Guides
Practice Guides
Free, structured practice plans for learning Gesture Synth with the songbook — plus a full list of every song ranked by difficulty.
Getting started
- How to play Gesture Synth
Every gesture documented against the engine: scale degrees, major/minor tilt, chord qualities, octave, and volume.
- Chord gesture reference
The complete chord gesture tables, plus which chords each songbook song uses.
- Gesture Synth Weld guide
How the popular Vercel-hosted version works and how to play it.
Practice plans
- How to pick your first song
A simple framework for choosing a chart that matches your current skill — with specific recommendations from the songbook.
- Playing in time
Why timing is the real skill on Gesture Synth, and a three-stage drill for staying locked to the beat.
Every song by difficulty
The songbook currently has 16 songs. This is the full list, sorted by title, with the difficulty we give each one on its page:
| Song | Difficulty | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Amazing Grace · Traditional | Beginner | A slow hymn with mostly major triads — gentle on the hands even if the melody is beloved. |
| Blinding Lights · The Weeknd | Intermediate | A minor-key four-chord loop at 86 BPM with two-flat key geography — new territory for most players. |
| Brooklyn Baby · Lana Del Rey | Easy | All triads in C major, but the progression rambles — good training for following a chart instead of a loop. |
| Creep · Radiohead | Easy | Four chords and a heavy loop, but the chromatic B major and the IV–iv flip demand precision. |
| Get Lucky · Daft Punk | Intermediate | Fast, funky, and minor-key — 116 BPM with a four-chord loop that rewards clean transitions. |
| Hallelujah · Leonard Cohen | Beginner | Slow, spacious, and mostly diatonic — with one borrowed chord that makes it interesting. |
| Koca Bi Saçmalık · Jakuzi | Advanced | Forty-nine chord changes in sixteen bars at 112 BPM — the densest chart in the songbook. |
| Let Down · Radiohead | Intermediate | Adds sus2 and slash chords to the mix, plus more changes per bar than anything before it. |
| Let It Be · The Beatles | Beginner | The I–V–vi–IV loop, played slowly with a satisfying chorus variation. |
| Ode to Joy · Beethoven | Beginner | Diatonic, unhurried, and built from the four most common chords — a great second or third song. |
| Riptide · Vance Joy | Beginner | Three chords in a vi–V–I loop at 100 BPM — the whole song is one pattern. |
| The Nights · Avicii | Advanced | 126 BPM with nearly fifty chord changes — the fastest and most demanding chart in the songbook. |
| The Scientist · Coldplay | Easy | A slow four-chord loop that adds the relative minor — slightly more hand travel than the beginner set. |
| Twinkle Twinkle Little Star · Traditional | Beginner | Three chords, eight bars, and a huge amount of repetition — the ideal first song. |
| With or Without You · U2 | Easy | The same I–V–vi–IV loop as Let It Be, but faster and with the emotional B minor sustained. |
| Zombie · The Cranberries | Intermediate | A grunge-power-chord loop in E minor, with a slash chord that moves the bass under the same shape. |