Almost every available function in Ardour can be bound to a keyboard shortcut (and those few that cannot will usually respond to an OSC command). Ardour comes with a rich set of default key bindings for the most commonly used functions.

These bindings strive to be mnemonic, that is, easy and intuitive to remember, and follow widely accepted conventions. As a general rule, the first letter of an operation will be used for as a shortcut, if available. This does not necessarily lead to the best ergonomics for rapid editing—there are alternative binding sets for that—but it does make it simpler for newcomers to remember some of the most useful ones, for example:

S for Region > Edit > Split or P for Transport > Playhead > Playhead to Mouse.

Existing key bindings in menus are listed on the right side of the menu items.

Almost every key binding in Ardour can be looked for and/or changed in Window > Keyboard Shortcuts.

Ardour will warn you with a "Colliding Keybindings" message, if you try to reassign the binding of a key combination that is already in use. Nevertheless if you do so, consider, that this might lead to confusion when asking for help—when the explanation is given in terms of a standard key binding—which will have a completely different effect on the system with the modified key bindings.

The conventions for using modifier keys (, , , etc.) differ among platforms, so different default bindings for each are provided.