PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide, Second Edition

Music on the PalmPilot

You might think that the PalmPilot’s chirpy little speaker would nip this palmtop’s musical future in the bud. Actually, though, the music software for the PalmPilot excels at many musical tasks: serving as a tuning fork, metronome, ear-training instructor, or simple tape recorder for composers, for example. Here’s a rundown:

PalmPiano

Features an attractive four-octave piano keyboard and easy-to-use Record, Stop, and Play commands (see Figure 11.9). The good news: yes, you can actually record your own little melodies by tapping them out on the piano keyboard. The bad news: at this writing, the program remembers only the pitches you play, not the rhythms. You can record as slowly as you like, but everything plays back at a standard speed, without regard to the timings you used (every note gets the same rhythmic value). That’s no problem if you’re recording the fast part of “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” or “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” (there is a “rest” button to insert a silent beat), but “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” is out of the question. If the next version records note rhythms as well as pitches, PalmPiano will be a knockout program.

PocketSynth

A terrific little songwriter’s tool that lets you record and play back single-line melodies (see Figure 11.9). You specify the pitch by tapping piano keys and the rhythm by choosing from a row of note values (quarter note, half note, dot, etc.). The program uses its own textual notation for recording ...