The best way to implement a 'tracker editor'

[Carlo Ascani <carlo ratm gmail com>]

hi all,
i am developing a simple tracker [1] in gtkmm.
i was wondering what's the best way to implement the 'note editor' part.
i was thinking to make a custom widget using pango for test rendering
and cairo to draw the rest, lines and colors.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracker_(music_software)

-- 
 ca