING rhythm=on]

The header is a […] line; the parts inside are separated by single spaces. The first part is the name. Names cannot contain spaces in the text form, so VERSE TWO is written as VERSE_TWO, and underscores turn back into spaces on import. An empty name becomes SECTION.

Every further part is optional and may appear in any order:

A section carries no style, kit or drum genre: drums=ROCK, band=rock and kit= on a section line are gone (an unknown key is ignored, so an old text still imports — without those). Parts without = that are not xN or fill, and key=value parts with an unknown key, are ignored. Only the parts a section sets are written, so [VERSE] is a complete header: everything it leaves out follows the section before it, then the song.

What the seven energies do to the band and drums is explained under Energy and overrides.

Bar lines

| Am | F | C(2) G(2) | G |
| - |

A bar line starts with | — that first character is how the parser recognises the line, so it is required. Bars are separated by |; the trailing | may be left out. Several bar lines can follow one section header, and bars continue across lines (a | - | on the next line extends the last chord of the previous line). Bar lines before any section header are an error.

Inside a bar, tokens are separated by spaces. The rules, in order:

1. One token, no (beats) → the chord fills the whole bar.
2. Several tokens, none or only some with (beats) → the bar is split equally. | D Em | in 4/4 is two beats each; | C(2) G | is also two beats each — the explicit beats count only when every token in the bar carries one.
3. Every token has (beats) → each chord gets exactly that many beats. | C(1) D(3) | is one beat of C and three of D. A token can be longer than a bar: | G(8) | is a two-bar G. Beats that add up to whole bars become whole-bar durations. A section need not add up to whole bars; the editor shows such a total in amber.
4. - or % alone in a bar → continuation: the previous chord lasts one bar longer. Continuation with no previous chord is an error.
5. N.C., NC, REST or N (any case) → a rest bar (no chord). The band and the drums treat it as silence, see Energy and overrides.
6. A caret pushes (since 0.71): ^G is struck an eighth early, ^^G a sixteenth early, and held over the bar line. The caret binds to the token — ^Am(2), ^IV@x35553(2) — and is dropped on a rest or a %. The chord's place and length never move; only the band's strike does.

The beat count in (beats) is interpreted against the time signature the text is parsed with. Text is always written and parsed with 4 beats per bar; a 3/4 or 6/8 session does not change the text.

Chord tokens

A chord token is either a degree (roman numeral, key-relative, transposes with the key) or an absolute chord symbol (a literal chord). Both kinds can be mixed in one bar.

A token may carry the guitar grip the player chose, after an @: Em@x32010, or C@x35553(2) when the bar is subdivided. The grip is six frets low E to high e with x for a muted string; frets of 10 or more need separators (8-10-10-9-8-8) and @n at the end states a base fret that cannot be derived (x24442@2). A grip that cannot be read is dropped and the chord still parses. Rests and repeats never carry one.

The parser decides like this: if the token starts with one of I V i v b # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and parses as a roman numeral, it is a degree. Otherwise it is parsed as a chord symbol. So Bb7 (starts with B) is always a chord symbol, while bVII is a degree; V7 is a degree, E7 is a chord symbol.

Degrees (roman numerals)

I   ii   IV   V   vi   bVII   #iv   IIm7   V7   IVmaj7   V/V   V7/vi   1   4   5

• Numeral: I II III IV V VI VII or the digits 1–7.
• Case: an uppercase numeral without a quality is a plain major triad, a lowercase numeral without a quality is a minor triad (ii = IIm). Lowercase plus 7 is a minor seventh (ii7 = IIm7). Once you write an explicit quality the case does not matter.
• Alteration: a leading b/♭ lowers the degree a semitone (bVII, bIII), a leading #/♯ raises it (#iv).
• Quality and alterations: any chord-symbol suffix from the table below (maj7, m7b5, 7#9, sus4, dim, add9, …), written directly after the numeral. Internally the suffix is parsed as if it followed a C root.
• Secondary dominant: V/x — the part before / must be V; the part after is the target degree (V/V, V7/vi, V/II). Secondary dominants are written as V/ + target.
• Slash bass (since 0.71): a degree of the key after the last /, Nashville style — I/3 (C/E in C, A/C♯ in A), V/7, IV/#4, I/b7, or a note name I/E. A secondary dominant carries one too: V/II/3. The parser reads the last /: a digit (with b/#) or a note letter is a bass, a roman tail is a secondary target. So a hand-typed V/5 now means "V with the fifth degree in the bass" — the app never wrote that form, and V/V is unchanged. The band plays the bass.
• A degree without an explicit quality (I, IV) takes its quality from the key when it is played — the diatonic triad of that scale degree, or a seventh when the JAM style prefers sevenths.

