miniMusic NotePad Demo
miniScore - Version 0.6
10/15/00

This demo version of miniMusic NotePad will let you write a melody in standard music 
notation on your Palm Computing connected organizer.  It should function on any 
handheld running version 2.0 and higher of the Palm OS.  Many features of the 
miniMusic NotePad application are not available in this demo, including: the ability to 
save multiple songs, 4-voice writing (chords and counterpoint), triplets, and more.  
There are three demos available for NotePad: miniScore, miniPiano, and miniGrid.  
The full application allows you to work in all three views.

Please visit our website to get the full NotePad application:
http://www.5thwall.com/minimusic

**USING MINISCORE WITH MIDI**
All miniMusic software is designed to use the built-in speaker on your handheld computer, or an attached electronic musical instrument.  This 0.6 version of the demo has been improved to work with the new Palm MIDI modules from Swivel Systems (www.SwivelSystems.com) and Shinei (www.tsunamidi.com/tsunamidi.htm).  You can also connect to many other MIDI compatable devices using your HotSync cable or our Palm-to-MIDI interface.

To use MIDI, chaeck the "MIDI" checkbox in the preferences screen (choose "Preferences" from the "Options" menu or tap on the tempo marking).

For more information about MIDI, see our "MIDI page" at
http://www.5thwall.com/minimusic/midi.html

**MAIN FEATURES**
The screen is divided into three areas: a toolbar across the top, the staff in the 
middle, and a control bar across the bottom.

The top toolbar contains note durations that can be selected.  When you tap on the 
staff, a note of the selected duration will be drawn to the score (sorted automatically 
based on placement and durations of other existing notes).  If the score is tapped 
between existing notes, the material to the right will be pushed over to make room 
for the new note.  Notes pushed beyond the end of the measure will be moved to the 
next measure.  Notes placed at the very end of a full measure will be placed in the 
next measure, and that measure will be drawn on screen.

To the right of the note tools, is a rest selector (it looks like a little squiggle, but this 
is what a 'quarter rest' looks like).  When it is selected, a tap on the staff will add a 
rest of the current duration instead of a note.  For example, if the eighth note tool is 
selected and the rest tool is also selected, tapping on the staff will add an eighth rest 
(a rest with the same duration as an eighth note).

The most recent note placed is 'selected', which is evident by a pointer at the top of 
the score area (just beneath the top tool bar).  Using the arrow tool at the far right 
of the top tool-bar, any note can be tapped to select it.  If you continue to hold the 
pen down after selecting a note, you can drag it to the right and select a range of 
notes (an 'open' pointer will mark the end of the selection.  The selected note(s) can 
be changed using the edit menu, up/down hardware buttons, and Graffiti commands.

In the top left of the staff area is a tempo marking.  It says that the 120 quarter 
notes are being played every minute.  Tapping on this (or choosing the 'Preferences' 
item in the Options menu) will bring up a window to change the tempo, key signature, 
and other preferences.  A higher tempo number will play the song faster, a lower 
number will play slower.  If "play on entry" is checked, you hear notes as you place 
them on the staff.  If "MIDI" is checked, all notes will be played to the serial port in 
standard MIDI format instead of to the speaker; if your Palm device is connected to 
a MIDI instrument, the song will be played by that instrument!

To the right of the 'Play' button is the measure control.  The number is the current 
measure being viewed, and the arrows allow you to move forward or backward 
through the song.  To the right of this, are a number of icons which are not 
implimented in the demo.  In the full application these icons will allow you to jump 
between the different views.

**MENUS**
Tapping the 'silkscreened' Menu button will bring up three menus:

The Options menu will provide you with information about the program, basic 
instructions and how to contact us.  Also 'Preferences' brings up the preferences 
window as described above.  'Delete Song' will erase the song from memory and give 
you a new blank staff to work with.

The Edit menu lets you Cut or Copy the current selection to a clipboard, Paste the 
clipboard (will be pasted immediately following selected note), and Select the entire 
song for easy transposing.  Also in the Edit menu is the Invert command which flips 
the selected material upside down, and the Retrograde command which flips the 
selection backwards.

The Play menu gives you three options: Play the entire song (same as tapping the 
Play button), Play just the selected notes, or Loop the selected notes, replaying 
the selection over and over until you tap somewhere on the screen to stop it.

Since no text is currently used (future versions will allow you to attach lyrics to 
a song) characters written in the graffiti area have the following effects:

Additional Graffiti commands:
a through g - will add a note of that pitch (in the current key) immediately after 
selection.
(space) - increase the duration of selected note by a sixteenth.
(backspace) - decrease the duration of selected note by a sixteenth.
(next field) - shift selected note down one half-step.
(previous field) - shift selected note up one half-step.
x - clear selection.
p - play song.
s - play selection.
l - loop selection.
! - shift selection up an octave.
' - shift selection down an octave.

Other menu commands can be performed in the usual way, using the '/' command 
stroke.

Hardware buttons:
page up - shift selected note up one half-step.
page down - shift selected note down one half-step.

Please visit our website or contact us about purchasing the miniMusic NotePad 
application or other free demos.

www.5thwall.com/minimusic

miniMusic
P.O.Box 210761
San Francisco, CA 94121-0761
e-mail: support@5thwall.com