🎶 WinterWyvern

I am LifeisReal, played Maplestory 1 many years ago, quit at lv180, and started Maplestory 2 late 2018, but stopped after reaching max level, since I didn't want to grind for end game gear, since I could have fun doing things with friends elsewhere. Anyway, I have taught myself MLE and have been making a few songs already, so I'm happy to help or join others in East NA server for ensembles. In real life, I have played Piano on and off, so I can't say I'm a pro at it, but I know enough to play a few songs that I enjoy. As for now, I'm just checking up on this community to see what others are up to and maybe make friends. Cheers! o/

Has anyone tried this app out on their phone before? Like Mabinogi itself, theres a lot of dodgey stuff DevCat needs to fix and improve. I play that game cuz i like hoarding (cards) as i do items in Mabinogi itself. Thoughts on the game?

The Guide


 
Nothing too much to ask, just start taking piano lessons and you are well on your way to writing mmls


 
Will continue updating or fixing stuff up if people spot mistakes etc.(my music theory is a little hazy)


 
Jokes aside this is just my style of writing 3ML by looking at a music sheet; it most likely is different from most mml writers in the community. In my opinion, this method of writing is easy to understand when you read it and help find those mistakes easily, I’m not the most proficient with 3ML so there are probably shortcuts that could have been done that I have not done. At the end of the day when you’re done writing the mml, you can optimize it so it hopefully can be composed in mabi so the shortcuts are done there. This guide hopefully will show you how read music sheets and compose in mml form on the program 3ML. Can be used for music sheets for piano and any music piece that has a treble clef in it. That means instruments like viola which has a clef of its own (alto clef) is not covered here.

 
Getting started


 
First read the 3ML (basics section to learn the basic stuff of the music writing program 3ML. Then you can move on to music theory that will hopefully allow you to read music sheets to convert into mml format using 3ML.


 
I recommend remembering the keys of a piano, as it helps visualize what the notes are and how to go about writing it. If you can try memorizing that it will be really helpful when writing mmls.


 
Here’s a link of a piano octave and try memorizing it:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

or just type in google images ‘one piano octave’ This can helpful as it helps you visualize the notes on the music sheet. The ‘♭’ in this picture are hard to see and kind of looks like a comma, so be vary it’s a flat!.


 
3ML(basics)


 
3ML is a good way to know what your composing and plays roughly what you would hear in-game in mabinogi. There are restrictions with this program, but the only ones that come to my attention are: flats, vibrato, note values, triplets and characters. Methods of doing this in 3ML are explained further on. If you want to compose an mml in 3ML by reading off the music sheet, first read the basic music theory.


 
Characters: In 3ML you can compose whatever length of song you want, but keep in mind that in mabinogi, there is a character limit for composing music scores.

(rank 1 composing: Melody and Song notes Max 1200, Harmony 1 notes Max 800, Harmony 2 notes Max 500).
Tip: if you have say 3 tabs worth of music that have roughly 1000 characters, you will have to turn that to a 3-man ensemble. i.e. cut paste each tab to the melody bar of each score.


 
Basics of 3ML


 
3ML format is strange, if you tried reading the basic music theory on notes/rests, you would know that in a 4/4 time signature: a crotchet is 1 beat, semiquaver is ½ a beat, etc. but in 3ML it’s written different. The table below shows the difference (hopefully). The note ‘C’ will be used as an example for the 3ML column:


 
British/American Terminology

Value (beats)

3ML (note length)

Semibreve/Whole Note

4

C1

Minim/(1/2) Note

2

C2

Minim/(1/2) Triplet Note

2

C3

Crotchet/(1/4) Note

1

C/C4

Crotchet/(1/4)  Triplet Note

1

C6

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C8

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C12

Semiquaver/(1/16) Note

0.25

C16

Demisemiquaver/(1/32) Note

0.125

C32

Hemidemisemiquaver/(1/64) Note

0.0625

C64


 
-Note that some sites refer 1 value to be a semibreve and hence crotchet would be named ‘quarter note’ (4 crotchets in a semibreve) but in this guide 1 beat (not value) is 1 crotchet. So 1/8 is not 0.5 technically speaking.

-The Default note value is 1 beats called a crotchet, so if you write in 3ML of the note ‘g’, it will be the same as ‘g4’ i.e. a ‘G’ note with the value of a beat.

 
Music Theory


 
Now for the fun part and to confuse you all.


 
Reading music sheets: musical Symbols/Terms


 
When reading music sheets refer to the Wikipedia symbols list and learn what they mean if you can:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
There are some things Wikipedia surprisingly missed out or didn’t explain properly as well so watch out for those.


 
If you’re unsure about something ask on the forum and others will answer it, if not I’ll have a go.

Here are some terms you may wanna remember if you want to read off music sheets as it will help you understand what I’m blabbering about further. (Or read the part you want and refer to this later)


 
Octave:  An octave consists of the notes: C , C#/D♭, D , D#/E♭ , E , F , F#/G♭ , G , G#/A♭ , A , A#/B♭, B. If you don’t understand refer to the image from the first link in ‘getting started’

Where C is the lowest note and B is the highest. The next octave will have the notes in the exact same order, expect they will be of higher values, or lower values if it is the octave below. C on lets say octave 4 (middle octave of a piano) compared to octave 5 will sound the same, expect higher. Hard to explain until you hear it.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): These are written depending on the key signature usually and rarely will you see both flats and sharps here and there in a music sheet. If you remember from the one piano octave picture, C# = D♭,D# = E♭and so on.

Natural(♮): This symbol just means play the original note (no flats/sharps).


 
Clefs: Just remember that the notes are different in both respective clefs so make sure you are reading the right clef. See ‘reading musical notes’ for more information.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): When a note in a bar has a flat/sharp written on it, which tells you to play a flat/sharp for that note in the bar only. So if there is a C# represent in the bar, any other C notes that appear in this bar has to be played as C#. If you memorized one octave of a piano and its notes to its corresponding keys, you might wonder: what about C♭,E#,F♭, B#. This isn’t often used, but when it is, it just means you play the notes D,F,E,C (one octave higher) respectively.

Natural(♮): This only happens in music sheets if there are flats/sharps present, especially when there is a key signature. Like flats and sharps, whenever is this applied on a note in a bar, it lasts for the duration of the bar. Sometimes it will appear twice for the same note in the bar to remind you it’s a natural (optional for the writer).


 
Time Signature:  The number on top of a number (a bit like a fraction) or the letter ‘c’ in the beginning of the bar of a song. This is optional and is not really needed for mml formatting, but if you understand how it works it can be helpful to track down if you have the right values of notes in a bar. See time signature (advanced) for more detail.


 
Time Signature (advanced):  The top number of the time signature represents the number of notes in a bar. The bottom number represents the number of beats one note will have in a bar. Most songs are of 4/4 or C time signature, which means 4 notes of the value 4, which is a crotchet, similar to 3ML format. Thus other signatures such as 4/8, 8/16 will mean 4 notes of the value 8 (quavers) and 8 notes of the value 16 (semiquavers) and so on.


 
Key Signature:   The stuff in front time signature often has a number of sharps or flats at different places. If there is no sharps/flats in the beginning bar of the song present you can read the sheet normally. If there is, your life is just made harder.


 
Tempo: Most music sheets should have this and will be displayed as a crotchet symbol = a number above the treble clef.  The higher this number is, the faster the whole song is to be played and the lower the number, the slower it is played. When there is not crochet symbol = a number written, there probably will be an Italian word there such as: moderato, allegro. Refer to this link to get your tempo number:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo#Italian_tempo_markings


 
Reading music sheets: musical Notes


 
Open this link here to show you some notes along the treble and bass clef:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg/2000px-Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg.png


 
Note that these notes do not have ‘staves’ or long vertical line that appears on the note, so they do not really have values (except for G4 which is semibreve). This is merely an example, you will not come across stateless notes in an actual music sheet.


 
In the treble clef, you can see an octave and a half worth of notes, starting with C note in the octave 4 ending with G note in the octave 5. In 3ML the default octave is o4, so writing ‘C’ in 3ML is the note labelled C4 in the link shown above. You will notice two ‘C’ notes present. Refer to musical terms: octave to learn why is this case.


 
Writing the treble clef notes in 3ML will have the following format, assuming all the staveless notes are crotchets:

cdefg1ab>cdefg

If you do not understand this format, scroll down to read the 3ML section


 
In the bass clef, the starting note is E in octave 2 (two octave lower than E of the 4th octave) up to the note B in octave 3. Note that in the treble clef, the note of the same position is note C in octave 4, so be wary which clef you are reading.


 

 
3ML(advanced)


 
‘♭’ in 3ML

There is no such thing as a flat in 3ML so you need to convert it to a sharp. Referring to this link again for the example:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

Examples: G ♭= F#,  B♭ = A#, C♭ = B


 
Key Signature in 3ML:


 
If you read the previous explanation of key signature it will explain what it is. Now if you apply it to 3ML it can be helpful to spot mistakes or notes that you entered that are assigned the wrong value. In 3ML you will notice two sets of piano keys. One on the very top that’s in blue and black and the one that is facing sideways in black and white with a grey columns everwhere. Notice that there is a silver bar on top of the grey columns and black/white piano keys as this is important for time signature. The numbers displayed represent the bar number and will have a dark vertical line to differentiate between each bar. And the columns between two light/dark coloured vertical lines represent a beat of the assigned value in the time signature. So in a 4/8 time signature, there will be 4 columns a bar. Each column represents a value of 1/8 of a beat (quaver). In a 4/4 time signature, there will also be 4 columns in a bar, but compared to 4/8 the columns will noticeable be smaller as their beat values are different.


 
The coloured bars:


 
If you’ve seen music videos on youtube, you might have come across something similar to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lOnEth0p-Y

This works exactly how it does in 3ML, but if you still do not understand, read further.


 
The coloured bars just represents the note value according to the time signature assigned. Reading this can help you determine whether a note has the wrong value or is not the right note before even playing the ‘play’ button to listen to what you have written. The coloured bars closest to the piano on the left is shows note what is being played according to the piano keys (so if you memorized the piano octave earlier it will be helpful). The length of the coloured bars will represent the note value. Read the “key signature” in 3ML for more detail.


 
Commands:


 
You can also refer to this site, or you can read mine and see which one you prefer and understand better from:

http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/view/MML


 
‘o1,o2,o3,etc’

‘o’ refers to octave and the number in front refers to which octave. In mml, you can see there’s all the keys to a typical piano. So o1 being the lowest, and o8 being the highest. The default octave is the middle octave (o4) so you don’t have to type it in.


 
‘>, <’

 ‘>’ makes the next note you write an octave higher, while ‘<’ makes the next note you write an octave lower.


 
‘&/.’

These are used for tied notes or a dotted note.  So a dotted minim (2beats+half=3beats). Will be written as : ‘a2&a’. Occasionally used for ties.


 
‘t120’

The ‘t’ before the number represents the word tempo and the number after it the tempo speed. In 3ML is can be seen has BPM (beats per minute). Higher values mean a faster paced song. Ranges from t32 – t255


 
‘l8’

The ‘l’ represents length and the value after it represents the note length/value.


