Clan Lord music notation

• Introduction
• Notes and Rests
• Octaves
• Note Durations
• Chords
• Tempo
• Volume
• Loops
• Loop Endings
• Long Chords
• Comments
• Whitespace

Introduction

Clan Lord tune format looks like this:

@120%5(c1c#1de}|1f|2g!a)4a.@60%ag3-b1+[%8ceg+c]\C

See below for descriptions of all the notation used in this example, and more.

Notes and Rests

• Clan Lord music always uses the key of C, meaning that any accidentals (sharps and flats) have to be written out.
• Notes use their letter names: c d e f g a b. Lower- and upper-case note names have different durations.
• Rests are given with the letter p. It has to be in lower case.
• Sharps and flats are written with a hash (pound) sign (#) or period (.) after the note name.

Octaves

• Every Clan Lord instrument except the orga drum can play the full chromatic scale (white and black piano keys) over three octaves.
• The orga drum can play only B and G, still in all three octaves.
• Some instruments can also play one more note, the C just above their upper octave, but only if you call it /b# instead.
• The default octave is the middle of each instrument's range. Call it octave 0. It can go one below that and one above, to -1 and +1.
• To set the octave to -1, use backslash (\). To set it to 0, use equals (=). To set it to +1, use forward slash (/).
• The octave can also be adjusted relative to the currrent octave. Plus and minus (+ and -) change the octave up and down by one, respectively. If you try to change it higher than +1, it will stay at +1. If you try to change it lower than -1, it will stay at -1. Relative changes can be useful in loops.

Note Durations

• The shortest note you can write in Clan Lord notation is a sixteenth note.
• Notes and rests written in lower case have a duration of 2, meaning two sixteenth notes or one eighth note.
• Notes written in upper case have a duration of 4, meaning one quarter note. Rests can't be in upper case.
• To get notes of a different duration, put the note length, in sixteenth notes, after the note name. Durations can be from 1 to 9. When a duration is included, upper- and lower-case don't matter. For example, C6 is six sixteenth notes long, or a dotted quarter note.

Chords

• Write all the notes in the chord inside square brackets, [ and ].
• One- or two-note "chords" are fine too.
• The durations of the notes inside a chord don't matter. The default duration of the whole chord is 4 (a quarter note). To make it a different length, add the duration, in sixteenth notes, after the closing bracket.
• The last volume in each chord decides how loud that chord is.
• Chords only play when melody notes play. A chord without a melody note after it won't make any noise. If you want a chord without melody, put rests in the melody portion. For example, [ce]g4 and [ceg]4p4 sound exactly the same.
• Chords can start or end at different times or have different volumes. For example, [%7cd]8p2[%e]6p6.
• Each pitch can be playing only once at a time in the chord line. If you start a chord note with the same pitch later on, the first one will be stopped, even if it would have gone on longer. For instance, in [ceg]8p2[ca]4p6, the C will only be played for a duration of 6 (2 in the first chord, before the second one starts, plus 4 in the second chord).
• Different instruments can play different numbers of notes at a time, including chord and melody notes. Some can't play chords at all.

Tempo

• Tempos must be between 60 bpm and 180 bpm.
• The default tempo is 120 bpm.
• To set the tempo to something else, use an at-sign (@) followed by the beats per minute. For example, @60. You can also put an equals sign between the @ and the number: @=60.
• A plain @ with no bpm number will set the tempo to 120 bpm.
• The sequences @+ and @- raise or lower the tempo by the number given afterward. For example, @-10 slows the tempo by 10 bpm. If it would go slower than 60 bpm or faster than 180 bpm, it will stay at those limits instead. Relative changes can be useful in loops.

Volume

• Volumes can go from 0 to 10, which represent 0% to 100% of the maximum possible volume.
• The default volume is 10.
• To set the volume to something else, use % followed by the new volume. For example, %7.
• A plain % with no number will set the volume to 10.
• The chord line and the melody line have separate volumes. Setting a volume in the melody line will apply it to all the melody notes, until another melody volume is set. The last volume in each chord sets the volume of that chord and all following chords, until another chord volume is set.
• Curly brackets ({ and }) lower or raise the volume by 1. If they are followed by a number from 1 to 9, they raise or lower the volume by that amount instead. For example, }2 raises the volume by 2. If it would go lower than 0 or higher than 10, it will stay at those limits instead. Relative changes can be useful in loops.
• Different instruments have different base volumes. On most, volumes softer than %5 are difficult to hear.

Loops

• Sections of music can be looped (for repeats) up to 6 levels deep.
• Surround the section to be looped with parentheses (( and )).
• After the closing parenthesis, put the number of times the music inside the loop should be repeated, from 1 to 9.
• When a repeat starts, it will continue with the volume and tempo it had at the end of the loop.

Loop Endings

• Up to 9 different endings can be specified for a loop, plus a default ending.
• Each time through the loop, the ending for that repeat number will be played.
• If a repeat number has no ending, the default ending will be played.
• If there's no default ending either, the loop will simply start again without playing an ending.
• To mark the start of a numbered ending, use a vertical bar (|) followed by the ending number, from 1 to 9, inside the closing parenthesis at the end of the loop. For example, (cde|1f|2g)2 will play cdefcdeg.
• To mark the start of the default ending, use an exclamation point (!).
• Endings can be listed in any order.

Long Chords

• On certain instruments, currently the bagpipe, conch, temple organ, and centaur organ, you can specify long chords that will continue playing throughout a section of music.
• Long "chords" can have as few as one note, or as many as the instrument can play at a time.
• To start a long chord, write a chord with a dollar sign after it like a duration. For example, [a]$.
• To add notes to the long chord later in the song, start them the same way.
• To stop a note in the long chord, write it in a chord with a dollar sign after it again. For example, [ce]$p8[c]$p8[e]$g8 will play C and E for a duration of 8, then stop the C but continue the E for a duration of 8, then stop the E as well (and begin playing a G in the melody line).

Comments

• Anything inside angle brackets (< and >) will be ignored. Comments can be nested (one comment inside another).

Whitespace

• Spaces, tabs, and line breaks will be ignored.

Read the mTooth User's Guide (also found in the mTooth Help menu)

Read 'Boo's guide to Clan Lord music notation

Maybe you also want to read Baraboo's Guide to Writing Songs that Don't Suck?