Next-note suggestions
Next-note suggestions show a set of rated, plain-language options for the next note, right at the insert cursor on the piano roll. Hover one to hear it, click one to place it. It is a way to build a melody a note at a time when you are not sure what should come next, which is why it is sometimes called beginner mode, though it is just as useful for sketching quickly.
It is available on the piano roll.
Turning it on
In the compose toolbar above the note grid, the leading slot on the left holds the suggestions button, tooltip Suggest next notes. Click it to switch suggestions on; the button stays highlighted while they are active, and clicking again switches them off.
This is a separate toggle from the four compose peers, so you can leave it on while you work without it interfering with them.
What you see
A column of blocks appears at the insert cursor, one block per candidate pitch.
The colour is a rating: green is a strong choice here, amber a fair one, red a weak one. A label sits to the right of each block describing what the move does musically. Suggestions stay near your last note, within a small range, so the line stays singable instead of leaping around the keyboard. On an empty section they appear around the octave you are typing in.
Notes outside the instrument's playable range are dropped.
Trying and placing one
Hover a block and you hear it once, a brief audition, so you can swipe across the column and compare by ear. Click a block and the note is placed at the cursor with a suggested length; the cursor advances and a fresh set appears.
Placing a suggestion goes through the normal note-insert path, so Ctrl+Z undoes it exactly as it does a note you drew by hand.
Reading the labels
Labels describe the feel of the move rather than the theory behind it.
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Comes home, releases the tension | Lands on the home note; the line resolves. |
| Lifts the line, pulls toward home | Rises toward a note that wants to fall back. |
| Builds tension, wants to resolve up | A tense note that asks to keep moving. |
| Steps along, keeps the line flowing | A passing note that keeps momentum. |
| Bright surprise, off the scale | A colour note from outside the key. |
Suggestions are phrase-aware. Near the end of a phrase, landing on the home note earns its own label, "Closes the phrase, the listener has been waiting for this", so you know when a moment of arrival is on offer.
The rest suggestion
Toward the end of a phrase you may see a lighter, dashed block labelled "Let it breathe, a rest seals the ending". Click it to drop in a rest instead of a note. It is there because leaving space is the thing beginners skip.
How suggestions are chosen
They follow your key, and the home note always reads as home wherever it lands. If you have laid down a chord progression they also know the chord under the cursor, so notes belonging to that chord read as consonant and notes outside it read as colour or tension. Neither a progression nor a genre is required: suggestions work from the key alone and get more context-aware as you add the rest.
Red suggestions still appear. A tense or surprising note can be the right choice, and the rating is advice rather than a rule.
Getting the most from it
Rough a phrase out with suggestions, then drag and tune the notes by hand. Lay your chords down first if you can, because that is what makes the options genuinely chord-aware. When "Let it breathe" appears, take it. And when you compare by ear, let the label tell you why and your ear tell you whether.