Snooze-Worthy Stuff (That Actually Matters™)

Metatags are basically a way to tell OnSong "hey, here's some info about this song, k?" & they live in a metadata section at the tippy-top of your file. Metadata hangs out in the first section of the song before the first blank line (or until OnSong gets bored & stops lookin' for more metatags). Metatags are name/value pairs — name on the left, value on the right, separated by a colon. Only one metatag per line, y\u{2019}all. Wanna get all fancy-pants about it? Check out the ChordPro File Format for the bleepin\u{2019} details on how to express metadata in ChordPro format.

OnSong is totes lazy & will automatically grab the first line of your text file & slap it on as the song title if you didn\u{2019}t bother with the metatag format. Plus, the second line? That\u{2019}s your artist/byline (unless you actually did the work & defined a metatag). Here\u{2019}s what a typical song metadata section looks like when you\u{2019}re not bein\u{2019} a slacker — sets the title & artist as the first & second lines plus the key & tempo:

Amazing Grace
Daniel Thomas
Key: D
Tempo: 76

Lyrics and chords start here...

The Tags We Actually Support

Here\u{2019}s the whole laundry list of tags OnSong won\u{2019}t yell at you for usin\u{2019}:

• Title: The name of your bop. This can also just be the first line of your song (if you\u{2019}re lazy like that).
• Artist: The person who made it sound good, or whatever byline nonsense you wanna put here. Can be multiple peeps separated by semicolons — like Kim Walker-Smith; Chris Quilala — if you\u{2019}re fancy.
• Author: The person who actually sat down & wrote out all these chords. Shows up at the bottom of the chord chart & in lyrics projection, so they can feel famous.
• Key: What key the song\u{2019}s in, written with your preferred sharps or flats & a lil \u{2019}\u{2019}m\u{2019}\u{2019} if it\u{2019}s minor. — like, alphabetic: Bb or Em
• Capo: Where you stick your capo on the fretboard (1 through 11, usually). But hey, you can go negative if you\u{2019}re feelin\u{2019} weird. — numeric
• Tempo: Beats per minute, aka BPM, aka how fast you\u{2019}re gonna panic tryin\u{2019} to keep up. — numeric
• Time: Time signature. — like 3/4, get it?
• Duration: How long the song is (in seconds or mm:ss) so OnSong can auto-scroll without you havin\u{2019} a stroke.
• Book: The book(s) to shove this song into. Comma-delimited list. Don\u{2019}t exist? OnSong\u{2019}ll make it. NBD.
• Number: The song\u{2019}s number — numeric. Great for hymns, years, or whatever. Sort by number & feel organized.
• Flow: How the song\u{2019}s arranged. — list of section labels. Peep Flow for the deets on arrangin\u{2019} your song\u{2019}s structure.
• MIDI: MIDI commands to fire off when you view the song. Check MIDI Syntax for how to speak MIDI in OnSong.
• MIDI-Index: MIDI commands that\u{2019}ll open this song in the Song Viewer. See MIDI Syntax for the goods.
• Keywords: or Topic: Tags for searchin\u{2019} by topic. Peep Topics if you wanna browse like a normal person.
• Copyright: or Footer: Who owns this joint. Shows up at the bottom of the chord chart & lyrics projection so lawyers are happy.
• CCLI: The CCLI number for when you\u{2019}re tryna stay legal. Appears at the bottom of everything & lyrics projection.
• Restrictions: Lockdown rules that keep people from doin\u{2019} weird stuff with your song. Check Restrictions for how to set these bad boys up.
• Pitch: The note(s) to play with the Pitch Pipe feature — space-separated, with optional octaves. — e.g. A3 C#4 E5
• Subdivision: or Beat: Pick the subdivision for your song — can be: whole, half, quarter, eighth, shuffle, or sixteenth. Or just use numbers like 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 if you\u{2019}re into that.
• Transpose: How many half steps to shift the song up or down mid-performance. This number can be positive or negative & plays nice with transposition sliders.
• Scene: The scene that loads when you open the song — just type in the scene name after the colon.

Note: Metatags don\u{2019}t care about CAPS or lower case — they\u{2019}re chill like that