representation / Symbolic

Piano roll

A 2-D pitch×time grid — the canonical symbolic ML tensor. Each cell marks whether a pitch sounds at a time step; the spatial layout of a score / note-sequence laid out on a grid. A representation, not a new structural object: it renders existing symbolic music for models and editors.

How it works

This object can carry concrete values or a musical interpretation, depending on its notation.

This describes or analyzes music; it may not directly specify playable notes.

Written forms

Ways to write this concept

Each notation describes the same underlying object. Load a playable example to hear one MIDI realization in the Code Sequencer.

matrix

Dense pitch×time grid: rows are pitches, columns are time steps, 1 = sounding

[[0,1,0],[1,0,0],[0,0,1]]

events

Sparse on/off events as pitch:start:duration (time-step units)

60:0:2,64:0:2,67:2:2

Choose Load beside a convertible example to open its live player. Some catalog formats describe analysis or a display label and have no note realization yet.

ScoreA polyphonic texture — several voices (temporalized lines / tracks) sounding at once over a shared timeline. The simultaneous counterpart of a note-set: where a note-set stacks single notes into a chord, a score stacks whole lines. Its `groupOf` is note-sequence. Collapse the voices at each instant and you get a chord progression (note-set-sequence) — the resulting chord qualities of the simultaneous notes; conversely, a chord progression can be voice-led into a score. Strip pitch and it becomes a point-score (key-independent counterpoint).Grid LayoutA 2D interval grid system design where vertical and horizontal movements represent specific semitone intervals. Used as the foundation for grid-based music interfaces.Note sequenceAn ordered line of notes and optional rests. Adding durations makes its rhythmic placement explicit.

How it works

Ways to write this concept

matrix

events

Concept connections