 
‘#/+’

These two mean the same thing. So C# = C+

                               

‘l8’

‘l’ represents length and the number after it represents the note value. So any note written after this is assigned the note value stated by the length command. So for ‘l8’ , writing the following notes: cdefg is the same as writing c8d8e8f8g8. This is merely a shortcut in writing notes, especially when a bar is composed of nothing but quavers.


 
‘r8/c8’

‘r’ represents a rest and ‘c’ is the note (can be any note i.e. A,B,D,E,etc). The value after r and c is the note value. In this case it is a quaver (half a beat/quarter note).


 
‘n35’

‘n’ represents ‘number’ and 35 represents a particular note in the octave ranges, in this case n35 is the note B in the octave 2 . Refer to this link to find the note and its octave:

http://www.electronics.dit.ie/staff/tscarff/Music_technology/midi/midi_note_numbers_for_octaves.htm


 
‘v5’

‘V’ represents ‘volume’ and the number after v is the intensity/loudness of the volume. Where v0 is the softest and v15 is the loudest. Anything after you set the v5 command will be played in volume 5 until you change it. Default volume is v8, so if you write your music without including v15 in front, all notes will be played in v8 unless changed.


 
After writing an mml of this format,  right click each tab and click optimize. As the word suggests it will turn whatever you created into the shortest form possible.


 
Note/rest values:

 
Because it’s hard to show pictures/symbols of notes here ill direct you to a Wikipedia site:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_value


 
Refer the Wikipedia table from 4th row downwards; I’ll try to explain those better than Wikipedia.


 
Notes and rests have the same value, but different symbol. Obviously note=play, rest=pause/silence for the duration of the beat(s).

 
Whatever is in first three rows: I’ve never seen these before so I won’t bother explaining, never seen them on music sheet either, I highly doubt that will be on whatever music you wanna compose.

Semibreve: Value of 4 beats. Tip: the semibreve and minim rests are very similar, expect ones upright and the other upside-down, a tip one of my music teachers taught my long ago that you could use to differentiate between the two is upside = stronger (can support its weight), therefore higher value. Upright=weaker (needs support). No matter the time signature, one semibreve is a rest for the whole bar.

Minim: Value of 2 beats.

Crotchet: value of 1 beats

Quaver: value of ½ a beat (half a crotchet), also known as a quarter note.

Semi Quaver: value of ¼ a beat (quarter of crotchet, half a quaver)

Prefix Quaver : personally I did not learn any quavers below semiquaver, but if you see a note that has say 3 curly ends of a semi quaver it is half the value of the note with 2 curly ends of a semi quaver. So looking at Wikipedia you can tell that by the note values they give you. Often when reading music, you usually won’t come across demisemiquaver or lower.


 
Reading a music sheet to convert into 3ML format


 
Again, you might want to refer to : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
when reading through this.


 
Key Signature:   Depending on the number of flats and sharps on the key signature, you make have a hard time remembering what note is what especially for flats, where it needs to be converted to sharps in 3ML. The number of #/♭has their respective major/minor, but that will not need to be covered. Reading the flats/sharps from the left they have the order:


 
Key Signature


 

 

 
Number of #/♭

#

♭

3ML (♭)

1

F#

B♭

A#

2

F#, C#

B♭, E ♭

A#, D#

3

F#, C#, G#

B♭,E♭, A♭

A#, D#, G#

4

F#, C#, G#, D#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭

A#, D#, G#, C#

5

F#, C#, G#, D#, A#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭,G♭

A#, D#, G#, C#, F#

There are more, but I cannot be bothered listing more and its unlikely the music sheet will have that many. So basically whatever key signature you have with the respective number of #/♭, the notes according the table will be applied to EVERY note in the whole music sheet UNLESS the key signature changes elsewhere, so look out for those key signatures.


 
Natural(♮): If this is come across in the key signature, then certain notes that are meant to be played as a sharp/flat is played normally. So, according to the table above, if you see ‘##,N,#’ from left to right for a time signature for #, it means that only F#, C#, D# are changed, the G note is played normally.


 
Dotted Note: If you come across a note with a dot on the right hand side of the note, it means add half the value of the dotted note when you play that dotted note. So a dotted minim (2 beats) means play a minim plus half a minim (1 beat) which totals to 3 beats to be played for that dotted note.


 
Tie: This appears as a curved convex time linking two notes together. This just means you play that one note for the value of the two notes combined. Composers use this when a value of a note they want played is not half the value of the original note.

For dotted notes: crotchet + quaver = 1.5 beats, if the composer wants crotchet + semiquaver, by definition that is not a dotted note, so a tie is used: crotchet + semiquaver = 1.25 beats.


 
Staccato: This appears as a dot on top of a note and means it’s played at roughly half the value of the note. To imitate this on 3ML write the note of half its original value and add a rest also half fo its original value.

Example: A staccato placed on a crotchet ‘C’ note will be written as the following in 3ML: ‘c8r8’


 
Accent: This tells you that the note with a ‘>’ sign on top is played louder than the other notes without the accent. So in 3ML change the volume to a higher value i.e. v10 (higher than base volume 8)


 
8va----------: This is written on starting note and the ‘----‘ part will span to all notes that this is applied to. This is usually written so that the instrument player doesn’t not need to read ridiculously high notes that they probably will not know (unless they start counting from the highest note they know. It means play those notes an octave higher. So in 3ML you will just need to up the octave by one.


 
Vibrato/Arpeggio: This tells you that all those notes are played quickly in ascending order for the duration of the value.


 
Using the Wikipedia example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-arpeggio.svg

Assuming treble clef, 3 notes: G,B,D with the value of 4 beats. So G is played first, followed by B then D.

To imitate this is 3ML I would write:

g8b8>d2&d2 or  g16b16>d8&d2&d8

The first two notes are played at whatever speed you prefer then the last note is held for the remaining duration of the note value. So in case 1, two quavers are used (1 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 1 = 3 remaining beats). While in case 2, 2 semiquavers are used (0.5 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 0.5 = 3.5 beats)


 
If the vibrato has more than 3 notes piled on top of each other, the method does not change, only the last note (the remainder) will have a different value.


 

 
Triplets (tuplet): Triplets are typically notes that have 3 joined quavers (can be 3 minims, crotchets, etc too!) with a ‘3’ written on top. This indicates that those 3 notes are played for duration of 2 quavers (or crotchet). Refer to the basics of 3ML table for the triplet values.


 
You do not need to know this unless you encounter other tuplets or triples in semiquavers or higher: For triplets, you need to get the total beat duration (American terminology) divided by the number of notes to get the 3ML note length.

Example:

Crotchets: beat duration (2 crotchets = 1 minim = (1/2) note) / number of notes (triplets: 3) = 1/6

So C6 is used.

Likewise for quavers: beat duration (2 quavers = 1 crotchet = (1/4) note) / note duration (triplets: 3) = 1/12

So C12 is used.


 
Appoggiatura/Acciaccatura: These are notes (usually quavers or lower values) that are printed really small before or in between notes. This wants you to play that note quickly without playing the next note. This is notably seen in most versions of “River Flows in You” by Yiruma.


 

 
Fermata: To do this in 3ML obviously just assign that note value to be longer. So if a fermata is placed on a semibreve for example, perhaps play it for the value of two semibreves.


 
Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-fermata.svg

Assuming treble clef, the note is ‘G’ with a value of 1 beat.

So instead of writing ‘f’ you write ‘f2’ or ‘f1’ or however long you want the value to be.


 

 
Crescendo, Decrescendo: These are the wide ‘greater than or less than signs’ on top of a group of notes. Crescendo being the long less than, and the decrescendo being the long ‘greater than’, each meaning gradually getting louder and gradually getting softer. To imitate this, change the volume of each note or group of notes i.e. assigning v10 for louder notes, v6 going softer, v2 going even softer…etc. The volume increments are entirely up to you. A little playing around may help.


 
3ML layout


 
When reading from sheet to 3ML, you should assign the line of bars (several bars of music writing in a line before starting a new one below the previous line of bars) on the music sheet to also be a line of notes in 3ML by pressing ‘spacebar’. This will allow you to quickly navigate what sections of music of the music sheet you have already written, opposed to writing one song is one long line in 3ML. You will also notice that after you pressed spacebar there will be an arrow pointing down, which juts indicates that the next note to be played will be found on the next line. If you follow the time signature, you can also tell whether the notes you write are of the right values by checking the time signature lines (see 3ML (adv), time signature).


 

 
Basic 3ML Example


 
Using ‘mary had a little lamb’ as an example from: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/music/sheetmusic/maryhadalittlelamb.shtml


 
The entire first row of bars it can be written as:


 
bagabbb2aaa2b>dd2


 
Notes: Notice that there is a sharp before the time signature, which is F#. There is not ‘F’ note on the first row so it is not used. As the first note starts in octave 4, there is no need to write ‘o4’ in front as it is the default octave.


 
Intermediate 3ML Example


 
Using ‘Axel F’ as an example:

http://musime.excalibur-nw.com/sites/default/files/sheetmusic/axel_f_beverly_hills_theme-trnscrbd-mattie.pdf


 
The entire first row of the TREBLE CLEF with (5) bars it can be written as:


 
Bar1: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8

Bar2: f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8

Bar3-4:f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2

Bar5: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 
Whole row: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8 f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8 f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2 fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 

 
Notes: There are 4 flats before the time signature, which means there’s B♭, E ♭,A♭,D♭. So any B,E,A,D notes you come across are all flats. Since this is at a 3ML format you have to remember that it is A#,D#,G#,C# instead.


 

 

 

 

 

 

This reminds me of a documentary or something i watched which happened to show doctors saving a persons life and that person did not show an ounce of gratitude. Then said something along the lines of : "Sometimes this is a thankless job, but in the future there will still be lives to be saved and I will be there to make it happen"
If you think of it that way, then this problem presented here is of far less importance. In other words just give and expect nothing back. That's the attitude that all composers of this sort (MML writers) should have. Especially since the music you are writing isn't even written by you to begin with. You are really just taking a long time to rewrite/rearrange what is already written .

The Guide


 
Nothing too much to ask, just start taking piano lessons and you are well on your way to writing mmls


 
Will continue updating or fixing stuff up if people spot mistakes etc.(my music theory is a little hazy)


 
Jokes aside this is just my style of writing 3ML by looking at a music sheet; it most likely is different from most mml writers in the community. In my opinion, this method of writing is easy to understand when you read it and help find those mistakes easily, I’m not the most proficient with 3ML so there are probably shortcuts that could have been done that I have not done. At the end of the day when you’re done writing the mml, you can optimize it so it hopefully can be composed in mabi so the shortcuts are done there. This guide hopefully will show you how read music sheets and compose in mml form on the program 3ML. Can be used for music sheets for piano and any music piece that has a treble clef in it. That means instruments like viola which has a clef of its own (alto clef) is not covered here.

 
Getting started


 
First read the 3ML (basics section to learn the basic stuff of the music writing program 3ML. Then you can move on to music theory that will hopefully allow you to read music sheets to convert into mml format using 3ML.


 
I recommend remembering the keys of a piano, as it helps visualize what the notes are and how to go about writing it. If you can try memorizing that it will be really helpful when writing mmls.


 
Here’s a link of a piano octave and try memorizing it:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

or just type in google images ‘one piano octave’ This can helpful as it helps you visualize the notes on the music sheet. The ‘♭’ in this picture are hard to see and kind of looks like a comma, so be vary it’s a flat!.


