Musicpy Quickstart and Cheat Sheet

This is a chapter for a quickstart and cheat sheet for musicpy, in case you find the documentation are too long and complicated to read and hard to find what you want.

Cheat Sheet

(in case you import musicpy as from musicpy import *)

Note1: the chord type of muscipy has a interval attribute which is the list of the length of bars between the starts of each 2 adjacent notes of the chord, please don't confuse this with the music theory's interval which is a difference in pitch between 2 notes (e.g. major third, semitone). In the cheat sheet we'll use music intervals to denote the music theory's interval.

Note2: the default indexing is 0-based for all functions unless 1-based is mentioned.

functionality	syntax (recommended)	alternatives
construct a note C5	N('C5')	N('c5'); note('C', 5)
construct a chord Cmaj7	C('Cmaj7')	get_chord('C', 'maj7')
construct a chord Cmaj7 with starting note C5	C('C5:maj7')	C('Cmaj7', pitch=5); get_chord('C', 'maj7', pitch=5)
construct a chord with notes C5, E5, G6	chord('C5, E5, G6')	chord('c5, e5, g6'); chord(['C5', 'E5', 'G6']); chord(['c5', 'e5', 'g6']); chord([N('C5'), N('E5'), N('G6')])
construct a C major scale	S('C major')	scale('C', 'major')
construct a piece	build(track(content=C('C'), instrument=1, start_time=0), track(content=C('D'), instrument=47, start_time=1), bpm=150)	P(tracks=[C('C'), C('D')], instruments=[1, 47], start_times=[0, 1], bpm=150)
construct a track	track(content=C('C'), instrument=1, start_time=0)
construct a set of drum beats	drum('K, H, H, K, S, H, H, H, t:1')
transpose a chord/note A up/down n semitones	A + n; A - n	A.up(n); A.down(n)
raise/lower ith note of chord A n semitones	A + (n, i); A - (n, i)	A.up(n, i); A.down(n, i)
raise/lower ith to jth notes of chord A n semitones	A + (n, i, j); A - (n, i, j)	A.up(n, i, j); A.down(n, i, j)
concatenate chord A and chord B	A | B	A + B
concatenate chord B after chord A with n bars interval	A | (B, n)	A + (B, n)
add rest of n bars to chord A	A | n	A.rest(n)
concatenate chord A n times with interval i bars each time	A | (n, i)	A * (n, i)
stack chord A and B	A & B
stack chord B n bars after chord A	A & (B, n)
stack chord A n times	A & n
stack chord A n times with interval i bars each time	A & (n, i)
repeat chord A n times	A * n
get ith note of chord A	A[i]
get ith to jth notes of chord A	A[i:j]
set ith note of chord A to j	A[i] = j
get the number of notes of chord A	len(A)
get the reverse of chord A	~A	A.reverse()
transpose chord/note A up 1 semitone	+A	A.up()
transpose chord/note A down 1 semitone	-A	A.down()
set duration, interval and volume of chord A and return a new chord A	A % (duration, interval, volume)	A.set(duration, interval, volume)
get the nth inversion of chord A	A / n	A.inversion(n)
invert the nth note of chord A to the highest	A ^ n	A / -n; A.inversion_highest(n)
invert the nth note of chord A to the lowest	A @ n	A.inv(n)
form a new chord from the notes of chord A by index (1-based)	A @ [1, 2, 3, 2, 1.1, 2, 3, 2]
form a new chord from the notes of chord A by index (1-based), increased octaves	A / [1, 2, 4, 3]
modulate chord A from scale i to scale j	A.modulation(i, j)
delete ith note of chord A	del A[i]
append note i to chord A with interval j and return a new chord A	A + i
append note i to chord A with interval j	A.append(i, j)
remove note i from chord A and return a new chord A	A - i
remove note i from chord A	A.remove(i)
