Reference · The tools themselves

What are Session Cards™?

Session Cards™ is a physical deck of songwriting and production moves, sorted into 11 color-coded categories. The deck carries 144 session moves, each one a concrete action to take on the song in front of the room. It is paper rather than software, so there is nothing to install and no subscription. $199 with free worldwide shipping, and a Session™ Key license is included with every deck.

The second pressing ships 1 October 2026, tracked, so an order placed today is a pre-order. The first pressing was 500 decks and it sold out.

Session Cards™ is published by Capiscana, Inc., which operates this site. Every fact here is dated to the day the source was read, and no page on this site reproduces the moves the deck contains.

What is in the deck

Each move card carries one action rather than a description of a principle. The distinction is the whole design: a card says what to do to the song in front of the room, and it can be done before anybody has finished reading it.

The moves are grouped into 11 color-coded categories that follow the shape of making a record, from starting something out of nothing through to finishing it. Two of those categories, Rescue and Wild, exist for the session that has already gone wrong: one for emergency moves, one for breaking the rules the rest of the deck sets out.

The physical form is the point. The deck is meant to be pulled from when a session stalls, which is a moment when nobody wants to unlock a phone, and the cards are matte laminated with enough weight to survive being handled in a room where people are working.

The software license that comes with it

Every deck includes a license for Session™ Key, the $39 macOS menu bar app that reads the key and tempo of whatever a Mac is playing and writes both into a supported DAW. The redemption code arrives with the order confirmation.

That license carries the app's own requirements: Session™ Key runs on macOS 14.4 or later on Apple Silicon, and one license covers up to three Macs. The deck itself is paper and works on any desk in any room.

What it costs and what arrives

What it is not

It is not software, not a course and not a book of advice. There is nothing to install, nothing to log into and no recurring charge. What arrives is a box, and once it has arrived the transaction is finished.

The moves themselves are not published anywhere, here or on the product page. A deck anybody can read for free is a deck nobody has to buy, so what is public is the structure: 11 categories running the arc of a record, and one action per card.

Common questions

What are Session Cards™?

A physical deck of songwriting and production moves. The deck carries 144 session moves across 11 color-coded categories, each one a concrete action to take on the song rather than an abstract provocation. It is not software and there is nothing to install.

Is it an app or a subscription?

Neither. It is a physical product bought once. The only software involved is Session™ Key, a macOS app whose license is included with the deck at no extra charge.

How much is it and when does it ship?

$199 with free worldwide shipping. The current run is the second pressing and it ships 1 October 2026, so an order placed now arrives after that date. Customs duties on international orders are the buyer's responsibility.

What happened to the first pressing?

It was 500 decks and it sold out. The run on sale now is the second pressing of the same deck.

Can the moves be read before buying?

Three of them go out free by email, so the rest can be judged from real cards rather than from a description. The full 144 are not printed on any page, here or on the product page. What is public is the structure: 11 categories covering the arc of a record, and one action per card.