The song editor
Alternate lines
Keep two or more versions of a lyric line side by side with a spaced slash, and swap which one is the main line with one click.
Showing the iOS appweb app
Sometimes you have two good versions of a line and you are not ready to choose. Write both on the same line with a slash between them, and Lyric Genie keeps the first as the line and the rest as alternates.
Writing an alternate#
Type a space, a slash and a space between the versions:
I left it all behind / I don't know why
The first version is the main line. Everything after a / is an
alternate. A line can hold more than one:
Out on the edge / Out on the wire / Out past the fire
The spaces matter. 24/7 and and/or have no spaces around the slash, so they
stay ordinary text. A section header such as [Chorus] never has alternates.
How alternates look#
The main line reads as normal. Each alternate is faded, and the slash before it is coloured so you can see where one version ends and the next begins.
The text is stored exactly as you typed it. Nothing is hidden or moved, and you edit an alternate like any other text.
Swapping in an alternate#
Point at the line, or put your cursor on it, and a small ⇄ appears at the end of each alternate. Click it and that alternate becomes the main line: it moves to the front, and the old main line becomes the first alternate. Undo puts it back.
On a tab you can't edit, such as a co-writer's, the ⇄ is shown dimmed and does nothing.
Put your cursor on the line and a ⇄ button appears at its right edge. Tap it and the first alternate becomes the main line, and the old main line takes its place as the first alternate. Tap again to swap them back. Each swap is one step of Undo.
The ⇄ only appears on a tab you can edit.
What reads only the main line#
Anything that has to treat the line as one line uses the main version and ignores the alternates:
- Lyric sheets.
- Syllable counts, and the rhyme letters in the margin. See Rhyme colors and margins.
- Refine Context, and title suggestions.
In the iPhone app, Perform and Wish Workshop also use the main line.
On the web, Perform shows the line as you typed it, with its alternates.
Genie sees every version on purpose, so you can ask it which one works better.