 
3ML(basics)


 
3ML is a good way to know what your composing and plays roughly what you would hear in-game in mabinogi. There are restrictions with this program, but the only ones that come to my attention are: flats, vibrato, note values, triplets and characters. Methods of doing this in 3ML are explained further on. If you want to compose an mml in 3ML by reading off the music sheet, first read the basic music theory.


 
Characters: In 3ML you can compose whatever length of song you want, but keep in mind that in mabinogi, there is a character limit for composing music scores.

(rank 1 composing: Melody and Song notes Max 1200, Harmony 1 notes Max 800, Harmony 2 notes Max 500).
Tip: if you have say 3 tabs worth of music that have roughly 1000 characters, you will have to turn that to a 3-man ensemble. i.e. cut paste each tab to the melody bar of each score.


 
Basics of 3ML


 
3ML format is strange, if you tried reading the basic music theory on notes/rests, you would know that in a 4/4 time signature: a crotchet is 1 beat, semiquaver is ½ a beat, etc. but in 3ML it’s written different. The table below shows the difference (hopefully). The note ‘C’ will be used as an example for the 3ML column:


 
British/American Terminology

Value (beats)

3ML (note length)

Semibreve/Whole Note

4

C1

Minim/(1/2) Note

2

C2

Minim/(1/2) Triplet Note

2

C3

Crotchet/(1/4) Note

1

C/C4

Crotchet/(1/4)  Triplet Note

1

C6

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C8

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C12

Semiquaver/(1/16) Note

0.25

C16

Demisemiquaver/(1/32) Note

0.125

C32

Hemidemisemiquaver/(1/64) Note

0.0625

C64


 
-Note that some sites refer 1 value to be a semibreve and hence crotchet would be named ‘quarter note’ (4 crotchets in a semibreve) but in this guide 1 beat (not value) is 1 crotchet. So 1/8 is not 0.5 technically speaking.

-The Default note value is 1 beats called a crotchet, so if you write in 3ML of the note ‘g’, it will be the same as ‘g4’ i.e. a ‘G’ note with the value of a beat.

 
Music Theory


 
Now for the fun part and to confuse you all.


 
Reading music sheets: musical Symbols/Terms


 
When reading music sheets refer to the Wikipedia symbols list and learn what they mean if you can:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
There are some things Wikipedia surprisingly missed out or didn’t explain properly as well so watch out for those.


 
If you’re unsure about something ask on the forum and others will answer it, if not I’ll have a go.

Here are some terms you may wanna remember if you want to read off music sheets as it will help you understand what I’m blabbering about further. (Or read the part you want and refer to this later)


 
Octave:  An octave consists of the notes: C , C#/D♭, D , D#/E♭ , E , F , F#/G♭ , G , G#/A♭ , A , A#/B♭, B. If you don’t understand refer to the image from the first link in ‘getting started’

Where C is the lowest note and B is the highest. The next octave will have the notes in the exact same order, expect they will be of higher values, or lower values if it is the octave below. C on lets say octave 4 (middle octave of a piano) compared to octave 5 will sound the same, expect higher. Hard to explain until you hear it.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): These are written depending on the key signature usually and rarely will you see both flats and sharps here and there in a music sheet. If you remember from the one piano octave picture, C# = D♭,D# = E♭and so on.

Natural(♮): This symbol just means play the original note (no flats/sharps).


 
Clefs: Just remember that the notes are different in both respective clefs so make sure you are reading the right clef. See ‘reading musical notes’ for more information.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): When a note in a bar has a flat/sharp written on it, which tells you to play a flat/sharp for that note in the bar only. So if there is a C# represent in the bar, any other C notes that appear in this bar has to be played as C#. If you memorized one octave of a piano and its notes to its corresponding keys, you might wonder: what about C♭,E#,F♭, B#. This isn’t often used, but when it is, it just means you play the notes D,F,E,C (one octave higher) respectively.

Natural(♮): This only happens in music sheets if there are flats/sharps present, especially when there is a key signature. Like flats and sharps, whenever is this applied on a note in a bar, it lasts for the duration of the bar. Sometimes it will appear twice for the same note in the bar to remind you it’s a natural (optional for the writer).


 
Time Signature:  The number on top of a number (a bit like a fraction) or the letter ‘c’ in the beginning of the bar of a song. This is optional and is not really needed for mml formatting, but if you understand how it works it can be helpful to track down if you have the right values of notes in a bar. See time signature (advanced) for more detail.


 
Time Signature (advanced):  The top number of the time signature represents the number of notes in a bar. The bottom number represents the number of beats one note will have in a bar. Most songs are of 4/4 or C time signature, which means 4 notes of the value 4, which is a crotchet, similar to 3ML format. Thus other signatures such as 4/8, 8/16 will mean 4 notes of the value 8 (quavers) and 8 notes of the value 16 (semiquavers) and so on.


 
Key Signature:   The stuff in front time signature often has a number of sharps or flats at different places. If there is no sharps/flats in the beginning bar of the song present you can read the sheet normally. If there is, your life is just made harder.


 
Tempo: Most music sheets should have this and will be displayed as a crotchet symbol = a number above the treble clef.  The higher this number is, the faster the whole song is to be played and the lower the number, the slower it is played. When there is not crochet symbol = a number written, there probably will be an Italian word there such as: moderato, allegro. Refer to this link to get your tempo number:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo#Italian_tempo_markings


 
Reading music sheets: musical Notes


 
Open this link here to show you some notes along the treble and bass clef:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg/2000px-Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg.png


 
Note that these notes do not have ‘staves’ or long vertical line that appears on the note, so they do not really have values (except for G4 which is semibreve). This is merely an example, you will not come across stateless notes in an actual music sheet.


 
In the treble clef, you can see an octave and a half worth of notes, starting with C note in the octave 4 ending with G note in the octave 5. In 3ML the default octave is o4, so writing ‘C’ in 3ML is the note labelled C4 in the link shown above. You will notice two ‘C’ notes present. Refer to musical terms: octave to learn why is this case.


 
Writing the treble clef notes in 3ML will have the following format, assuming all the staveless notes are crotchets:

cdefg1ab>cdefg

If you do not understand this format, scroll down to read the 3ML section


 
In the bass clef, the starting note is E in octave 2 (two octave lower than E of the 4th octave) up to the note B in octave 3. Note that in the treble clef, the note of the same position is note C in octave 4, so be wary which clef you are reading.


 

 
3ML(advanced)


 
‘♭’ in 3ML

There is no such thing as a flat in 3ML so you need to convert it to a sharp. Referring to this link again for the example:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

Examples: G ♭= F#,  B♭ = A#, C♭ = B


 
Key Signature in 3ML:


 
If you read the previous explanation of key signature it will explain what it is. Now if you apply it to 3ML it can be helpful to spot mistakes or notes that you entered that are assigned the wrong value. In 3ML you will notice two sets of piano keys. One on the very top that’s in blue and black and the one that is facing sideways in black and white with a grey columns everwhere. Notice that there is a silver bar on top of the grey columns and black/white piano keys as this is important for time signature. The numbers displayed represent the bar number and will have a dark vertical line to differentiate between each bar. And the columns between two light/dark coloured vertical lines represent a beat of the assigned value in the time signature. So in a 4/8 time signature, there will be 4 columns a bar. Each column represents a value of 1/8 of a beat (quaver). In a 4/4 time signature, there will also be 4 columns in a bar, but compared to 4/8 the columns will noticeable be smaller as their beat values are different.


 
The coloured bars:


 
If you’ve seen music videos on youtube, you might have come across something similar to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lOnEth0p-Y

This works exactly how it does in 3ML, but if you still do not understand, read further.


 
The coloured bars just represents the note value according to the time signature assigned. Reading this can help you determine whether a note has the wrong value or is not the right note before even playing the ‘play’ button to listen to what you have written. The coloured bars closest to the piano on the left is shows note what is being played according to the piano keys (so if you memorized the piano octave earlier it will be helpful). The length of the coloured bars will represent the note value. Read the “key signature” in 3ML for more detail.


 
Commands:


 
You can also refer to this site, or you can read mine and see which one you prefer and understand better from:

http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/view/MML


 
‘o1,o2,o3,etc’

‘o’ refers to octave and the number in front refers to which octave. In mml, you can see there’s all the keys to a typical piano. So o1 being the lowest, and o8 being the highest. The default octave is the middle octave (o4) so you don’t have to type it in.


 
‘>, <’

 ‘>’ makes the next note you write an octave higher, while ‘<’ makes the next note you write an octave lower.


 
‘&/.’

These are used for tied notes or a dotted note.  So a dotted minim (2beats+half=3beats). Will be written as : ‘a2&a’. Occasionally used for ties.


 
‘t120’

The ‘t’ before the number represents the word tempo and the number after it the tempo speed. In 3ML is can be seen has BPM (beats per minute). Higher values mean a faster paced song. Ranges from t32 – t255


 
‘l8’

The ‘l’ represents length and the value after it represents the note length/value.


 
‘#/+’

These two mean the same thing. So C# = C+

                               

‘l8’

‘l’ represents length and the number after it represents the note value. So any note written after this is assigned the note value stated by the length command. So for ‘l8’ , writing the following notes: cdefg is the same as writing c8d8e8f8g8. This is merely a shortcut in writing notes, especially when a bar is composed of nothing but quavers.


 
‘r8/c8’

‘r’ represents a rest and ‘c’ is the note (can be any note i.e. A,B,D,E,etc). The value after r and c is the note value. In this case it is a quaver (half a beat/quarter note).


 
‘n35’

‘n’ represents ‘number’ and 35 represents a particular note in the octave ranges, in this case n35 is the note B in the octave 2 . Refer to this link to find the note and its octave:

http://www.electronics.dit.ie/staff/tscarff/Music_technology/midi/midi_note_numbers_for_octaves.htm


 
‘v5’

‘V’ represents ‘volume’ and the number after v is the intensity/loudness of the volume. Where v0 is the softest and v15 is the loudest. Anything after you set the v5 command will be played in volume 5 until you change it. Default volume is v8, so if you write your music without including v15 in front, all notes will be played in v8 unless changed.


 
After writing an mml of this format,  right click each tab and click optimize. As the word suggests it will turn whatever you created into the shortest form possible.


 
Note/rest values:

 
Because it’s hard to show pictures/symbols of notes here ill direct you to a Wikipedia site:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_value


 
Refer the Wikipedia table from 4th row downwards; I’ll try to explain those better than Wikipedia.


 
Notes and rests have the same value, but different symbol. Obviously note=play, rest=pause/silence for the duration of the beat(s).

 
Whatever is in first three rows: I’ve never seen these before so I won’t bother explaining, never seen them on music sheet either, I highly doubt that will be on whatever music you wanna compose.

Semibreve: Value of 4 beats. Tip: the semibreve and minim rests are very similar, expect ones upright and the other upside-down, a tip one of my music teachers taught my long ago that you could use to differentiate between the two is upside = stronger (can support its weight), therefore higher value. Upright=weaker (needs support). No matter the time signature, one semibreve is a rest for the whole bar.

Minim: Value of 2 beats.

Crotchet: value of 1 beats

Quaver: value of ½ a beat (half a crotchet), also known as a quarter note.

