Ivory for songwriters: from voice memo to lead sheet

Get the song out of the voice memo

Most songs start as a recording: a voice and a guitar on a phone, a piano idea at midnight. That is enough to remember them, but not enough to share them. A drummer, a session player or a co-writer needs the chords, and often the melody, on a page.

Ivory writes that page from your recording, so you spend your time on the song rather than on notation.

A lead sheet of your song

Choose Song, and the Lead Sheet mode (in beta) writes the melody on one staff and the chord symbols above it, on the beat of your recording, with its key and its meter. It does not write the lyrics, which you add yourself.

It works best on a recording with your voice and your instrument together, where both the tune and the harmony can be heard.

Send it to the band

Export the lead sheet as a PDF for the players, as MusicXML to keep working on it in MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale or Dorico, or as MIDI. Transpose it by semitones first if the singer needs another key.

In the Complete view, Ivory also shows a second line and a bass line under the chords: a starting point for an arrangement, each line of which you can mute.

Piano demos: a full score and MIDI

If you write at the piano, choose Piano recording instead: Ivory writes every note of both hands as a two-staff score, and gives you a MIDI file with each hand on its own track for your DAW. Correct anything in the editor before you export.

Recording tips

A better recording gives a better page:

• Keep the phone close to your voice and your instrument, in a quiet room.
• Sing and play the song through, at its real tempo: long pauses and talking between takes become stray notes.
• Tune the guitar or check the piano first: an out-of-tune instrument can give wrong chords.
• Files up to 10 minutes: record the song, not the whole session.

Your song stays yours

Ivory does not train its models on your recordings or uploads. Your transcriptions stay in your library.

Frequently asked questions