The piano roll is the large area above the keyboard where the notes fall towards the keys in time with the music. This page explains how to read it, move around the song with the mouse wheel and adjust what it shows.
IMAGE · play-piano-roll.png · 1600 × 1000 px · Notes falling towards the keyboard in two or three track colours, bar numbers and grid lines on the left, one key lit, a chord name in the bar above the keys.
Reading the roll
Move through the song
Gesture | What it does |
Mouse wheel over the roll | Moves the song back or forward by 2 seconds per notch |
| Fine steps of 0.15 seconds, for finding an exact spot |
Drag the scrub bar in the top bar | Jumps anywhere in the song |
| Selects a passage to loop, see Loop a passage |
Scrubbing works while paused too: the chord name follows the playhead, which makes it easy to study one chord at a time. Turn on Reflect on keyboard to also light the keys under the playhead while you scrub.
Adjust the view
These options are in Settings → Piano Roll:
Setting | What it does |
Zoom | How far ahead you see, from 50% to 300%. Higher zoom shows fewer seconds with larger, more widely spaced notes. |
Bar numbers & grid lines | Numbers each bar and draws a line across the roll at every bar. Handy when a teacher says “start from bar 32”. On by default. |
Show Playbar | When off, notes fall all the way to the keyboard’s top edge instead of stopping at a fixed line. |
Visual Effects | An animated flourish where notes hit the keys. See Visual effects. |
More in Piano Roll settings.
Show and hide tracks
Hiding a track removes its notes from the roll but keeps it playing. Use the eye button on each track in the Tracks panel, or Hide all to clear the roll and bring back only the parts you want to study.
Tip
Reading a busy arrangement? Hide everything except the piano, and lower the zoom to see more of what’s coming.