Rhythm

Rest or silence

Use r to create rhythm with musical rest in the melodies. r can be combined with note length, meaning it will sleep the length of the r, for example:

# Play quarter note 1 (D) and then sleep half note and then play half note 2 (E)
@swim
def z(p=1, i=0):
    dur = ZD("superpiano","q 0 e3 qr e 2 4 r 1", i = i) # Returns length of the pattern in beats
    again(z, p=dur, i=i+1)

Dotted notes

. for dotted notes. First dot increases the duration of the basic note by half of its original value. Second dot half of the half, third dot half of the half of the half ... and so on. For example dots added to Whole note w will change the duration to 1.5, second dot w.. to 1.75, third dot to 1.875.

# Row row row your boat using dotted notes
@swim
def z(p=1, i=0):
    dur = ZD("superpiano","q. 0 0 | q0 e1 q.2 | q2 e1 q2 e3 | h.4 | e 7 7 7 4 4 4 2 2 2 0 0 0 | q4 e3 q2 e1 | h. 0 ", i = i) # Returns length of the pattern in beats
    again(z, p=dur, i=i+1)

Subdivision

Subdivision notation divides the previous note length to equal proportions and can be used to create complex patterns:

# Subdivided from 0.25 by default
Pa * zd('superpiano', '[4 2 4 2] [4 5 4 2] [3 1 3 1] [3 4 3 1] [4 2 4 2] [4 5 4 2] 4 [4 3 2 1] 0')
# Note length for the next subdivision can be defined using characters or decimals
Pa * zd('superpiano', 'w [1 2 3 4] 0.5 [1 2 3 4] q [1 2 3 4] w [1 2[3 4]] h [ 1 [ 2 [ 3 [ 4 ]]]]')

Triplets

Triplets can be defined using note characters or by list notation, for example:

# Triplets with note characters
Pa * zd('superpiano', 'q 2 6 a 1 3 2 q 5 1 a 4 3 2')

# Triplets with list notation
Pa * zd('superpiano', 'q 2 6 h [1 3 2] q 5 1 h [4 3 2]')

Ties

Ties can be created using multiple note length characters. Tied note lengths are summed up for the next degree, for example:

# q+e=0.375
Pa * zd('superpiano', 'q 0 qe2 3 4 qe 3 q 4')

List of all note length characters

Note that i, v (chords), r (rest) and b (flat) are exceptions to a rule that all lower letters are note lengths!