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Chord Selector
When creating your song you can quickly assign complete chords to Note Buttons with the Chord Selector. PianoStudio knows about 27 different types of chords in each of 7 octaves in all 12 keys, most with three or four different voicings that you can choose. That's a library of thousands of chords you can call up. You can then easily modify these chords if you wish.
With the Chord Selector you can easily copy chords from sheet music or your own compositions. All chords listed can all be played by one hand on a real piano. (No more than 5 notes with a span of at most a 9th are used.) This section describes how to access and use the Chord Selector.
Chord Selection
To reach the Chord Selector screen, you must first have the Note Button Editor visible. Tap the note button you
want to assign a
chord to, which will highlight it with a yellow ring. Then tap the "Chord"
button on the Note Button Editor and the Chord Selector
screen will slide into place.
tap to zoom in & out
The Chord Selector screen has a Tool Bar at the top, and a display below it with six sections (the last column being divided vertically into two separate sections). Select chords by tapping one element from each section. When you first open the Chord Selector, the text box to the right of the "Help" button in the Tool Bar shows the selected button's labels in orange if it is already a standard chord that was selected earlier (and has not been altered). Otherwise the button's labels are shown in green.
The Chord Selector sections, from left to right, are:
- Root Note: the associated "white note" for the root of the chord, from "C" up to "B"
- Accidental: sharp, natural, or flat, which modifies the root note
- Octave: octave of the root note from "1" (low) to "7" (high)
- Chord Type: this section has 27 different chord types to choose from, ranging from simple triads (Major, minor) to more obscure creations (7♭9, m7♯5)
- No Root: tap the "-r" section (top of the last column) to toggle the chord's root on and off. (This lets you voice a chord using a separate root note in a lower octave with another note button.)
- Inversion: the inversion (order of the notes) of the chord (The fields in this section change depending on the number of notes in the chord, and the "No Root" state.)
As you tap selections in the different sections, they light up and are reflected in the chord labels shown in the box to the right of the "Help" button in the Tool Bar. Octaves are shown using superscript numbers after the base note and accidental. Inversions are shown using one to four quote marks.
Important Note: It is possible, through the use of various
Root Notes, Octave 7, and Inversions to specify chord notes that are above
the highest note on the piano keyboard! For example, a simple G Major chord,
"std" (no inversion), calls out a D
Viewing and Playing Chords
As you select elements of a chord from the different sections, the keyboard in the Tool Bar is updated to display the notes of the selected chord. This keyboard automatically shifts to show all the notes of the chord.
You can hear the chord by tapping on the keyboard. You can also hear the chord's notes played one at a time by holding your finger down on the keyboard and then sliding your finger to the side. Slide to the right to hear an ascending arpeggio using the chord's notes, and to the left to hear a descending arpeggio.
Tool Bar Buttons
The Tool Bar has three buttons: Cancel, Help, and Done.
Tapping the Help button brings up this page. You can also navigate to the rest of the built-in help pages from here.
Tapping the Cancel button slides the Chord Selector out of viewing, taking you back to the Note Button Editor, but without making any changes to the selected Note Button.
Tapping the Done button also closes the Chord Selector, but copies your chosen chord into the selected Note Button. It also automatically applies the chord's label to the button.
After you leave the Chord Selector, you can change what keys the note button plays using the Note Button Editor (or change it to a Phrase Button), and you can change its color, labels, and associated pointers using the Button Style Editor.