Semi Quaver: value of ¼ a beat (quarter of crotchet, half a quaver)

Prefix Quaver : personally I did not learn any quavers below semiquaver, but if you see a note that has say 3 curly ends of a semi quaver it is half the value of the note with 2 curly ends of a semi quaver. So looking at Wikipedia you can tell that by the note values they give you. Often when reading music, you usually won’t come across demisemiquaver or lower.


 
Reading a music sheet to convert into 3ML format


 
Again, you might want to refer to : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
when reading through this.


 
Key Signature:   Depending on the number of flats and sharps on the key signature, you make have a hard time remembering what note is what especially for flats, where it needs to be converted to sharps in 3ML. The number of #/♭has their respective major/minor, but that will not need to be covered. Reading the flats/sharps from the left they have the order:


 
Key Signature


 

 

 
Number of #/♭

#

♭

3ML (♭)

1

F#

B♭

A#

2

F#, C#

B♭, E ♭

A#, D#

3

F#, C#, G#

B♭,E♭, A♭

A#, D#, G#

4

F#, C#, G#, D#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭

A#, D#, G#, C#

5

F#, C#, G#, D#, A#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭,G♭

A#, D#, G#, C#, F#

There are more, but I cannot be bothered listing more and its unlikely the music sheet will have that many. So basically whatever key signature you have with the respective number of #/♭, the notes according the table will be applied to EVERY note in the whole music sheet UNLESS the key signature changes elsewhere, so look out for those key signatures.


 
Natural(♮): If this is come across in the key signature, then certain notes that are meant to be played as a sharp/flat is played normally. So, according to the table above, if you see ‘##,N,#’ from left to right for a time signature for #, it means that only F#, C#, D# are changed, the G note is played normally.


 
Dotted Note: If you come across a note with a dot on the right hand side of the note, it means add half the value of the dotted note when you play that dotted note. So a dotted minim (2 beats) means play a minim plus half a minim (1 beat) which totals to 3 beats to be played for that dotted note.


 
Tie: This appears as a curved convex time linking two notes together. This just means you play that one note for the value of the two notes combined. Composers use this when a value of a note they want played is not half the value of the original note.

For dotted notes: crotchet + quaver = 1.5 beats, if the composer wants crotchet + semiquaver, by definition that is not a dotted note, so a tie is used: crotchet + semiquaver = 1.25 beats.


 
Staccato: This appears as a dot on top of a note and means it’s played at roughly half the value of the note. To imitate this on 3ML write the note of half its original value and add a rest also half fo its original value.

Example: A staccato placed on a crotchet ‘C’ note will be written as the following in 3ML: ‘c8r8’


 
Accent: This tells you that the note with a ‘>’ sign on top is played louder than the other notes without the accent. So in 3ML change the volume to a higher value i.e. v10 (higher than base volume 8)


 
8va----------: This is written on starting note and the ‘----‘ part will span to all notes that this is applied to. This is usually written so that the instrument player doesn’t not need to read ridiculously high notes that they probably will not know (unless they start counting from the highest note they know. It means play those notes an octave higher. So in 3ML you will just need to up the octave by one.


 
Vibrato/Arpeggio: This tells you that all those notes are played quickly in ascending order for the duration of the value.


 
Using the Wikipedia example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-arpeggio.svg

Assuming treble clef, 3 notes: G,B,D with the value of 4 beats. So G is played first, followed by B then D.

To imitate this is 3ML I would write:

g8b8>d2&d2 or  g16b16>d8&d2&d8

The first two notes are played at whatever speed you prefer then the last note is held for the remaining duration of the note value. So in case 1, two quavers are used (1 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 1 = 3 remaining beats). While in case 2, 2 semiquavers are used (0.5 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 0.5 = 3.5 beats)


 
If the vibrato has more than 3 notes piled on top of each other, the method does not change, only the last note (the remainder) will have a different value.


 

 
Triplets (tuplet): Triplets are typically notes that have 3 joined quavers (can be 3 minims, crotchets, etc too!) with a ‘3’ written on top. This indicates that those 3 notes are played for duration of 2 quavers (or crotchet). Refer to the basics of 3ML table for the triplet values.


 
You do not need to know this unless you encounter other tuplets or triples in semiquavers or higher: For triplets, you need to get the total beat duration (American terminology) divided by the number of notes to get the 3ML note length.

Example:

Crotchets: beat duration (2 crotchets = 1 minim = (1/2) note) / number of notes (triplets: 3) = 1/6

So C6 is used.

Likewise for quavers: beat duration (2 quavers = 1 crotchet = (1/4) note) / note duration (triplets: 3) = 1/12

So C12 is used.


 
Appoggiatura/Acciaccatura: These are notes (usually quavers or lower values) that are printed really small before or in between notes. This wants you to play that note quickly without playing the next note. This is notably seen in most versions of “River Flows in You” by Yiruma.


 

 
Fermata: To do this in 3ML obviously just assign that note value to be longer. So if a fermata is placed on a semibreve for example, perhaps play it for the value of two semibreves.


 
Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-fermata.svg

Assuming treble clef, the note is ‘G’ with a value of 1 beat.

So instead of writing ‘f’ you write ‘f2’ or ‘f1’ or however long you want the value to be.


 

 
Crescendo, Decrescendo: These are the wide ‘greater than or less than signs’ on top of a group of notes. Crescendo being the long less than, and the decrescendo being the long ‘greater than’, each meaning gradually getting louder and gradually getting softer. To imitate this, change the volume of each note or group of notes i.e. assigning v10 for louder notes, v6 going softer, v2 going even softer…etc. The volume increments are entirely up to you. A little playing around may help.


 
3ML layout


 
When reading from sheet to 3ML, you should assign the line of bars (several bars of music writing in a line before starting a new one below the previous line of bars) on the music sheet to also be a line of notes in 3ML by pressing ‘spacebar’. This will allow you to quickly navigate what sections of music of the music sheet you have already written, opposed to writing one song is one long line in 3ML. You will also notice that after you pressed spacebar there will be an arrow pointing down, which juts indicates that the next note to be played will be found on the next line. If you follow the time signature, you can also tell whether the notes you write are of the right values by checking the time signature lines (see 3ML (adv), time signature).


 

 
Basic 3ML Example


 
Using ‘mary had a little lamb’ as an example from: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/music/sheetmusic/maryhadalittlelamb.shtml


 
The entire first row of bars it can be written as:


 
bagabbb2aaa2b>dd2


 
Notes: Notice that there is a sharp before the time signature, which is F#. There is not ‘F’ note on the first row so it is not used. As the first note starts in octave 4, there is no need to write ‘o4’ in front as it is the default octave.


 
Intermediate 3ML Example


 
Using ‘Axel F’ as an example:

http://musime.excalibur-nw.com/sites/default/files/sheetmusic/axel_f_beverly_hills_theme-trnscrbd-mattie.pdf


 
The entire first row of the TREBLE CLEF with (5) bars it can be written as:


 
Bar1: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8

Bar2: f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8

Bar3-4:f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2

Bar5: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 
Whole row: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8 f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8 f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2 fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 

 
Notes: There are 4 flats before the time signature, which means there’s B♭, E ♭,A♭,D♭. So any B,E,A,D notes you come across are all flats. Since this is at a 3ML format you have to remember that it is A#,D#,G#,C# instead.


 

 

 

 

 

 

You can make triplets in 3mle. When you want to have 3 notes for the same value as 2 quarter notes/crotchets, the duration of each note in the triplet would be '6' in 3mle. Or if we're looking at the example you used 

C4 C4 C12 D12 E12 C4.
In general for tuplets, you just need to multiply the number of notes you want with the value of duration. Of course, it's not always gonna be perfect, but that's when you play around with the duration of some of the notes until it ends where you want it to end. I do this so I can make use of my measure bars and keep track of where I am.

The Guide


 
Nothing too much to ask, just start taking piano lessons and you are well on your way to writing mmls


 
Will continue updating or fixing stuff up if people spot mistakes etc.(my music theory is a little hazy)


 
Jokes aside this is just my style of writing 3ML by looking at a music sheet; it most likely is different from most mml writers in the community. In my opinion, this method of writing is easy to understand when you read it and help find those mistakes easily, I’m not the most proficient with 3ML so there are probably shortcuts that could have been done that I have not done. At the end of the day when you’re done writing the mml, you can optimize it so it hopefully can be composed in mabi so the shortcuts are done there. This guide hopefully will show you how read music sheets and compose in mml form on the program 3ML. Can be used for music sheets for piano and any music piece that has a treble clef in it. That means instruments like viola which has a clef of its own (alto clef) is not covered here.

 
Getting started


 
First read the 3ML (basics section to learn the basic stuff of the music writing program 3ML. Then you can move on to music theory that will hopefully allow you to read music sheets to convert into mml format using 3ML.


 
I recommend remembering the keys of a piano, as it helps visualize what the notes are and how to go about writing it. If you can try memorizing that it will be really helpful when writing mmls.


 
Here’s a link of a piano octave and try memorizing it:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

or just type in google images ‘one piano octave’ This can helpful as it helps you visualize the notes on the music sheet. The ‘♭’ in this picture are hard to see and kind of looks like a comma, so be vary it’s a flat!.


 
3ML(basics)


 
3ML is a good way to know what your composing and plays roughly what you would hear in-game in mabinogi. There are restrictions with this program, but the only ones that come to my attention are: flats, vibrato, note values, triplets and characters. Methods of doing this in 3ML are explained further on. If you want to compose an mml in 3ML by reading off the music sheet, first read the basic music theory.


 
Characters: In 3ML you can compose whatever length of song you want, but keep in mind that in mabinogi, there is a character limit for composing music scores.

(rank 1 composing: Melody and Song notes Max 1200, Harmony 1 notes Max 800, Harmony 2 notes Max 500).
Tip: if you have say 3 tabs worth of music that have roughly 1000 characters, you will have to turn that to a 3-man ensemble. i.e. cut paste each tab to the melody bar of each score.


 
Basics of 3ML


 
3ML format is strange, if you tried reading the basic music theory on notes/rests, you would know that in a 4/4 time signature: a crotchet is 1 beat, semiquaver is ½ a beat, etc. but in 3ML it’s written different. The table below shows the difference (hopefully). The note ‘C’ will be used as an example for the 3ML column:


 
British/American Terminology

Value (beats)

3ML (note length)

Semibreve/Whole Note

4

C1

Minim/(1/2) Note

2

C2

Minim/(1/2) Triplet Note

2

C3

Crotchet/(1/4) Note

1

C/C4

Crotchet/(1/4)  Triplet Note

1

C6

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C8

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C12

Semiquaver/(1/16) Note

0.25

C16

Demisemiquaver/(1/32) Note

0.125

C32

Hemidemisemiquaver/(1/64) Note

0.0625

C64


 
-Note that some sites refer 1 value to be a semibreve and hence crotchet would be named ‘quarter note’ (4 crotchets in a semibreve) but in this guide 1 beat (not value) is 1 crotchet. So 1/8 is not 0.5 technically speaking.

-The Default note value is 1 beats called a crotchet, so if you write in 3ML of the note ‘g’, it will be the same as ‘g4’ i.e. a ‘G’ note with the value of a beat.

 
Music Theory


 
Now for the fun part and to confuse you all.