Degrees are written back in a canonical form: uppercase numeral, and an explicit quality as soon as there is one (Imaj, IIm7, Vmaj, bVIImaj, V/V); a degree without a quality stays bare (I). So a chart never depends on case when it is read again. Anything you type in the shorter form round-trips to the same chord.

Absolute chord symbols

C   Am   F#m7   Bb7   Cmaj7   Dm7b5   G7b9   E7#9   Asus4   Cadd9   C6/9   Bdim7   Ebaug   D/F#   E5   N.C.

A chord symbol is root · quality · modifiers · alterations · optional /bass. Rules that matter:

• Root: a letter A–G (any case) with up to two #/♯ or b/♭, or x for a double sharp. At the root position b always belongs to the letter: Bb7 is B-flat seven. Flat alterations (b5, b9, b13) are only recognised after a quality (C7b9).
• Quality (longest match wins): see the table. - right after the root means minor (C-7); - before a digit later means flat (C7-9). M, maj, Δ are checked before lowercase m. sus alone is sus4. 6/9 is an added 6th and 9th, not a slash chord. alt is 7#5#9.
• Alterations are written in a row, without parentheses: G7b9#11. In a bar line, parentheses mean (beats): C7(b9,#11) is read as a plain C7, and Cm(maj7) as Cm.
• Bass: / followed by a note. D/F#, C/E, Am/G. The bass must be a plain note; /9 after a quality is an added 9th instead. Since 0.71 the band plays it — the bass player, the walking line and the pad voice it — where before it was display only.
• Rests: N.C., NC, REST, N.

Recognised quality tokens and what they become:

Alteration tokens (after a quality): b5 #5 b9 #9 #11 b13 (also with ♭/♯, or -5 +5 -9 +9 +11 -13), add2/add9, add4/add11, add6/6/add13, /9, no3/omit3, no5/omit5, and sus2/sus4 as added tones after a quality.

Absolute chords are written back as root + symbol + alterations + /bass using the table's third column (Bb7, F#m7b5, D/F#). A degree cell also remembers the sounding chord in the written key as its display text.

Durations in the text vs. in the editor

The editor offers whole-bar durations and sub-bar durations of 1, 2, 3 beats. In the text every duration is expressed with the bar rules above:

Sub-bar chords are written with explicit beats and grouped until they fill a bar; a chord that spans a bar boundary is written as a whole-bar chord followed by - continuations.

Errors

Parsing stops at the first problem. Every error carries the line number (1-based, counting every line of the text including the signature and blank lines) and a reason. The app shows both when an import fails, in English: Line 7: unexpected line.

The key: value header lines are never errors except for key. Unknown section-header parts, unknown energies and unknown styles are ignored silently — the song still imports.

Limits

These come from the chart model and apply to text import as well as to the editor:

• at most 24 sections per song (the editor's own limit; a file with more is read in full),
• at most 32 chord cells per section,
• repeats 1–16 (xN is clamped),
• a single chord lasts at most 32 bars,
• bpm is clamped to 20–300.

Writing text by hand

The shortest valid song is one header line and one bar line:

[A]
| G | D | Em | C |

Add name: and key: and it is ready to share:

NOISE SONG 1
name: Four chords
key: G

[LOOP]
| I | V | vi | IV |

Save it as a text file and bring it in with IMPORT (see Import). Because the chords are degrees, the same text plays in any key you set in the KEY module.