The velocity and tempo are controlled by simply entering standard musical symbols onto the score. Metronome marks, dynamic marks such as p for piano, or soft and f for forte, or loud. These parameters must always be in transition, that is, the tempo and dynamics are always changing. It's within these changing parameters where the fundamental principles which make MUSIC lie. A few basic performance gestures make a huge difference in how musical the sequence sounds. Listen to it with dynamics entered. Now listen to it with rubatos or tempo changes added. Hear it start to come to life? Ok, now the possibilities with this program have been exhausted. All the notes in the chords are being struck at exactly the same time and at the same velocity. This is NOT realistic, musically.

So then, through a midi connection I record the sequence from Music Printer onto a conventional sequencer called Performer on another computer. With this application, it is possible to use many more sophisticated editing functions. When human hands strike a chord all the notes in the chord are struck with widely varying degrees of velocity, and each note begins and ends at a slightly different time. So a great deal of chord voicing and note placement and duration editing has to be done. For example: A big loud chord with 8 or more notes is going to contain a wide variety of velocity values that could range from 105 to 50 or even less. A lot of choices are just left to my imagination and to trial and error. In general, the top note of a chord is the loudest, the middle voices more subdued and the bass notes louder but not usually as loud as the upper notes. An accomplished pianist has full understanding of these chord voicing principles. The next principle that a good pianist is aware of is chord PLACEMENT. Since the top note should predominate, it usually starts first, sometimes as much as 400 or 500 milliseconds, and ends last. Show pianoroll view: See how the lines representing the notes are widely scattered in placement and duration. Also notice the overlapping notes, especially in the melody line. How much overlap is usually based on the harmonic relationship between the two notes involved. In general, the wider the interval the more I like to overlap. I have studied all of these patterns and shapes in many live recorded sequences by many different pianists even Rachmaninoff! and try to imitate typical kinds of patterns I see in these piano roll views. The pedaling is a tricky thing using continuous data. The damper pedal is usually released and reset just after each chord change. Maximising the resonance, yet maintaining harmonic sensitivity is the main goal. Let us proceed now with the Beethoven- Appassionata, Debussy- Claire de Lune.