 
Reading music sheets: musical Symbols/Terms


 
When reading music sheets refer to the Wikipedia symbols list and learn what they mean if you can:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
There are some things Wikipedia surprisingly missed out or didn’t explain properly as well so watch out for those.


 
If you’re unsure about something ask on the forum and others will answer it, if not I’ll have a go.

Here are some terms you may wanna remember if you want to read off music sheets as it will help you understand what I’m blabbering about further. (Or read the part you want and refer to this later)


 
Octave:  An octave consists of the notes: C , C#/D♭, D , D#/E♭ , E , F , F#/G♭ , G , G#/A♭ , A , A#/B♭, B. If you don’t understand refer to the image from the first link in ‘getting started’

Where C is the lowest note and B is the highest. The next octave will have the notes in the exact same order, expect they will be of higher values, or lower values if it is the octave below. C on lets say octave 4 (middle octave of a piano) compared to octave 5 will sound the same, expect higher. Hard to explain until you hear it.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): These are written depending on the key signature usually and rarely will you see both flats and sharps here and there in a music sheet. If you remember from the one piano octave picture, C# = D♭,D# = E♭and so on.

Natural(♮): This symbol just means play the original note (no flats/sharps).


 
Clefs: Just remember that the notes are different in both respective clefs so make sure you are reading the right clef. See ‘reading musical notes’ for more information.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): When a note in a bar has a flat/sharp written on it, which tells you to play a flat/sharp for that note in the bar only. So if there is a C# represent in the bar, any other C notes that appear in this bar has to be played as C#. If you memorized one octave of a piano and its notes to its corresponding keys, you might wonder: what about C♭,E#,F♭, B#. This isn’t often used, but when it is, it just means you play the notes D,F,E,C (one octave higher) respectively.

Natural(♮): This only happens in music sheets if there are flats/sharps present, especially when there is a key signature. Like flats and sharps, whenever is this applied on a note in a bar, it lasts for the duration of the bar. Sometimes it will appear twice for the same note in the bar to remind you it’s a natural (optional for the writer).


 
Time Signature:  The number on top of a number (a bit like a fraction) or the letter ‘c’ in the beginning of the bar of a song. This is optional and is not really needed for mml formatting, but if you understand how it works it can be helpful to track down if you have the right values of notes in a bar. See time signature (advanced) for more detail.


 
Time Signature (advanced):  The top number of the time signature represents the number of notes in a bar. The bottom number represents the number of beats one note will have in a bar. Most songs are of 4/4 or C time signature, which means 4 notes of the value 4, which is a crotchet, similar to 3ML format. Thus other signatures such as 4/8, 8/16 will mean 4 notes of the value 8 (quavers) and 8 notes of the value 16 (semiquavers) and so on.


 
Key Signature:   The stuff in front time signature often has a number of sharps or flats at different places. If there is no sharps/flats in the beginning bar of the song present you can read the sheet normally. If there is, your life is just made harder.


 
Tempo: Most music sheets should have this and will be displayed as a crotchet symbol = a number above the treble clef.  The higher this number is, the faster the whole song is to be played and the lower the number, the slower it is played. When there is not crochet symbol = a number written, there probably will be an Italian word there such as: moderato, allegro. Refer to this link to get your tempo number:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo#Italian_tempo_markings


 
Reading music sheets: musical Notes


 
Open this link here to show you some notes along the treble and bass clef:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg/2000px-Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg.png


 
Note that these notes do not have ‘staves’ or long vertical line that appears on the note, so they do not really have values (except for G4 which is semibreve). This is merely an example, you will not come across stateless notes in an actual music sheet.


 
In the treble clef, you can see an octave and a half worth of notes, starting with C note in the octave 4 ending with G note in the octave 5. In 3ML the default octave is o4, so writing ‘C’ in 3ML is the note labelled C4 in the link shown above. You will notice two ‘C’ notes present. Refer to musical terms: octave to learn why is this case.


 
Writing the treble clef notes in 3ML will have the following format, assuming all the staveless notes are crotchets:

cdefg1ab>cdefg

If you do not understand this format, scroll down to read the 3ML section


 
In the bass clef, the starting note is E in octave 2 (two octave lower than E of the 4th octave) up to the note B in octave 3. Note that in the treble clef, the note of the same position is note C in octave 4, so be wary which clef you are reading.


 

 
3ML(advanced)


 
‘♭’ in 3ML

There is no such thing as a flat in 3ML so you need to convert it to a sharp. Referring to this link again for the example:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

Examples: G ♭= F#,  B♭ = A#, C♭ = B


 
Key Signature in 3ML:


 
If you read the previous explanation of key signature it will explain what it is. Now if you apply it to 3ML it can be helpful to spot mistakes or notes that you entered that are assigned the wrong value. In 3ML you will notice two sets of piano keys. One on the very top that’s in blue and black and the one that is facing sideways in black and white with a grey columns everwhere. Notice that there is a silver bar on top of the grey columns and black/white piano keys as this is important for time signature. The numbers displayed represent the bar number and will have a dark vertical line to differentiate between each bar. And the columns between two light/dark coloured vertical lines represent a beat of the assigned value in the time signature. So in a 4/8 time signature, there will be 4 columns a bar. Each column represents a value of 1/8 of a beat (quaver). In a 4/4 time signature, there will also be 4 columns in a bar, but compared to 4/8 the columns will noticeable be smaller as their beat values are different.


 
The coloured bars:


 
If you’ve seen music videos on youtube, you might have come across something similar to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lOnEth0p-Y

This works exactly how it does in 3ML, but if you still do not understand, read further.


 
The coloured bars just represents the note value according to the time signature assigned. Reading this can help you determine whether a note has the wrong value or is not the right note before even playing the ‘play’ button to listen to what you have written. The coloured bars closest to the piano on the left is shows note what is being played according to the piano keys (so if you memorized the piano octave earlier it will be helpful). The length of the coloured bars will represent the note value. Read the “key signature” in 3ML for more detail.


 
Commands:


 
You can also refer to this site, or you can read mine and see which one you prefer and understand better from:

http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/view/MML


 
‘o1,o2,o3,etc’

‘o’ refers to octave and the number in front refers to which octave. In mml, you can see there’s all the keys to a typical piano. So o1 being the lowest, and o8 being the highest. The default octave is the middle octave (o4) so you don’t have to type it in.


 
‘>, <’

 ‘>’ makes the next note you write an octave higher, while ‘<’ makes the next note you write an octave lower.


 
‘&/.’

These are used for tied notes or a dotted note.  So a dotted minim (2beats+half=3beats). Will be written as : ‘a2&a’. Occasionally used for ties.


 
‘t120’

The ‘t’ before the number represents the word tempo and the number after it the tempo speed. In 3ML is can be seen has BPM (beats per minute). Higher values mean a faster paced song. Ranges from t32 – t255


 
‘l8’

The ‘l’ represents length and the value after it represents the note length/value.


 
‘#/+’

These two mean the same thing. So C# = C+

                               

‘l8’

‘l’ represents length and the number after it represents the note value. So any note written after this is assigned the note value stated by the length command. So for ‘l8’ , writing the following notes: cdefg is the same as writing c8d8e8f8g8. This is merely a shortcut in writing notes, especially when a bar is composed of nothing but quavers.


 
‘r8/c8’

‘r’ represents a rest and ‘c’ is the note (can be any note i.e. A,B,D,E,etc). The value after r and c is the note value. In this case it is a quaver (half a beat/quarter note).


 
‘n35’

‘n’ represents ‘number’ and 35 represents a particular note in the octave ranges, in this case n35 is the note B in the octave 2 . Refer to this link to find the note and its octave:

http://www.electronics.dit.ie/staff/tscarff/Music_technology/midi/midi_note_numbers_for_octaves.htm


 
‘v5’

‘V’ represents ‘volume’ and the number after v is the intensity/loudness of the volume. Where v0 is the softest and v15 is the loudest. Anything after you set the v5 command will be played in volume 5 until you change it. Default volume is v8, so if you write your music without including v15 in front, all notes will be played in v8 unless changed.


 
After writing an mml of this format,  right click each tab and click optimize. As the word suggests it will turn whatever you created into the shortest form possible.


 
Note/rest values:

 
Because it’s hard to show pictures/symbols of notes here ill direct you to a Wikipedia site:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_value


 
Refer the Wikipedia table from 4th row downwards; I’ll try to explain those better than Wikipedia.


 
Notes and rests have the same value, but different symbol. Obviously note=play, rest=pause/silence for the duration of the beat(s).

 
Whatever is in first three rows: I’ve never seen these before so I won’t bother explaining, never seen them on music sheet either, I highly doubt that will be on whatever music you wanna compose.

Semibreve: Value of 4 beats. Tip: the semibreve and minim rests are very similar, expect ones upright and the other upside-down, a tip one of my music teachers taught my long ago that you could use to differentiate between the two is upside = stronger (can support its weight), therefore higher value. Upright=weaker (needs support). No matter the time signature, one semibreve is a rest for the whole bar.

Minim: Value of 2 beats.

Crotchet: value of 1 beats

Quaver: value of ½ a beat (half a crotchet), also known as a quarter note.

Semi Quaver: value of ¼ a beat (quarter of crotchet, half a quaver)

Prefix Quaver : personally I did not learn any quavers below semiquaver, but if you see a note that has say 3 curly ends of a semi quaver it is half the value of the note with 2 curly ends of a semi quaver. So looking at Wikipedia you can tell that by the note values they give you. Often when reading music, you usually won’t come across demisemiquaver or lower.


 
Reading a music sheet to convert into 3ML format


 
Again, you might want to refer to : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
when reading through this.


 
Key Signature:   Depending on the number of flats and sharps on the key signature, you make have a hard time remembering what note is what especially for flats, where it needs to be converted to sharps in 3ML. The number of #/♭has their respective major/minor, but that will not need to be covered. Reading the flats/sharps from the left they have the order:


 
Key Signature


 

 

 
Number of #/♭

#

♭

3ML (♭)

1

F#

B♭

A#

2

F#, C#

B♭, E ♭

A#, D#

3

F#, C#, G#

B♭,E♭, A♭

A#, D#, G#

4

F#, C#, G#, D#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭

A#, D#, G#, C#

5

F#, C#, G#, D#, A#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭,G♭

A#, D#, G#, C#, F#

There are more, but I cannot be bothered listing more and its unlikely the music sheet will have that many. So basically whatever key signature you have with the respective number of #/♭, the notes according the table will be applied to EVERY note in the whole music sheet UNLESS the key signature changes elsewhere, so look out for those key signatures.


 
Natural(♮): If this is come across in the key signature, then certain notes that are meant to be played as a sharp/flat is played normally. So, according to the table above, if you see ‘##,N,#’ from left to right for a time signature for #, it means that only F#, C#, D# are changed, the G note is played normally.


 
Dotted Note: If you come across a note with a dot on the right hand side of the note, it means add half the value of the dotted note when you play that dotted note. So a dotted minim (2 beats) means play a minim plus half a minim (1 beat) which totals to 3 beats to be played for that dotted note.


 
Tie: This appears as a curved convex time linking two notes together. This just means you play that one note for the value of the two notes combined. Composers use this when a value of a note they want played is not half the value of the original note.

For dotted notes: crotchet + quaver = 1.5 beats, if the composer wants crotchet + semiquaver, by definition that is not a dotted note, so a tie is used: crotchet + semiquaver = 1.25 beats.


