Virtual keyboard
- A–G
- Add a note
- R
- Add a rest
- /
- Add a barline
- 1–4
- Toggle beam, triplet, slur, or tie
- delete
- Delete selected note
- tab / shift+tab
- Select next or previous note
- ↑ / ↓
- Change note pitch (shift to change octave)
- ← / →
- Change note duration
- esc
- Close virtual keyboard
Search Tips
Search by word or phrase
Examples:
- I am a child of God
- hymns 1948
- William W. Phelps
- "his love proclaim"
- peace -war
Quote marks can be used to limit results to an exact phrase. A hyphen-minus (-) can be added to exclude results with a given word or phrase. Songs, collections, texts, tunes, medleys, people, and languages are included in search results.
Songs are not currently indexed by topic, so you may need to consult other resources if you’re searching for a general topic. Also, not all indexed songs have searchable lyrics yet.Search by melody (Parsons code)
Parsons code describes the relative up and down movement of a melody. The first character is an asterisk and represents the first note or pitch. U, D, and R indicate if the next note goes up, down, or is a repeat. This allows searching for a melody without needing to know how to read music or play an instrument. Examples:
- *UUDUUUR
- *UURUDDRDDDUD
- *DDDDDDDUU
Only the first phrase (incipit) of the melody is searched, so there’s no need to type Parsons code for the full song or worry about different voice parts. Also, currently only a limited number of songs have searchable melodies. More will be added over time.
Search by melody (virtual keyboard)
Using the virtual keyboard above, you can type a melody in ABC notation for searching. Unlike Parsons code search, searching with the virtual keyboard takes into account intervals between notes and relative note lengths so that more relevant results can be filtered to the top.
For completeness, the virtual keyboard allows specifying the key and time signature of the song, and adding musical elements like beams, triplets, slurs, ties, rests, or barlines. However, these elements are optional when searching (for now, melody search only uses relative pitch intervals and relative note lengths).
Only the first phrase (incipit) of the melody is searched, so there’s no need to enter the full song or worry about different voice parts. Also, currently only a limited number of songs have searchable melodies. More will be added over time.