# What's up with the Song Editor?

**URL:** <https://forum.makecode.com/t/whats-up-with-the-song-editor/40934>\
**Category:** Arcade\
**Tags:** music\
**Created:** [December 14, 2025, 3:06am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/whats-up-with-the-song-editor/40934 "2025-12-14T03:06:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![frandev](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/frandev/32/27644_2.png) [@frandev](https://forum.makecode.com/u/frandev)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 3:06am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/whats-up-with-the-song-editor/40934/1 "2025-12-14T03:06:22Z")

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# Intro

Hello, I’m @frandev, and, recently (actually, not so recently, but, whatever…), I noticed that the Song Editor (or, maybe just Songs in general, but the engineering behind Songs is NOT at all my craft—take this with a grain of salt) can’t have two or more notes of the same instrument playing at different times, as per demonstrated:  
 ![weird thing](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/makecode/original/3X/7/1/71e70a9beb71c9af587fd6c5b6652a4ef3100fd7.gif)  
I’d like to know why this is the case. I have my theory, which is likely **NOT** correct.

# My theory

I think the reason it’s like this is that instruments _might be_ handled _somewhat_ like channels on a sound chip. On a sound chip, _there cannot be polyphony (that is to say, more than one note playing) in one channel_. This is a slightly different concept from the phenomena I’ve observed in the Music Editor, for in the Music Editor, one instrument can play, say, a chord. Just not _play multiple notes simultaneously with different timing_ (not that easy to understand when I put it into words like that, but, basically—all notes that play in simultaneity must begin and end at the same time).

I would like someone with more knowledge on the subject of Music and Songs in MakeCode Arcade to resolve this doubt of mine.

Cheers  
@frandev

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**Author:** ![WoofWoof](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/woofwoof/32/32523_2.png) [@WoofWoof](https://forum.makecode.com/u/WoofWoof)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 11:06pm UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/whats-up-with-the-song-editor/40934/2 "2025-12-14T23:06:20Z")

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You can have more than one note, they just have to be the same length and start at the same time. This is because notes are stored in groups like [start time, notes, end time] which is probably a space saving strategy.

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**Author:** ![frandev](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/frandev/32/27644_2.png) [@frandev](https://forum.makecode.com/u/frandev)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2025, 8:24pm UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/whats-up-with-the-song-editor/40934/3 "2025-12-25T20:24:45Z")

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Thank you! It seems I have not expressed myself properly—I knew you could have more than one note beforehand, just didn’t understand why they had to start and end at the same time. Thank you again for enlightening me, @WoofWoof!