 
Staccato: This appears as a dot on top of a note and means it’s played at roughly half the value of the note. To imitate this on 3ML write the note of half its original value and add a rest also half fo its original value.

Example: A staccato placed on a crotchet ‘C’ note will be written as the following in 3ML: ‘c8r8’


 
Accent: This tells you that the note with a ‘>’ sign on top is played louder than the other notes without the accent. So in 3ML change the volume to a higher value i.e. v10 (higher than base volume 8)


 
8va----------: This is written on starting note and the ‘----‘ part will span to all notes that this is applied to. This is usually written so that the instrument player doesn’t not need to read ridiculously high notes that they probably will not know (unless they start counting from the highest note they know. It means play those notes an octave higher. So in 3ML you will just need to up the octave by one.


 
Vibrato/Arpeggio: This tells you that all those notes are played quickly in ascending order for the duration of the value.


 
Using the Wikipedia example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-arpeggio.svg

Assuming treble clef, 3 notes: G,B,D with the value of 4 beats. So G is played first, followed by B then D.

To imitate this is 3ML I would write:

g8b8>d2&d2 or  g16b16>d8&d2&d8

The first two notes are played at whatever speed you prefer then the last note is held for the remaining duration of the note value. So in case 1, two quavers are used (1 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 1 = 3 remaining beats). While in case 2, 2 semiquavers are used (0.5 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 0.5 = 3.5 beats)


 
If the vibrato has more than 3 notes piled on top of each other, the method does not change, only the last note (the remainder) will have a different value.


 

 
Triplets (tuplet): Triplets are typically notes that have 3 joined quavers (can be 3 minims, crotchets, etc too!) with a ‘3’ written on top. This indicates that those 3 notes are played for duration of 2 quavers (or crotchet). Refer to the basics of 3ML table for the triplet values.


 
You do not need to know this unless you encounter other tuplets or triples in semiquavers or higher: For triplets, you need to get the total beat duration (American terminology) divided by the number of notes to get the 3ML note length.

Example:

Crotchets: beat duration (2 crotchets = 1 minim = (1/2) note) / number of notes (triplets: 3) = 1/6

So C6 is used.

Likewise for quavers: beat duration (2 quavers = 1 crotchet = (1/4) note) / note duration (triplets: 3) = 1/12

So C12 is used.


 
Appoggiatura/Acciaccatura: These are notes (usually quavers or lower values) that are printed really small before or in between notes. This wants you to play that note quickly without playing the next note. This is notably seen in most versions of “River Flows in You” by Yiruma.


 

 
Fermata: To do this in 3ML obviously just assign that note value to be longer. So if a fermata is placed on a semibreve for example, perhaps play it for the value of two semibreves.


 
Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-fermata.svg

Assuming treble clef, the note is ‘G’ with a value of 1 beat.

So instead of writing ‘f’ you write ‘f2’ or ‘f1’ or however long you want the value to be.


 

 
Crescendo, Decrescendo: These are the wide ‘greater than or less than signs’ on top of a group of notes. Crescendo being the long less than, and the decrescendo being the long ‘greater than’, each meaning gradually getting louder and gradually getting softer. To imitate this, change the volume of each note or group of notes i.e. assigning v10 for louder notes, v6 going softer, v2 going even softer…etc. The volume increments are entirely up to you. A little playing around may help.


 
3ML layout


 
When reading from sheet to 3ML, you should assign the line of bars (several bars of music writing in a line before starting a new one below the previous line of bars) on the music sheet to also be a line of notes in 3ML by pressing ‘spacebar’. This will allow you to quickly navigate what sections of music of the music sheet you have already written, opposed to writing one song is one long line in 3ML. You will also notice that after you pressed spacebar there will be an arrow pointing down, which juts indicates that the next note to be played will be found on the next line. If you follow the time signature, you can also tell whether the notes you write are of the right values by checking the time signature lines (see 3ML (adv), time signature).


 

 
Basic 3ML Example


 
Using ‘mary had a little lamb’ as an example from: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/music/sheetmusic/maryhadalittlelamb.shtml


 
The entire first row of bars it can be written as:


 
bagabbb2aaa2b>dd2


 
Notes: Notice that there is a sharp before the time signature, which is F#. There is not ‘F’ note on the first row so it is not used. As the first note starts in octave 4, there is no need to write ‘o4’ in front as it is the default octave.


 
Intermediate 3ML Example


 
Using ‘Axel F’ as an example:

http://musime.excalibur-nw.com/sites/default/files/sheetmusic/axel_f_beverly_hills_theme-trnscrbd-mattie.pdf


 
The entire first row of the TREBLE CLEF with (5) bars it can be written as:


 
Bar1: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8

Bar2: f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8

Bar3-4:f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2

Bar5: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 
Whole row: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8 f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8 f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2 fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 

 
Notes: There are 4 flats before the time signature, which means there’s B♭, E ♭,A♭,D♭. So any B,E,A,D notes you come across are all flats. Since this is at a 3ML format you have to remember that it is A#,D#,G#,C# instead.


 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guide


 
Nothing too much to ask, just start taking piano lessons and you are well on your way to writing mmls


 
Will continue updating or fixing stuff up if people spot mistakes etc.(my music theory is a little hazy)


 
Jokes aside this is just my style of writing 3ML by looking at a music sheet; it most likely is different from most mml writers in the community. In my opinion, this method of writing is easy to understand when you read it and help find those mistakes easily, I’m not the most proficient with 3ML so there are probably shortcuts that could have been done that I have not done. At the end of the day when you’re done writing the mml, you can optimize it so it hopefully can be composed in mabi so the shortcuts are done there. This guide hopefully will show you how read music sheets and compose in mml form on the program 3ML. Can be used for music sheets for piano and any music piece that has a treble clef in it. That means instruments like viola which has a clef of its own (alto clef) is not covered here.

 
Getting started


 
First read the 3ML (basics section to learn the basic stuff of the music writing program 3ML. Then you can move on to music theory that will hopefully allow you to read music sheets to convert into mml format using 3ML.


 
I recommend remembering the keys of a piano, as it helps visualize what the notes are and how to go about writing it. If you can try memorizing that it will be really helpful when writing mmls.


 
Here’s a link of a piano octave and try memorizing it:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

or just type in google images ‘one piano octave’ This can helpful as it helps you visualize the notes on the music sheet. The ‘♭’ in this picture are hard to see and kind of looks like a comma, so be vary it’s a flat!.


 
3ML(basics)


 
3ML is a good way to know what your composing and plays roughly what you would hear in-game in mabinogi. There are restrictions with this program, but the only ones that come to my attention are: flats, vibrato, note values, triplets and characters. Methods of doing this in 3ML are explained further on. If you want to compose an mml in 3ML by reading off the music sheet, first read the basic music theory.


 
Characters: In 3ML you can compose whatever length of song you want, but keep in mind that in mabinogi, there is a character limit for composing music scores.

(rank 1 composing: Melody and Song notes Max 1200, Harmony 1 notes Max 800, Harmony 2 notes Max 500).
Tip: if you have say 3 tabs worth of music that have roughly 1000 characters, you will have to turn that to a 3-man ensemble. i.e. cut paste each tab to the melody bar of each score.


 
Basics of 3ML


 
3ML format is strange, if you tried reading the basic music theory on notes/rests, you would know that in a 4/4 time signature: a crotchet is 1 beat, semiquaver is ½ a beat, etc. but in 3ML it’s written different. The table below shows the difference (hopefully). The note ‘C’ will be used as an example for the 3ML column:


 
British/American Terminology

Value (beats)

3ML (note length)

Semibreve/Whole Note

4

C1

Minim/(1/2) Note

2

C2

Minim/(1/2) Triplet Note

2

C3

Crotchet/(1/4) Note

1

C/C4

Crotchet/(1/4)  Triplet Note

1

C6

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C8

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C12

Semiquaver/(1/16) Note

0.25

C16

Demisemiquaver/(1/32) Note

0.125

C32

Hemidemisemiquaver/(1/64) Note

0.0625

C64


 
-Note that some sites refer 1 value to be a semibreve and hence crotchet would be named ‘quarter note’ (4 crotchets in a semibreve) but in this guide 1 beat (not value) is 1 crotchet. So 1/8 is not 0.5 technically speaking.

-The Default note value is 1 beats called a crotchet, so if you write in 3ML of the note ‘g’, it will be the same as ‘g4’ i.e. a ‘G’ note with the value of a beat.

 
Music Theory


 
Now for the fun part and to confuse you all.


 
Reading music sheets: musical Symbols/Terms


 
When reading music sheets refer to the Wikipedia symbols list and learn what they mean if you can:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
There are some things Wikipedia surprisingly missed out or didn’t explain properly as well so watch out for those.


 
If you’re unsure about something ask on the forum and others will answer it, if not I’ll have a go.

Here are some terms you may wanna remember if you want to read off music sheets as it will help you understand what I’m blabbering about further. (Or read the part you want and refer to this later)


 
Octave:  An octave consists of the notes: C , C#/D♭, D , D#/E♭ , E , F , F#/G♭ , G , G#/A♭ , A , A#/B♭, B. If you don’t understand refer to the image from the first link in ‘getting started’

Where C is the lowest note and B is the highest. The next octave will have the notes in the exact same order, expect they will be of higher values, or lower values if it is the octave below. C on lets say octave 4 (middle octave of a piano) compared to octave 5 will sound the same, expect higher. Hard to explain until you hear it.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): These are written depending on the key signature usually and rarely will you see both flats and sharps here and there in a music sheet. If you remember from the one piano octave picture, C# = D♭,D# = E♭and so on.

Natural(♮): This symbol just means play the original note (no flats/sharps).


 
Clefs: Just remember that the notes are different in both respective clefs so make sure you are reading the right clef. See ‘reading musical notes’ for more information.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): When a note in a bar has a flat/sharp written on it, which tells you to play a flat/sharp for that note in the bar only. So if there is a C# represent in the bar, any other C notes that appear in this bar has to be played as C#. If you memorized one octave of a piano and its notes to its corresponding keys, you might wonder: what about C♭,E#,F♭, B#. This isn’t often used, but when it is, it just means you play the notes D,F,E,C (one octave higher) respectively.

Natural(♮): This only happens in music sheets if there are flats/sharps present, especially when there is a key signature. Like flats and sharps, whenever is this applied on a note in a bar, it lasts for the duration of the bar. Sometimes it will appear twice for the same note in the bar to remind you it’s a natural (optional for the writer).


 
Time Signature:  The number on top of a number (a bit like a fraction) or the letter ‘c’ in the beginning of the bar of a song. This is optional and is not really needed for mml formatting, but if you understand how it works it can be helpful to track down if you have the right values of notes in a bar. See time signature (advanced) for more detail.


 
Time Signature (advanced):  The top number of the time signature represents the number of notes in a bar. The bottom number represents the number of beats one note will have in a bar. Most songs are of 4/4 or C time signature, which means 4 notes of the value 4, which is a crotchet, similar to 3ML format. Thus other signatures such as 4/8, 8/16 will mean 4 notes of the value 8 (quavers) and 8 notes of the value 16 (semiquavers) and so on.


