looking for some nooby help

[tist006]

im on a quest to make my own pop'n controller because the game looks amazingly fun to play and learn but i need a few questions answered. btw ive been browsing the forums for aboutwhile and couldnt find what i was looking for unfortunately.

what i need help with is
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-where to salder, how does that work? how do the buttons work, what is a microswitch doing? i have no electronics experience really and all this vocabulary confuses me, like ground, and microswitch. i can salder, and i can make the box obviously but the electronics part i have no clue on.