pop ith note from chord A	A.pop(i)
insert note j at index i with interval k to chord A	A.insert(i, j, interval=k)
drop n voicing of chord A	A.drops(n)
negative harmony of chord A at scale B	A @ B	A.negative_harmony(B)
get chord A from ith bars to jth bars (0-based)	A.cut(i, j)
get a new chord based on changing chord A's notes	A('omit 3, b9')
get the total length in bars of chord A	A.bars()
get durations of notes of chord A	A.get_duration()
get intervals of notes of chord A	A.interval
set duration, volume and channel of note A	A % (duration, volume, channel)	A.set(duration, volume, channel)
change the accidentals of note A (# to b, b to #) and return a new note	~A
get dotted note of note A with n dots	A.dotted(n)
get duration of note A	A.duration
raise/lower scale A n semitones	A + n; A - n	A.up(n); A.down(n)
raise/lower ith note of scale A n semitones	A + (n, i); A - (n, i)	A.up(n, i); A.down(n, i)
raise/lower ith to jth notes of scale A n semitones	A + (n, i, j); A - (n, i, j)	A.up(n, i, j); A.down(n, i, j)
raise/lower scale A 1 semitone	+A; -A	A.up(); A.down()
get ith degree of scale A	A[i]
get ith degree of scale A (1-based)	A.get_degree(i)
get ith triad of scale A	A(i)	A.pick_chord_by_degree(i)
get ith 7th chord of scale A	A(i, num=4)	A.pick_chord_by_degree(i, num=4)
get ith mode of scale A (1-based)	A / i	A.inversion(i)
get chord with notes from scale A by index	A @ [0, 2, 4]	A.pick_chord_by_index([0, 2, 4])
get the reversed scale of scale A	~A	A.reverse()
get a chord progression with degrees of scale A (1-based)	A % 6451	A.pattern(6451)
get ith track of piece A	A[i]
get chord type of ith track of piece A	A(i)	A.tracks[i]
raise/lower piece A n semitones	A + n; A - n
raise/lower ith track of piece A n semitones	A[i] += n; A[i] -= n
repeat piece A n times	A * n
concatenate piece A and piece B	A + B	A | B
stack piece A and piece B	A & B
delete ith track of piece A	del A[i]
get the reverse of piece A	~A	A.reverse()
get the number of tracks of piece A	len(A)
append a new track n to piece A	A.append(n)
insert a new track n at index i to piece A	A.insert(i, n)
get the total length in bars of piece A	A.bars()
read a MIDI file into piece type	read(path)
write a note/chord/piece/track/drum type A to a MIDI file	write(A)
play a note/chord/piece/track/drum type A at bpm 100	play(A, bpm=100)
stop playing	stopall()
concatenate a list of chords [A, B, C]	concat([A, B, C])
concatenate a list of chords [A, B, C] with extra interval i	concat([A, B, C], extra=i)
stack a list of chords [A, B, C]	concat([A, B, C], mode='&')
stack a list of chords [A, B, C] with extra interval i	concat([A, B, C], mode='&', extra=i)
get note from MIDI degree i	degree_to_note(i)
get the degree (MIDI note number) of note A	A.degree
get the note name of note A	A.name
get the octave number of note A	A.num
get the music intervals of chord A	A.intervalof()
construct a tempo change instance with bpm 150 and start time at 0	tempo(150, start_time=0)
construct a pitch_bend instance with value of 100 cents and start time at 0	pitch_bend(100, start_time=0)
construct a pan instance with value of 100% and start time at 0	pan(100, start_time=0)
construct a volume instance with value of 100% and start time at 0	volume(100, start_time=0)
construct a rhythm instance	rhythm('b b 0 0 b 0 b 0', 1)
generate chords from rhythm	get_chords_from_rhythm(C('C'), rhythm('b b 0 0 b 0 b 0', 1))
generate arpeggios of a chord between 2 octaves	arp(C('Cmaj7'), 3, 7)