User Guide for IOS

Overview

With What’s My Note?, you use a smartphone or tablet, instead of a piano, to learn your notes. Photograph a page of the score, or import the score from a PDF or image file. Then press individual notes in the photo to hear them played.

You control which notes are played, and how fast, as if notes were played on a piano. Phrases are played by sliding a finger from the start of the phrase to the end. Intervals can be repeated by sliding back and forth between two adjacent notes.

What’s My Note? reads published choral music – the kind used by high school choruses, church choirs, barbershops and musical theater. For more information, see the Document Requirements page.

Navigation Icons

Tap the lightbulb icon to view the Quick Start Guide:

Quick Start Guide for the Music View

Quick Start Guide for the Camera view

Photograph Music

Take the photo in bright, even light.
Use a clean unmarked original copy of the music.
Lay the page flush on a flat surface.
Include the full staff width in every photo.
Align the music to the green guidelines.
Hold the camera still until you hear the shutter click.
It may help to use both hands and rest your elbows on the table.
If the full page won’t scan, try rotating to capture a half page.

It may take several tries to obtain a good picture, even when all of these conditions are met. Please be patient. With practice, you will learn how to obtain pictures on the first try. Reading music is difficult, even for computers. Your phone needs all the help it can get!

Your page might not readable. For more information, see the Document Requirements page.

Multiple Page mode

By default, the camera disappears after taking a photograph, so you can play the new music. To change this setting, tap the icon:

Photograph one page

Photograph multiple pages

Import Files

What’s My Note? will accept imports of PDF documents or image files (JPEG or PNG). Photographs must be high-resolution, and created under bright light. PDFs work best when prepared by a publisher or using music publishing software. PDFs received as faxes, or scanned from a low resolution scanner may not be readable.

To import a photo of music from the Photos app

- Open What’s My Note?
- Press and hold the camera icon in the upper right corner of the view.
- Choose the photo you wish to import.

To import a file from browser, email, or any other app on your device

Play Music

To hear a note, press and hold it.
To hear an interval, drag between the notes.
To hear a melody, drag across the notes from left to right.
To zoom to a particular position on the page, double-tap at that position. Double-tap again to return to the full page view.
To move between pages, scroll up or down.

Manage Music

To change the name or page number of a single page, tap the title above the Music View.

Tap the Directory Icon to view the list of all music you have entered into What’s My Note? You can view a list of pages or a list of scores. (A score is a collection of pages having the same name.) Tap an entry to view the corresponding music.

To edit the Directory, tap Edit. The following actions are available:

To rearrange entries, drag the thumb to the right of the entry up or down.
To rename entries, select them, then tap Rename.
To renumber pages, select them, then tap Renumber.
To delete entries, select them, then tap Delete.

Settings

Settings are reached by tapping the wrench icon on the Music View. There are seven settings:

Tint

Select a background color for your music:

Clear

Light (default)

Dark.

Tone

Select the sound you wish to hear:

Melodica (default)

Piano

Organ

Chorus

Recorder

Trumpet

Drums

Record/Playback

This feature allows you to record a passage, and then play it back with a single tap.

Do not show the record button

Show the record button (default)

Track

Do not show the tracker

Show the tracker (default)

Name

Do not show note names.

Show note names – English system (A-B-C)

Show note names – French system (la-si-do)

Show note names – German system (A-H-C)

Octave

Octave issues arise because vocal music is often sung an octave higher or lower than written. This may be indicated by an 8 above or below the clef. But often, it is not explicitly noted.

Play as written (default).

Play treble clef an octave lower than written. Select this option if you are a tenor or bass.

Play bass clef an octave higher than written.
Select this option if you sing bass in a women’s barbershop quartet.

Default clef

When the music does not contain clefs, a default clef can be specified.

Use treble clef when no clef is found (default).

Use bass clef when no clef is found.

Share Your Music

You can share your music photos among your own IOS devices. For example, you might photograph music from your iPhone, then play it on your iPad. (In such an arrangement, the iPad would not be required to have a high-resolution camera.) To enable sharing in IOS, tap the sync icon on the Music View, then turn on Activate Sync Music.

You cannot export music from What’s My Note? to others’ devices because to do so could be a violation of copyright.