Creating or composing a song with PianoStudio involves editing Note Buttons, Phrase Buttons, and Bank Buttons. These buttons define what your song will sound like, and how it will look on the iPhone. Note Buttons can play simple notes or massive chords. Phrase Buttons can have simple or complex sequences of notes and chords.

Using the Editor panels you can define both the musical attributes and visual appearance of each of the buttons in your Song. This chapter gives an overview of editing in PianoStudio. There are additional help chapters with the details on:

• Note Button Editing
• Phrase Button Editing
• Button Style Editing
• Bank Button Editing

Creating a Song

The basic steps to creating a Song are:

1. Create a New Song by selecting "New Song" from the Songs screen menu, and name it.
2. Use the Bank Editor to possibly change the initial button layout, and default button color if desired.
3. Select individual buttons and use the Note Button Editor to assign notes or chords to them.
4. If you want certain buttons to trigger short, preprogrammed phrases then use the Phrase Button Editor to build those.
5. As you configure each button, add text labels, distinctive colors, or pointers to other buttons with the Button Style Editor.
6. Finally you can rearrange your buttons, or hide unused buttons, to complete your Song layout.

When you select "New Song" from the Songs screen menu, a New Song Name screen appears with a keyboard and the proposed new song name, "New Song." Use the keyboard to change this to a more meaningful name. This screen includes a "Clear" button, and some special keys with musical and other useful characters. Don't fret about getting the name just right ... you can always change it later. Press "Done" when you've typed in the name, and you'll be shown the main screen again, this time with your new song's name in the Status Bar.

New Songs all look the same at first. They have a 6 by 3 array of dark gray Note Buttons on all five banks. To change any aspect of the song now requires using the editors.

Selecting "Editor" from the Main Menu brings up an editor. Which one slides into view? The one that is appropriate for the most recently selected button. If you touched a Bank Button right before selecting "Editor" then the Bank Button Editor panel slides into view from above. This editor lets you change all the features that are specific to a bank, and is covered in the Bank Buttons help chapter.

Moving and Hiding the Editor Panel

If you touched a Note Button before selecting the "Editor" menu item, then the Note Button Editor panel slides into view from below. Unlike the Bank Button Editor panel, the panels for editing notes, phrases, and button styles all share the same panel outline, and can be moved up and down on the screen. Once you're in edit mode, you can select another button for editing simply by tapping it, and the appropriate Editor panel for that button will be shown. For example, if you've been editing a Note Button, and then you select a Phrase Button, the Phrase Overview panel will replace the Note Button Editor panel.

When an Editor panel first appears, it is placed on the screen so that it doesn't cover the selected button. In its upper right corner is a special button called the "Grabber." The Grabber lets you move and hide/show the editor panel.

Press your finger on the Grabber and slide it up and down to move the panel. The panel can be positioned so that you can view or select any button on the screen.

There are times when you want to see all the buttons, but need quick access to the editor panel. To temporarily hide the editor panel, just tap the Grabber. The panel slides out of view leaving just the Grabber exposed. Tap the Grabber again and the editor panel slides back into view.

Moving Buttons

Buttons within a Bank can always be rearranged. To make it easy, first hide the editor panel by tapping the Grabber. To move a button just put your finger on the button you want to move and drag it to its new location. As you do this, other buttons will enlarge below it to show where the button would be placed. When you release the button at a new location, the button under it slides to the old location. In effect, you have moved a button by swapping its location with another.

Help and Button Actions

Each editor panel has a "Help" button in the lower right. Tapping this button brings up the relevant chapter on the built-in Help screen. The button to the left of "Help" is the "Actions" button. There are three possible actions that can be performed on Note and Phrase Buttons using this button:

1. Clear
2. Copy
3. Paste

When you tap the Actions Button, a menu pops up.

If you select "Clear" from the menu, an Alert will appear asking if you want to clear just the button's notes or phrase, or the entire button including its visual style. You can also "Cancel" this clear action.

If you select "Copy" from the pop-up menu, the currently selected button briefly flashes in white to let you know that it was copied.

The "Paste" button will be enabled only when a button has previously been selected and copied from the Actions menu. You can paste the contents of the clipboard to another button by first selecting it, and then choosing "Paste" from the Actions menu. You can paste into any button in the current bank, any button on another bank ... or even a button in another song!