Piano Roll

Harmonic Guides

Klimper's piano roll provides you with visual guides on a note's stability in regard to your songs harmony, which are of tremendous help when writing and layering melodies.

For example, you could use

• the root notes as the central notes for your bassline
• arpeggiated root + basic chord notes to convey the core harmony
• a mix of mainly in-chord (with a focus on extensions) plus a few in-key passing notes for your lead melody

 

Zooming Horizontally

If your mouse has a scrollwheel, you can also hold [alt/option] + [shift] while scrolling. If you're using a trackpad, you might be able to use the pinch gesture as well (depending on your machines manufacturer).

You can zoom via keyboard shortcuts as well: press [ctrl] + [+]/[-] on Windows or [command] + [+]/[-] on macOS.

Zooming Vertically

If your mouse has a scrollwheel, you can also hold [alt/option] while scrolling. If you're using a trackpad, you might be able to use the pinch gesture while holding down [alt/option] as well, depending on your machines manufacturer.

You can zoom via keyboard shortcuts as well: press [alt] + [ctrl] + [+]/[-]on Windows or [option] + [command] + [+]/[-] on macOS.

Inserting / Removing Notes

• click to enter a new note 
• double-click to delete a single note
• press [DEL] to delete selected notes

Selecting Notes

• click on a note to select it
• click into empty space between notes to deselect
• hold [Shift] to select additional notes
• Rectangle-Select: Hold down left mouse button in empty space

Cut, Copy + Paste

You can cut, copy and paste notes by using the commonly known keyboard shortcuts ([ctrl / command] + [x / c / v]). Notes are pasted with their original pitch at the location of the mouse cursor (with snapping applied, if active), as indicated by the small vertical marker above the piano roll:

Moving

Make sure note placement editing is engaged:

Hold down the mouse button on a note and drag it to the desired location.

Quickly Duplicating Notes

Make sure note placement editing is engaged, as above. Hold down [alt/option] and drag the selected notes to the desired destination:

Duration

When placement editing is engaged (see above), you can drag the beginning or the end of any note to alter its duration.

Velocity

Make sure note velocity editing is engaged:

Hold down the left mouse button on a note and drag up to increase or down to decrease velocity. Whenever you lift your mouse button, you will hear a preview of the note at the current velocity.

Snapping

If enabled, snapping is applied to all note placement changes. You can change the snapping setting in the top bar:

Altering your Songs's Harmony from the Piano Roll

Sometimes it's helpful to alter the song's chords on the note-level - i.e. if you want to change a single interval or enter chords not present in the Chord Palette:

1. Select the notes that will form the new chord
2. Right-click the selected note that is to become the root note
3. In the context menu, go to "selected notes" and pick either the add or set option