From Idea to Song

Open the Learn tab and find a chord that interests you — something with character. Tap the lesson for that chord to see the fingering, then use the keyboard at the bottom of the screen to practice pressing all the notes together.

You don't need to master it before moving on. Knowing the shape is enough — you'll explore the sound in the next step.

Switch to Play mode and load the chord you just learned into the Quick Chords strip at the bottom of the screen. Tap and hold different chords to hear how they sit together, then start improvising a melody on the keys above.

There's no pressure here — Live Rewind is recording everything silently in the background. You can play for 2 minutes and go back to the very beginning if something good happened at the start.

When a phrase surprises you — or when you land on something that feels like a chorus — tap the Rewind button in the Play mode toolbar. A menu shows how much was captured, with options to play it back or save it.

Choose Save to Compose. Tiny Instrument converts the captured MIDI into a composition track, preserving the exact timing and notes you played.

Tip Set the capture window before you start playing, not after. A shorter window (Last 30s) isolates a single phrase; Last 2 minutes saves a full improvised arc.

The captured idea opens automatically in Compose. Rename it straight away so you can find it later.

To give your song structure, use the Arrangement Strip above the piano roll. Tap the [+] button to add a section block — give it a name like Verse, Chorus, or Bridge, set its length in bars, and assign it a chord progression. You can drag sections to reorder them and quickly visualise the full shape of the song from above the timeline.

Tip Work on one section at a time. Record a verse loop, add a section block, then record the chorus. The Arrangement Strip makes it easy to hear how each piece fits together before you commit to the full arrangement.

Coming in version 2.1.0 — Songbook lets you import a composition directly into a chord chart. Open Songbook and tap New Chart, then choose Import from Composition. Tiny Instrument reads the chord progressions from your arrangement sections and builds a chord chart with the section structure already in place.

From there, tap any line to add lyrics. Type or paste your words — the chord symbols above each line stay in sync as you edit. When you're done, you have a complete lead sheet: chords, structure, and lyrics together in one view.

Coming in version 2.1.0 — tap Practice on any chord chart in Songbook to send it straight to the drill engine. A scope picker lets you choose which sections to drill — the full song, just the chorus, or a specific verse — so you can work on the hardest parts without replaying sections you already know.

Adjust match strictness to decide how closely your timing and voicing need to match before the drill marks a chord correct. Work through your own song until it feels natural under your fingers.