Sections & Elements

Build song structure with sections and add musical elements with notation.

Songs in Nitesong are built from Sections and Elements — the two core building blocks that let you organize your musical ideas the way they actually live in a song.

Sections represent the large-scale structure (Verse, Chorus, Bridge, etc.), and Elements are the musical parts that live inside each section (a guitar riff, a chord progression, a drum pattern, lyrics). Together, they give you a flexible canvas that adapts to however you like to write.

Song Structure

Every song is made up of sections. A section represents one part of your song's arrangement — a verse, a chorus, an intro, and so on. Sections appear as tabs across the top of the song editor, and clicking a tab reveals that section's content below.

Nitesong supports 11 section types:

Each section stores three pieces of information:

• Type — one of the 11 types listed above
• Order — its position in the song (determines tab order)
• Notes — optional freeform text for reminders, arrangement ideas, or production notes

When you have multiple sections of the same type, Nitesong automatically numbers them for you. Two verses become "Verse 1" and "Verse 2"; three choruses become "Chorus 1", "Chorus 2", and "Chorus 3". If there is only one section of a given type, no number is shown.

Adding & Reordering Sections

Adding a section

Click the "+ new section" button at the end of the tab bar. A dropdown menu appears listing all 11 section types. Pick one, and the new section is created instantly — the editor switches to it so you can start working right away.

Reordering sections

Sections use drag-and-drop reordering. Grab a section tab and drag it left or right to change its position in the song. The other tabs shift to make room as you drag.

Inserting a section between two existing sections works seamlessly — just drag it to the position you want.

Duplicating and deleting sections

Right-click a section tab (or use its context menu) to access additional options:

• Duplicate — creates an exact copy of the section (including all its elements) and places it right after the original
• Change type — swap a section's type without losing its contents (turn a Verse into a Bridge, for example)
• Delete — permanently removes the section and all its elements. A confirmation dialog makes sure you don't delete anything by accident

Elements

Elements are the musical building blocks inside a section. Think of each element as one instrument or one part: "Acoustic Guitar", "Lead Vocal", "Drums", "Synth Pad". A single section can contain as many elements as you need.

Each element has the following properties:

• Name — the instrument label displayed as a colored badge (e.g., "Guitar", "Drums", "Vocals"). This is what identifies the element at a glance.
• Title — a freeform label for more specific context (e.g., "Main riff", "Verse pattern", "High harmony"). Shown next to the name badge.
• Color — a color that tints the element's badge and left border, making it easy to visually distinguish parts. Pick any color you like.
• Value / Description — a freeform text area for general notes, performance instructions, or anything that does not fit the structured notation types.
• Notes — additional notes about the element (arrangement ideas, alternate takes, etc.).
• Order — the element's vertical position within its section. Drag to reorder.
• Capo — a value from 0 to 11 representing the guitar capo position. This affects how chord voicings are calculated and displayed for that element. Non-guitar elements can simply leave this at 0.

How element types work

An element's notation type is determined by what you add to it — lyrics, chords, tab, drums, or piano roll. A single element can hold multiple notation types simultaneously, so you can have lyrics with chords overlaid, or tab with a chord progression above it.

Creating elements

Inside any section, click the "+ Add Element" button to create a new element. You will be prompted to choose an instrument name and color. The element card appears immediately, ready for you to add a title and start layering in notation.

Reordering elements

Drag an element card up or down within its section to reorder it. The other elements shift to make room, and the new order is saved automatically.

Adding Notation to Elements

Once you have an element, the real fun begins: adding musical content. Click the "+ Add Notes" button on any element card to open the notation menu.

The menu offers five notation types (plus one coming soon):

Lyrics

A dedicated text editor with line numbers, designed for writing and editing song lyrics. Each element can have one lyric block. The editor uses a clean heading font for readability and auto-saves as you type.

Great for: vocal lines, spoken word sections, rap verses.

Chords

A chord progression built from Nitesong's chord library. You can pick chords from the song's key, browse secondary dominants and borrowed chords, and attach specific voicings (guitar fingerings) to each chord.

Great for: harmonic structure, rhythm guitar parts, keyboard comping patterns.

Guitar Tab

Tablature notation on a standard 6-string grid. Each element can have multiple tab lines, so you can break a long passage into manageable chunks. Tab lines come in length presets of 8, 16, 32, or 64 positions.

Great for: guitar riffs, bass lines, fingerpicking patterns.

Drums

A step sequencer grid for programming drum parts. Each element can have one drum pattern. The sequencer supports 4, 8, or 16 beats with 4 velocity levels, and comes loaded with a default kit of 8 samples (kick, snare, hi-hats, clap, rimshot, toms).

Great for: beat sketching, rhythm reference, demo production.

Piano Roll

A MIDI-style grid editor for melodic and harmonic parts. Each element can have one piano roll. Click to place notes, drag to extend them, and right-click to delete. The roll supports configurable octave ranges and optional scale highlighting.

Great for: melody writing, synth parts, horn arrangements, any pitched instrument.

Staff (coming soon)

Standard music notation is planned but not yet available. The option appears in the menu with a "Soon" badge.

Combining notation types

One of Nitesong's most powerful features is that multiple notation types can coexist on the same element. For example, a single "Guitar" element could have:

• A chord progression showing the harmonic movement
• Guitar tab spelling out the specific fingering
• Lyrics showing what the singer does over this part

This lets you keep related musical information together in one place rather than scattering it across separate elements.

Moving Elements Between Sections

Sometimes an element needs to live in a different section — maybe that guitar riff works better in the bridge, or you want the same chord progression in both the verse and the chorus.

Nitesong handles this with cross-section drag and drop. When you drag an element card onto a different section's tab, a dialog appears asking how you want to transfer it:

• Move — removes the element from its current section and places it in the target section. The element and all its notation (chords, tab, drums, lyrics, piano roll) move with it. The editor automatically switches to the target section so you can see the result.

• Duplicate — creates a complete copy of the element in the target section while leaving the original in place. This is perfect for reusing a part across multiple sections (e.g., the same chord progression in Verse 1 and Verse 2).

• Cancel — puts the element back where it was. Nothing changes.

The dialog shows the name of the target section ("Move to Chorus?") so you can confirm you are dropping it in the right place.

Tips for organizing elements across sections

• Duplicate liberally. If two sections share the same chord changes, duplicate the element rather than recreating it. You can then tweak the copy independently if the sections diverge later.
• Use consistent names. Giving the same instrument name (e.g., "Guitar") across sections makes it easy to scan the song and see which parts carry through the arrangement. The element filter bar at the top of the editor lets you filter by instrument name across all sections.
• Color-code your parts. Assigning the same color to the same instrument across sections creates a visual thread that makes the song structure easier to read at a glance.