 
Key Signature:   The stuff in front time signature often has a number of sharps or flats at different places. If there is no sharps/flats in the beginning bar of the song present you can read the sheet normally. If there is, your life is just made harder.


 
Tempo: Most music sheets should have this and will be displayed as a crotchet symbol = a number above the treble clef.  The higher this number is, the faster the whole song is to be played and the lower the number, the slower it is played. When there is not crochet symbol = a number written, there probably will be an Italian word there such as: moderato, allegro. Refer to this link to get your tempo number:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo#Italian_tempo_markings


 
Reading music sheets: musical Notes


 
Open this link here to show you some notes along the treble and bass clef:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg/2000px-Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg.png


 
Note that these notes do not have ‘staves’ or long vertical line that appears on the note, so they do not really have values (except for G4 which is semibreve). This is merely an example, you will not come across stateless notes in an actual music sheet.


 
In the treble clef, you can see an octave and a half worth of notes, starting with C note in the octave 4 ending with G note in the octave 5. In 3ML the default octave is o4, so writing ‘C’ in 3ML is the note labelled C4 in the link shown above. You will notice two ‘C’ notes present. Refer to musical terms: octave to learn why is this case.


 
Writing the treble clef notes in 3ML will have the following format, assuming all the staveless notes are crotchets:

cdefg1ab>cdefg

If you do not understand this format, scroll down to read the 3ML section


 
In the bass clef, the starting note is E in octave 2 (two octave lower than E of the 4th octave) up to the note B in octave 3. Note that in the treble clef, the note of the same position is note C in octave 4, so be wary which clef you are reading.


 

 
3ML(advanced)


 
‘♭’ in 3ML

There is no such thing as a flat in 3ML so you need to convert it to a sharp. Referring to this link again for the example:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

Examples: G ♭= F#,  B♭ = A#, C♭ = B


 
Key Signature in 3ML:


 
If you read the previous explanation of key signature it will explain what it is. Now if you apply it to 3ML it can be helpful to spot mistakes or notes that you entered that are assigned the wrong value. In 3ML you will notice two sets of piano keys. One on the very top that’s in blue and black and the one that is facing sideways in black and white with a grey columns everwhere. Notice that there is a silver bar on top of the grey columns and black/white piano keys as this is important for time signature. The numbers displayed represent the bar number and will have a dark vertical line to differentiate between each bar. And the columns between two light/dark coloured vertical lines represent a beat of the assigned value in the time signature. So in a 4/8 time signature, there will be 4 columns a bar. Each column represents a value of 1/8 of a beat (quaver). In a 4/4 time signature, there will also be 4 columns in a bar, but compared to 4/8 the columns will noticeable be smaller as their beat values are different.


 
The coloured bars:


 
If you’ve seen music videos on youtube, you might have come across something similar to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lOnEth0p-Y

This works exactly how it does in 3ML, but if you still do not understand, read further.


 
The coloured bars just represents the note value according to the time signature assigned. Reading this can help you determine whether a note has the wrong value or is not the right note before even playing the ‘play’ button to listen to what you have written. The coloured bars closest to the piano on the left is shows note what is being played according to the piano keys (so if you memorized the piano octave earlier it will be helpful). The length of the coloured bars will represent the note value. Read the “key signature” in 3ML for more detail.


 
Commands:


 
You can also refer to this site, or you can read mine and see which one you prefer and understand better from:

http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/view/MML


 
‘o1,o2,o3,etc’

‘o’ refers to octave and the number in front refers to which octave. In mml, you can see there’s all the keys to a typical piano. So o1 being the lowest, and o8 being the highest. The default octave is the middle octave (o4) so you don’t have to type it in.


 
‘>, <’

 ‘>’ makes the next note you write an octave higher, while ‘<’ makes the next note you write an octave lower.


 
‘&/.’

These are used for tied notes or a dotted note.  So a dotted minim (2beats+half=3beats). Will be written as : ‘a2&a’. Occasionally used for ties.


 
‘t120’

The ‘t’ before the number represents the word tempo and the number after it the tempo speed. In 3ML is can be seen has BPM (beats per minute). Higher values mean a faster paced song. Ranges from t32 – t255


 
‘l8’

The ‘l’ represents length and the value after it represents the note length/value.


 
‘#/+’

These two mean the same thing. So C# = C+

                               

‘l8’

‘l’ represents length and the number after it represents the note value. So any note written after this is assigned the note value stated by the length command. So for ‘l8’ , writing the following notes: cdefg is the same as writing c8d8e8f8g8. This is merely a shortcut in writing notes, especially when a bar is composed of nothing but quavers.


 
‘r8/c8’

‘r’ represents a rest and ‘c’ is the note (can be any note i.e. A,B,D,E,etc). The value after r and c is the note value. In this case it is a quaver (half a beat/quarter note).


 
‘n35’

‘n’ represents ‘number’ and 35 represents a particular note in the octave ranges, in this case n35 is the note B in the octave 2 . Refer to this link to find the note and its octave:

http://www.electronics.dit.ie/staff/tscarff/Music_technology/midi/midi_note_numbers_for_octaves.htm


 
‘v5’

‘V’ represents ‘volume’ and the number after v is the intensity/loudness of the volume. Where v0 is the softest and v15 is the loudest. Anything after you set the v5 command will be played in volume 5 until you change it. Default volume is v8, so if you write your music without including v15 in front, all notes will be played in v8 unless changed.


 
After writing an mml of this format,  right click each tab and click optimize. As the word suggests it will turn whatever you created into the shortest form possible.


 
Note/rest values:

 
Because it’s hard to show pictures/symbols of notes here ill direct you to a Wikipedia site:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_value


 
Refer the Wikipedia table from 4th row downwards; I’ll try to explain those better than Wikipedia.


 
Notes and rests have the same value, but different symbol. Obviously note=play, rest=pause/silence for the duration of the beat(s).

 
Whatever is in first three rows: I’ve never seen these before so I won’t bother explaining, never seen them on music sheet either, I highly doubt that will be on whatever music you wanna compose.

Semibreve: Value of 4 beats. Tip: the semibreve and minim rests are very similar, expect ones upright and the other upside-down, a tip one of my music teachers taught my long ago that you could use to differentiate between the two is upside = stronger (can support its weight), therefore higher value. Upright=weaker (needs support). No matter the time signature, one semibreve is a rest for the whole bar.

Minim: Value of 2 beats.

Crotchet: value of 1 beats

Quaver: value of ½ a beat (half a crotchet), also known as a quarter note.

Semi Quaver: value of ¼ a beat (quarter of crotchet, half a quaver)

Prefix Quaver : personally I did not learn any quavers below semiquaver, but if you see a note that has say 3 curly ends of a semi quaver it is half the value of the note with 2 curly ends of a semi quaver. So looking at Wikipedia you can tell that by the note values they give you. Often when reading music, you usually won’t come across demisemiquaver or lower.


 
Reading a music sheet to convert into 3ML format


 
Again, you might want to refer to : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
when reading through this.


 
Key Signature:   Depending on the number of flats and sharps on the key signature, you make have a hard time remembering what note is what especially for flats, where it needs to be converted to sharps in 3ML. The number of #/♭has their respective major/minor, but that will not need to be covered. Reading the flats/sharps from the left they have the order:


 
Key Signature


 

 

 
Number of #/♭

#

♭

3ML (♭)

1

F#

B♭

A#

2

F#, C#

B♭, E ♭

A#, D#

3

F#, C#, G#

B♭,E♭, A♭

A#, D#, G#

4

F#, C#, G#, D#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭

A#, D#, G#, C#

5

F#, C#, G#, D#, A#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭,G♭

A#, D#, G#, C#, F#

There are more, but I cannot be bothered listing more and its unlikely the music sheet will have that many. So basically whatever key signature you have with the respective number of #/♭, the notes according the table will be applied to EVERY note in the whole music sheet UNLESS the key signature changes elsewhere, so look out for those key signatures.


 
Natural(♮): If this is come across in the key signature, then certain notes that are meant to be played as a sharp/flat is played normally. So, according to the table above, if you see ‘##,N,#’ from left to right for a time signature for #, it means that only F#, C#, D# are changed, the G note is played normally.


 
Dotted Note: If you come across a note with a dot on the right hand side of the note, it means add half the value of the dotted note when you play that dotted note. So a dotted minim (2 beats) means play a minim plus half a minim (1 beat) which totals to 3 beats to be played for that dotted note.


 
Tie: This appears as a curved convex time linking two notes together. This just means you play that one note for the value of the two notes combined. Composers use this when a value of a note they want played is not half the value of the original note.

For dotted notes: crotchet + quaver = 1.5 beats, if the composer wants crotchet + semiquaver, by definition that is not a dotted note, so a tie is used: crotchet + semiquaver = 1.25 beats.


 
Staccato: This appears as a dot on top of a note and means it’s played at roughly half the value of the note. To imitate this on 3ML write the note of half its original value and add a rest also half fo its original value.

Example: A staccato placed on a crotchet ‘C’ note will be written as the following in 3ML: ‘c8r8’


 
Accent: This tells you that the note with a ‘>’ sign on top is played louder than the other notes without the accent. So in 3ML change the volume to a higher value i.e. v10 (higher than base volume 8)


 
8va----------: This is written on starting note and the ‘----‘ part will span to all notes that this is applied to. This is usually written so that the instrument player doesn’t not need to read ridiculously high notes that they probably will not know (unless they start counting from the highest note they know. It means play those notes an octave higher. So in 3ML you will just need to up the octave by one.


 
Vibrato/Arpeggio: This tells you that all those notes are played quickly in ascending order for the duration of the value.


 
Using the Wikipedia example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-arpeggio.svg

Assuming treble clef, 3 notes: G,B,D with the value of 4 beats. So G is played first, followed by B then D.

To imitate this is 3ML I would write:

g8b8>d2&d2 or  g16b16>d8&d2&d8

The first two notes are played at whatever speed you prefer then the last note is held for the remaining duration of the note value. So in case 1, two quavers are used (1 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 1 = 3 remaining beats). While in case 2, 2 semiquavers are used (0.5 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 0.5 = 3.5 beats)


 
If the vibrato has more than 3 notes piled on top of each other, the method does not change, only the last note (the remainder) will have a different value.


 

 
Triplets (tuplet): Triplets are typically notes that have 3 joined quavers (can be 3 minims, crotchets, etc too!) with a ‘3’ written on top. This indicates that those 3 notes are played for duration of 2 quavers (or crotchet). Refer to the basics of 3ML table for the triplet values.


 
You do not need to know this unless you encounter other tuplets or triples in semiquavers or higher: For triplets, you need to get the total beat duration (American terminology) divided by the number of notes to get the 3ML note length.

Example:

Crotchets: beat duration (2 crotchets = 1 minim = (1/2) note) / number of notes (triplets: 3) = 1/6

So C6 is used.

Likewise for quavers: beat duration (2 quavers = 1 crotchet = (1/4) note) / note duration (triplets: 3) = 1/12

So C12 is used.


 
Appoggiatura/Acciaccatura: These are notes (usually quavers or lower values) that are printed really small before or in between notes. This wants you to play that note quickly without playing the next note. This is notably seen in most versions of “River Flows in You” by Yiruma.


 

 
Fermata: To do this in 3ML obviously just assign that note value to be longer. So if a fermata is placed on a semibreve for example, perhaps play it for the value of two semibreves.


