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. Open an example to see it in every other notation, or load it 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