Play Mode

The play mode is designed to assist you during your live performance. Lyrics can either be auto-scrolled or displayed one page at a time. Bluetooth page turner pedals and MIDI footswitches may be used to move about the lyrics and go to the next song of a 'Setlist'.

To activate Song One's play mode select a song in the 'Library' (or a 'Setlist') and tap/click on the play button. (See library panel to learn more.)

Note: The play button above the library will initiate the playback of a single song. Create a set to play a collection of songs.

To play a set instead of a single song:

tap/click on a song in a 'Setlist'
and tap/click on the play button above the 'Setlist'.

(See library panel to learn more.)

The library panel will slide out to the left, the lyrics of the selected song will fill the entire screen. A playback slider appears at the bottom of the screen as the song begins to play.

If desired a 'smart scroll' chord chart can be shown above the slider. (See 'Smart Scroll' Chord Chart at the bottom of this page to learn more.

Song One's settings/preferences offer the option to display a legal rights footer instead of a playback slider. Show the legal rights footer whenever you are projecting songs in public.

Auto-Scroll vs Page Flip

Song One offers two options to advance the lyrics. You may choose between 'Auto-Scroll' and 'Page Flip' in Song One's settings (preferences).

Auto-Scroll

When 'Auto-Scroll' is selected Song One will automatically scroll the entire lyrics from the beginning to the end in a specified time frame. The time frame is entered in the 'Duration' field of the song info side panel. (See song info to learn more.)

You may jump several lines forwards (or backwards) while the lyrics are being auto-scrolled by...

pressing the 'down' (or 'up') key of an external keyboard.
using the pedals of a MIDI controller or a bluetooth page turner.
tapping/clicking on Song One's 'touch zones' in the upper half or lower half of the screen.

Jumping forwards or backwards will not affect the playback of the optional audio backing track linked to the song. (See song info to learn more about backing tracks.)

When jumping forwards Song One will indicate the end of a song by outlining the icons of the bottom toolbar. Jumping forwards when the end is reached will open and auto-scroll the next song of a 'Setlist'. A linked backing track of the next song will start playing automatically. (See library panel to learn how to create setlists.)

Page Flip

When 'Page Flip' is selected in Song One's settings (preferences) the lyrics will not be scrolled. PDF documents will be 'flipped' one page at a time. Native Song One document will be advanced according to the zoom level.

Go to the next (or previous) page by ...

pressing the 'down' (or 'up') key of an external keyboard.
using the pedals of a MIDI controller or a bluetooth page turner.
tapping/clicking on Song One's 'touch zones' in the upper half or lower half of the screen.

Flipping pages will not affect the playback of the optional audio backing track linked to the song. (See song info to learn more about backing tracks.)

Song One will indicate the end of the last page of a song by outlining the icons of the bottom toolbar. Using a 'down' command when the end is reached will open the next song of a 'Setlist'. A linked backing track of the next song will start playing automatically. (See library panel to learn how to create setlists.)

When 'Page Flip' is active the slider above the bottom toolbar indicates the playback position of a linked audio backing track.

Move the slider to stop and restart the playback of the backing track at a desired position. The position of the lyrics will not be affected.

Playback Control Buttons

The playback slider appears when the lyrics are being auto-scrolled. The slider represents the scrolling position of the document and may be used to move about the lyrics.

Move the slider to jump to a specific part of the lyrics and auto-scroll from that position onward.

Dragging the slider to a new position will stop the playback of the backing track. The playback of the backing track will restart at the slider's new position.

Tap/Click on the play/pause button to (re)start or pause auto-scrolling the lyrics.

When auto-scrolling is paused the lyrics can be scrolled manually (via swipe gestures). The slider will disappear to provide access to additional buttons.

The touch zones of the play mode buttons are wider than their icons. This allows you to control the playback without having to precisely tap on the icon during live performances.

Tap/Click on the button with the audio wave icon to add an audio backing track. (See Playback Via Apple’s ‘Music’ App and Importing Audio Tracks to learn more.)

Once an audio track has been added the wave icon will change into a chain link icon. You may tap on the chain link icon to (un)mute the added backing track.

Tap/Click on the button with the rectangle to show or hide the 'smart scroll' chord chart. (See 'Smart Scroll' Chord Chart learn more.)

Tap/Click on the two inward pointing arrows to de-activate Song One's play mode and re-open the library panel.

Tap/Click on the button with the slider icon to open the song's Timeline window.

Song One offers a repositioning menu to allow you to jump to a specific song section. The default location is the beginning of the song (at 00:00). The menu is expanded when you add section events to the timeline. (See Timeline to learn more.)

To jump to a specific song section perform a long tap / right click / two finger tap on the play/pause button and select the desired location from the repositioning menu.

Song One updates the repositioning menu when you edit the section events of the timeline.

The timeline does not have to be visible to use the repositioning menu.

You may skip to the next (or previous) song of a 'Setlist' at any time regardless of whether 'Auto-Scroll' or 'Page Flip' is selected . (See library panel to learn how to create setlists.)

When playback is active skip to the next (or previous) song of a 'Setlist' by tapping/clicking on Song One's 'touch zones' in the left half or right half of the screen.

You may also skip to the next (or previous) song of a 'Setlist' with swipe gestures. Swipe gestures may be performed regardless of wether playback is active or paused.

Note: When 'Auto-Scroll' is selected Song One will automatically go to the next song of a 'Setlist' when both the lyrics and a linked audio backing track (optional) have reached the end.

'Smart Scroll' Chord Chart

Traditional chord sheets feature the chord chart at the beginning of the song. This causes the chord chart to scroll out of view as the song progresses. Song One's 'smart scroll' option allows you to view an automatically updating chord chart while the lyrics are advancing. It is displayed at the bottom of the screen.

Pause playback and tap/click on the button with the rectangle to show or hide the 'smart scroll' chord chart.

Smart scroll will also update the bottom chord chart when the playback of the song is paused and the lyrics are scrolled manually.

While smart scroll is optimized for native Song One documents it also generates chord charts for text-based PDF lyrics sheets.‌ Song One analyzes the text of the PDF document by looking for chords that are placed above the lyrics and generates the diagrams.

The chord diagrams of an entire PDF page are displayed at the bottom of the screen. Convert the PDF document to a native Song One document to limit the chord diagrams to the viewed section of the page.

You have the option to export a native Song One document as a PDF document. However, this is not advisable if plan to re-import the document. A Song One generated PDF document includes chord symbols that are not saved in plain text format. If you re-add the exported PDF document to your song catalog Song One will not be able to generate chord diagrams.

Auto-Fill

Song One uses section labels/tags to identify song sections (Intro, Verse, Chorus, etc.). When writing songs it is common practice to omit the lyrics of repeated song sections and refer to the previous sections with only the section label.

Song One offers a feature in its settings/preferences that automatically fills in the lyrics of the corresponding previous section: 'Auto-Fill Tagged Repeated Sections'.

Auto-Fill is automatically disabled when you exit the play mode.

Hiding the Playback Slider/Play Mode Footer

You may wish to hide the playback slider/play mode footer when you work with PDF-based sheet music or when the 'Smart Scroll' Chord Chart and the Timeline are not used.

To do so open Song One's app settings and:

...select 'Show Legal Rights Footer Instead Of Playback Slider' in the 'Play Mode Footer' section of the 'Rights' category.
...disable all other display/formatting options of the 'Play Mode Footer' section.