Phrase Buttons let you create, perform, and record short sequences of notes up to four bars long. These can be simple melodies, or complex combinations of arpeggios, chords, and runs. To edit a phrase, first select a Phrase Button by tapping it. Then go into Edit mode by select "Editor" from the Main Menu. The editing panel will appear, displaying the Phrase Overview for the selected phrase.

You can press the Phrase Button at any time while editing to hear the phrase play. While you do so, a white "now" line will move across the phrase overview.

The Phrase Overview panel has these elements:

Phrase Overview

A large view of the phrase, with notes shown as green bars, is shown in the overview. It is scaled so that all beats and all notes are visible.

Grabber

This control, in the upper right of the editing panel, lets you move and hide the panel. It is described fully in the Editing help chapter.

Button Style

To adjust the appearance of the Phrase Button, tap the Button Style button in the lower left of the panel. This will fade in the Button Style Editor panel.

Note/Phrase Selection

Buttons can either be Note or Phrase Buttons. This pair of controls lets you change between the two types of buttons. A button set to Phrase mode is shown here.

The other buttons on the lower row of this panel, Actions and Help, are described in the Editing help chapter. The Scroll Strip and the Chord button are disabled since they only apply to Note Buttons.

Phrase Editor

The Phrase Overview panel lets you see and hear the button's phrase, but to edit the phrase you must enter Phrase Editor. Simply tap the Phrase Overview to slide the Phrase Editor into view.

Phrase Editor Buttons

In addition to the Phrase Editor menu described below, the top area of the Phrase Editor contains these buttons:

Cancel

Closes the Phrase Editor and returns to Edit mode, without changing the phrase.

Play

Plays the phrase so you can listen to it as you're editing.

Done

Closes the Phrase Editor and returns to Edit mode, saving any changes you've made to the phrase.

Help

Selecting this menu item brings you to this help chapter.

Adding and Selecting Notes

The Phrase Editor is perhaps the most powerful feature of PianoStudio, but it is also very fast and easy to use. To add a note to a phrase, just put your finger down where you want it to be. A note will play and the new note on the screen will be shown with orange "crosshairs" so you can see which note it is and where it is on the timeline even with your finger still on it!

If you "missed" and the new note is the wrong note or at the wrong time, just slide your finger up or down to the correct pitch, or left or right to the correst time. You can also select an existing note by puting your finger on it, and then moving it to adjust pitch or timing.

The left side of the Phase Editor shows an octave of the piano keyboard. You can touch and scroll (and flick) that keyboard to get at higher and lower notes. Along the bottom edge, beats are marked with their "bar:beat" notation. If your phrase has more than four beats then you can drag and flick this timeline to get at earlier and later parts of the phrase.

Adjusting Note Volume and Length

You can adjust the volume and length of any note. You first touch the note with one finger. Then put another finger down on the main screen area, to the left or right of the first finger. Move this second finger up or down to adjust volume, and left or right to adjust the length of a note. The length of a note is quantized based on the "Beat Subdivision" setting on the Phrase Settings screen. You can also set the Beat Subdivision of a phrase to "None" to obtain completely continuous control of note beginnings and lengths. These subdivisions are shown as thin blue lines on the Phrase Editor, and notes snap to these locations.

When you are touching a note, its volume is displayed in the top middle of the screen. By default this volume is shown in percent, from 1 to 100, but if you prefer you can change it to display MIDI volume values instead. Go to the Global tab of the Settings screen to adjust the "Volume Display Format." The volume of each event in the phrase is also shown numerically at the left end of the note in the Phrase Editor.

One handy shortcut is that new notes are created with the same volume and length of the most recently selected or added note, so once you create one quiet short note you can quickly make more this way.

Deleting Notes

You may have noticed that the most recently touched note remains highlighted with a bright green outline. That selected note (or any note your are currently touching) can be deleted by tapping the "X" icon in the lower left.

Phrase Editor Menu

If you press the Menu Button in the upper left, the Phrase Editor Menu slides in from the right side. This menu includes:

Zoom Out

Select this to see the entire phrase. There is a section describing this below.

Settings

This takes you to the Phrase Settings screen, not the Song Settings. Go to the Phrase Settings help chapter to learn about all the options available for every phrase.

Clear

Select this to remove all the notes from the current phrase. You will be shown an Alert asking you to confirm this action.

Help

Selecting this menu item brings you to this help chapter.

Zooming Out

When you select "Zoom Out" from the Phrase Editor Menu, the phrase is completely zoomed out so that you can see all 88 piano keys (on the left) and every beat of every bar in the phrase. The area of this display that you zoomed out from is highlighted.

You leave the zoomed out state by either opening the Phrase Editor Menu and selecting "Zoom In," or by putting your finger down on the screen, dragging the selection box to the area you want to see, and releasing. The screen will then zoom in and you can edit phrase notes in the area you selected.