A Piano in Your Phone - Nokia KeyPress Ringtones
By Philip Nicosia

Imagine your phone were a piano. You could create an original musical score, or somehow record the notes of a particular song into your phone memory and transform it into a message or call alert tone. Think of the possibilities. Think of the freedom you have to make, and play, any tune in the world.

That's the kind of flexibility you get from keypress ringtones also known, if you're a Nokia user, as a Composer ringtone. Basically, the phone converts each note into certain numbers and symbols, which you press into your keypad. It's completely free.

Most Nokia users don't maximize this function on their phone, possibly because they don't know how or are intimidated by the seemingly complicated process of writing a song. However, the process is simple the phone does all the processing for you, so all you have to do is type in the codes.

First, download the code sheet from a number of Internet websites that carry thousands of Nokia keypress ringtones, The selection is very wide as well. From Bach to Blackeyed Peas, nursery rhymes like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to rock staples like Metallica's Enter Sandman, there's bound to be one keypress ringtone for every personality and every mood.

So you've scoured the wide selection and found a song that you absolutely love. The second step is to encode the keypress ringtone into your Nokia phone. Don't panic: it's actually a very straightforward process.

You will be using Nokia's Composer function. Access the Menu, then scroll down to Tones. Within that, you'll find the Composer function. Press, and then select the option Create a New Ringing Tone.

Your phone will show the last tone that you had created. If you haven't done this before, you will see a blank screen. Now, enter the desired notes, copying them from the code you had just downloaded from the Internet. It'll be a series of numbers. For example, Because I Got High by Afroman has the code 588 5 5 5 59 58 599 588 5 5 4#9 399 08 5888 5 5 6 6 0 6 6 6 6 699 4#88 4# 4# 39 299 08 68 788. Each number represents a note, i.e. 5 corresponds to the note G.

The spaces represents the rests between the notes, and you input this by pressing 0. The default duration of each note is 1/4 but you can always shorten it (e.g., 1/16 or ½). If a number is enclosed by brackets, such as (5) it means to hold the note until a dot appears. Another way to adjust the duration of the note are the numbers 8 (which decrease the length of a note) and 9 (which lengthens the duration). So, the symbol 588 would mean that the note G should be much shorter.

To change the octave of a note, you can use the plus (+) or minus (-) signs. Type this after the note, such as e1. You can also add the sharp button or (#) to play half-step notes.

After typing in your Nokia keypress code, press ok and then Play. You can also adjust tempo, send the code you just inputted to another person, or clear the screen and delete everything on the screen.