# Eight notes. Your first arrangement.

Play a short original piano phrase, rebuild it as editable notes, change its ending and save both a finished WAV and an editable Resonant arrangement.

Canonical page: https://resonant-appsoverflow.web.app/learn/first-piano-arrangement/
By AppsOverFlow
Guide updated: 2026-10-12

Make a small musical idea you can actually finish. You will play a two-bar piano phrase, hear how a different ending changes it, and save a version whose notes can still be edited tomorrow.

## Play it once before editing it

Open Piano and choose Classic for a simple keyboard, or choose Play in the 3D view. Tap a key once to let the browser start audio. This exercise uses the white keys C4, D4, E4, F4 and G4. The number is the octave, so C4 and C5 are different notes.

Play C4, E4, G4, E4, then D4, F4, G4, C4. Give each note one steady beat and count “one, two, three, four” twice. There is no need to play quickly. The first bar climbs and comes back; the second ends on the same note where you began.

Press Record above the instrument, play the phrase, then press Stop. Open Recordings and listen. Keep the notes separate enough to hear their starts. If the last C feels rushed, try another take with a little more space before it.

**Listen, then check:** A recorded take is audio. Resonant does not automatically turn it into editable notes. The next step rebuilds this short phrase in the note composer so you can change individual notes.

## Build the same idea on the grid

Open Tune editor and expand Compose instrument notes. If a previous phrase is open, download or update it before choosing New phrase. Choose Piano, set BPM to 120, Bars to 2 and View octave to 4. Name the phrase “First light”. Each grid step is a sixteenth note; four steps make one beat. At this tempo, the eight-beat exercise occupies four seconds.

Tap the cell where each note starts. A new note has a length of 1 step. When it is selected, use Start step and Length (steps) to enter the exact values below. All eight notes need a length of 4. Start step counts from 1 through 32 across both bars. Tap outside a number field to apply the change. The grid scrolls sideways if the second bar is offscreen.

|Bar and beat|Note|Start step|Length|
|---|---|---|---|
|1.1|C4|1|4 steps|
|1.2|E4|5|4 steps|
|1.3|G4|9|4 steps|
|1.4|E4|13|4 steps|
|2.1|D4|17|4 steps|
|2.2|F4|21|4 steps|
|2.3|G4|25|4 steps|
|2.4|C4|29|4 steps|

**Listen, then check:** With a keyboard, move around the note grid using the arrow keys and press Enter to place a note. The selected note controls provide exact editing without dragging small cells.

## Hear what one changed note does

Choose Add editable note clip, then Play mix. You should hear eight evenly spaced notes. If they sound like short stabs with gaps between them, check that each Length is 4 rather than its default of 1.

Pause playback and select the note clip in the timeline. Open Edit instrument notes, select the final C4 and change Pitch to E4. Choose Update clip, return the playhead to the start and listen again. This ending leaves a different impression without changing the rhythm. Use the timeline’s Undo button to restore the previous sound and notes if you prefer the original.

Try lowering Velocity on the second and fourth notes while leaving the others unchanged. Listen for lighter attacks between stronger ones. The piano uses recorded soft, medium and strong strike layers, so velocity affects the character of the attack as well as its level.

## Save a listening copy and a working copy

Use Export WAV for a finished audio file you can play elsewhere. Use Download editable for the arrangement, including its source audio, note data and clip settings. These two downloads serve different purposes. Reimporting the WAV gives you one audio clip, not the original editable notes.

To continue later, choose Open arrangement and select the editable file. The confirmation explains whether it will replace an arrangement already open. Keep a copy of your current work before accepting a replacement.

You can add a recorded take through Use saved takes, trim its silence and place it after your composed phrase for a comparison. Tune Editor supports eight tracks and 128 clips within a ten-minute mix. For this first exercise, one or two clips are enough to hear every change clearly.

[Open the piano](https://resonant-appsoverflow.web.app/instruments/piano/)

## A few useful answers

### Can I change individual notes in a recorded piano take?

A recorded take contains audio, not editable note events. Create a phrase with Compose instrument notes to edit its pitches and timing later. You can still trim, split, fade and adjust the volume of a recorded take.

### Why does changing Tune Editor BPM not speed up my clip?

The timeline BPM changes the editing grid. For an editable note clip, open Edit instrument notes, choose Use timeline tempo and then Update clip to render the notes at that tempo. Imported audio keeps its existing timing.

## Learning guides

- [Eight notes. Your first arrangement.](https://resonant-appsoverflow.web.app/learn/first-piano-arrangement/)
- [Keep the mix you heard.](https://resonant-appsoverflow.web.app/learn/dj-recording-vs-deck-audio/)
- [Your voice, in the right place.](https://resonant-appsoverflow.web.app/learn/record-karaoke/)
- [Keep the idea. Fix the interruption.](https://resonant-appsoverflow.web.app/learn/audio-and-backup-help/)

[Learning hub](https://resonant-appsoverflow.web.app/learn/)
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