Accessibility

Ultimate Piper is built so that a piper who can't see the score can still read it, play it, edit it and practise with it. Every note, bar and embellishment can be reached with VoiceOver, and each one is read out the way a piper would say it: "Low A", "High G", "edre", "two four".

Reading a score

VoiceOver treats an open score as a single element. It tells you the tune, its size and how many annotations it has.

• Use the Zoom in and Zoom out actions to make the notes larger or smaller.
• Use the Read annotations action to hear every annotation on the tune read out in turn.

Playback

• Before playing, swipe up or down on the score to move the start point a bar at a time, such as "Start from bar 9 of 32". Playback then begins from there.
• While it plays, swipe up or down on the score to hear where it has reached, such as "Playing bar 12 of 32".
• As playback moves into a new part or a new tune in a set, VoiceOver tells you.
• In a practice loop, bars keep their numbers from the full tune, so bar 9 is still bar 9.
• Close a tune and it keeps playing in the small now-playing bar, which has Play, Pause and Stop buttons.

Annotations

In the standard score view, use the Create annotation button to switch the score into annotation mode. On the score, swipe up or down to step through the notes, and double-tap to mark the first note. Then do the same for the last note. Each annotation you've written gets its own Edit annotation and Delete annotation actions on the score, followed by its text.

Editing a tune

In the editor, every note is its own VoiceOver element. Each one tells you its bar, pitch, length and gracenote, for example "Bar 3, E crotchet, doubling". Double-tap a note to select it, and swipe up or down on a note to reach its actions:

• Raise pitch and Lower pitch
• Longer note and Shorter note
• Choose embellishment, which opens the embellishment wheel. Swipe up or down there to step through the movements.
• Toggle high G gracenote
• Bar actions
• Delete note

Each change is read back to you as it happens.

Moving around the tune

Use the Bars and Staves rotors to jump through the tune. Each bar has a stop on its barline that tells you its number, its staff and how many notes it holds. Double-tap it to open that bar's menu, where every item says which bar it acts on, such as "Copy bar 3" or "Delete staff 1".

Ranges, voltas and triplets

While you're selecting a range, marking the notes under a volta, building a triplet or pasting, double-tapping a note does that job instead of selecting it:

• For a range or a volta, double-tap the first note, then the last.
• For a triplet, double-tap each note in turn.
• To paste, double-tap the note where the paste should go.

VoiceOver confirms each step.

Tuner and metronome

• On iPhone, iPad and Mac, with VoiceOver on, the tuner reads out what it hears every couple of seconds. You hear the chanter note and how many cents sharp or flat it is, such as "Low A, 8 cents flat". With only the drones going, it reads each drone in turn: bass, middle tenor and outside tenor.
• On iPhone, you also feel a tap when a chanter note comes into tune.
• On Apple Watch, the chanter and drone readings are live. Move VoiceOver to one and it reads the reading out as it changes.
• Tempo and time signature are spoken in full, such as "90 beats per minute" and "six eight".

A full set of pipes is loud. You may need earphones to hear VoiceOver over them.

Practice

• Session progress is read as a count, such as "Tunes practised, 3 of 8 completed", rather than a percentage.
• Each tune's tick says whether it's done, and double-tapping it again undoes it.
• Each practice session in your history is read as one summary: the date, how long it lasted, how many tunes you completed and their names. Days when you practised outside a session are summarised the same way.
• The Weekly Focus card has actions to change or clear the focus.

Tell us what's missing

If something doesn't read well, can't be reached, or you'd like it done differently, please email support@ultimatepiper.com. Reports from pipers who use VoiceOver every day are the most valuable feedback we get, and we read every one.