 
Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-fermata.svg

Assuming treble clef, the note is ‘G’ with a value of 1 beat.

So instead of writing ‘f’ you write ‘f2’ or ‘f1’ or however long you want the value to be.


 

 
Crescendo, Decrescendo: These are the wide ‘greater than or less than signs’ on top of a group of notes. Crescendo being the long less than, and the decrescendo being the long ‘greater than’, each meaning gradually getting louder and gradually getting softer. To imitate this, change the volume of each note or group of notes i.e. assigning v10 for louder notes, v6 going softer, v2 going even softer…etc. The volume increments are entirely up to you. A little playing around may help.


 
3ML layout


 
When reading from sheet to 3ML, you should assign the line of bars (several bars of music writing in a line before starting a new one below the previous line of bars) on the music sheet to also be a line of notes in 3ML by pressing ‘spacebar’. This will allow you to quickly navigate what sections of music of the music sheet you have already written, opposed to writing one song is one long line in 3ML. You will also notice that after you pressed spacebar there will be an arrow pointing down, which juts indicates that the next note to be played will be found on the next line. If you follow the time signature, you can also tell whether the notes you write are of the right values by checking the time signature lines (see 3ML (adv), time signature).


 

 
Basic 3ML Example


 
Using ‘mary had a little lamb’ as an example from: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/music/sheetmusic/maryhadalittlelamb.shtml


 
The entire first row of bars it can be written as:


 
bagabbb2aaa2b>dd2


 
Notes: Notice that there is a sharp before the time signature, which is F#. There is not ‘F’ note on the first row so it is not used. As the first note starts in octave 4, there is no need to write ‘o4’ in front as it is the default octave.


 
Intermediate 3ML Example


 
Using ‘Axel F’ as an example:

http://musime.excalibur-nw.com/sites/default/files/sheetmusic/axel_f_beverly_hills_theme-trnscrbd-mattie.pdf


 
The entire first row of the TREBLE CLEF with (5) bars it can be written as:


 
Bar1: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8

Bar2: f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8

Bar3-4:f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2

Bar5: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 
Whole row: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8 f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8 f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2 fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 

 
Notes: There are 4 flats before the time signature, which means there’s B♭, E ♭,A♭,D♭. So any B,E,A,D notes you come across are all flats. Since this is at a 3ML format you have to remember that it is A#,D#,G#,C# instead.


 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guide


 
Nothing too much to ask, just start taking piano lessons and you are well on your way to writing mmls


 
Will continue updating or fixing stuff up if people spot mistakes etc.(my music theory is a little hazy)


 
Jokes aside this is just my style of writing 3ML by looking at a music sheet; it most likely is different from most mml writers in the community. In my opinion, this method of writing is easy to understand when you read it and help find those mistakes easily, I’m not the most proficient with 3ML so there are probably shortcuts that could have been done that I have not done. At the end of the day when you’re done writing the mml, you can optimize it so it hopefully can be composed in mabi so the shortcuts are done there. This guide hopefully will show you how read music sheets and compose in mml form on the program 3ML. Can be used for music sheets for piano and any music piece that has a treble clef in it. That means instruments like viola which has a clef of its own (alto clef) is not covered here.

 
Getting started


 
First read the 3ML (basics section to learn the basic stuff of the music writing program 3ML. Then you can move on to music theory that will hopefully allow you to read music sheets to convert into mml format using 3ML.


 
I recommend remembering the keys of a piano, as it helps visualize what the notes are and how to go about writing it. If you can try memorizing that it will be really helpful when writing mmls.


 
Here’s a link of a piano octave and try memorizing it:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

or just type in google images ‘one piano octave’ This can helpful as it helps you visualize the notes on the music sheet. The ‘♭’ in this picture are hard to see and kind of looks like a comma, so be vary it’s a flat!.


 
3ML(basics)


 
3ML is a good way to know what your composing and plays roughly what you would hear in-game in mabinogi. There are restrictions with this program, but the only ones that come to my attention are: flats, vibrato, note values, triplets and characters. Methods of doing this in 3ML are explained further on. If you want to compose an mml in 3ML by reading off the music sheet, first read the basic music theory.


 
Characters: In 3ML you can compose whatever length of song you want, but keep in mind that in mabinogi, there is a character limit for composing music scores.

(rank 1 composing: Melody and Song notes Max 1200, Harmony 1 notes Max 800, Harmony 2 notes Max 500).
Tip: if you have say 3 tabs worth of music that have roughly 1000 characters, you will have to turn that to a 3-man ensemble. i.e. cut paste each tab to the melody bar of each score.


 
Basics of 3ML


 
3ML format is strange, if you tried reading the basic music theory on notes/rests, you would know that in a 4/4 time signature: a crotchet is 1 beat, semiquaver is ½ a beat, etc. but in 3ML it’s written different. The table below shows the difference (hopefully). The note ‘C’ will be used as an example for the 3ML column:


 
British/American Terminology

Value (beats)

3ML (note length)

Semibreve/Whole Note

4

C1

Minim/(1/2) Note

2

C2

Minim/(1/2) Triplet Note

2

C3

Crotchet/(1/4) Note

1

C/C4

Crotchet/(1/4)  Triplet Note

1

C6

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C8

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C12

Semiquaver/(1/16) Note

0.25

C16

Demisemiquaver/(1/32) Note

0.125

C32

Hemidemisemiquaver/(1/64) Note

0.0625

C64


 
-Note that some sites refer 1 value to be a semibreve and hence crotchet would be named ‘quarter note’ (4 crotchets in a semibreve) but in this guide 1 beat (not value) is 1 crotchet. So 1/8 is not 0.5 technically speaking.

-The Default note value is 1 beats called a crotchet, so if you write in 3ML of the note ‘g’, it will be the same as ‘g4’ i.e. a ‘G’ note with the value of a beat.

 
Music Theory


 
Now for the fun part and to confuse you all.


 
Reading music sheets: musical Symbols/Terms


 
When reading music sheets refer to the Wikipedia symbols list and learn what they mean if you can:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
There are some things Wikipedia surprisingly missed out or didn’t explain properly as well so watch out for those.


 
If you’re unsure about something ask on the forum and others will answer it, if not I’ll have a go.

Here are some terms you may wanna remember if you want to read off music sheets as it will help you understand what I’m blabbering about further. (Or read the part you want and refer to this later)


 
Octave:  An octave consists of the notes: C , C#/D♭, D , D#/E♭ , E , F , F#/G♭ , G , G#/A♭ , A , A#/B♭, B. If you don’t understand refer to the image from the first link in ‘getting started’

Where C is the lowest note and B is the highest. The next octave will have the notes in the exact same order, expect they will be of higher values, or lower values if it is the octave below. C on lets say octave 4 (middle octave of a piano) compared to octave 5 will sound the same, expect higher. Hard to explain until you hear it.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): These are written depending on the key signature usually and rarely will you see both flats and sharps here and there in a music sheet. If you remember from the one piano octave picture, C# = D♭,D# = E♭and so on.

Natural(♮): This symbol just means play the original note (no flats/sharps).


 
Clefs: Just remember that the notes are different in both respective clefs so make sure you are reading the right clef. See ‘reading musical notes’ for more information.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): When a note in a bar has a flat/sharp written on it, which tells you to play a flat/sharp for that note in the bar only. So if there is a C# represent in the bar, any other C notes that appear in this bar has to be played as C#. If you memorized one octave of a piano and its notes to its corresponding keys, you might wonder: what about C♭,E#,F♭, B#. This isn’t often used, but when it is, it just means you play the notes D,F,E,C (one octave higher) respectively.

Natural(♮): This only happens in music sheets if there are flats/sharps present, especially when there is a key signature. Like flats and sharps, whenever is this applied on a note in a bar, it lasts for the duration of the bar. Sometimes it will appear twice for the same note in the bar to remind you it’s a natural (optional for the writer).


 
Time Signature:  The number on top of a number (a bit like a fraction) or the letter ‘c’ in the beginning of the bar of a song. This is optional and is not really needed for mml formatting, but if you understand how it works it can be helpful to track down if you have the right values of notes in a bar. See time signature (advanced) for more detail.


 
Time Signature (advanced):  The top number of the time signature represents the number of notes in a bar. The bottom number represents the number of beats one note will have in a bar. Most songs are of 4/4 or C time signature, which means 4 notes of the value 4, which is a crotchet, similar to 3ML format. Thus other signatures such as 4/8, 8/16 will mean 4 notes of the value 8 (quavers) and 8 notes of the value 16 (semiquavers) and so on.


 
Key Signature:   The stuff in front time signature often has a number of sharps or flats at different places. If there is no sharps/flats in the beginning bar of the song present you can read the sheet normally. If there is, your life is just made harder.


 
Tempo: Most music sheets should have this and will be displayed as a crotchet symbol = a number above the treble clef.  The higher this number is, the faster the whole song is to be played and the lower the number, the slower it is played. When there is not crochet symbol = a number written, there probably will be an Italian word there such as: moderato, allegro. Refer to this link to get your tempo number:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo#Italian_tempo_markings


 
Reading music sheets: musical Notes


 
Open this link here to show you some notes along the treble and bass clef:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg/2000px-Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg.png


 
Note that these notes do not have ‘staves’ or long vertical line that appears on the note, so they do not really have values (except for G4 which is semibreve). This is merely an example, you will not come across stateless notes in an actual music sheet.


 
In the treble clef, you can see an octave and a half worth of notes, starting with C note in the octave 4 ending with G note in the octave 5. In 3ML the default octave is o4, so writing ‘C’ in 3ML is the note labelled C4 in the link shown above. You will notice two ‘C’ notes present. Refer to musical terms: octave to learn why is this case.


 
Writing the treble clef notes in 3ML will have the following format, assuming all the staveless notes are crotchets:

cdefg1ab>cdefg

If you do not understand this format, scroll down to read the 3ML section


 
In the bass clef, the starting note is E in octave 2 (two octave lower than E of the 4th octave) up to the note B in octave 3. Note that in the treble clef, the note of the same position is note C in octave 4, so be wary which clef you are reading.


 

 
3ML(advanced)


 
‘♭’ in 3ML

There is no such thing as a flat in 3ML so you need to convert it to a sharp. Referring to this link again for the example:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

Examples: G ♭= F#,  B♭ = A#, C♭ = B


 
Key Signature in 3ML:


 
If you read the previous explanation of key signature it will explain what it is. Now if you apply it to 3ML it can be helpful to spot mistakes or notes that you entered that are assigned the wrong value. In 3ML you will notice two sets of piano keys. One on the very top that’s in blue and black and the one that is facing sideways in black and white with a grey columns everwhere. Notice that there is a silver bar on top of the grey columns and black/white piano keys as this is important for time signature. The numbers displayed represent the bar number and will have a dark vertical line to differentiate between each bar. And the columns between two light/dark coloured vertical lines represent a beat of the assigned value in the time signature. So in a 4/8 time signature, there will be 4 columns a bar. Each column represents a value of 1/8 of a beat (quaver). In a 4/4 time signature, there will also be 4 columns in a bar, but compared to 4/8 the columns will noticeable be smaller as their beat values are different.


 
The coloured bars:


 
If you’ve seen music videos on youtube, you might have come across something similar to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lOnEth0p-Y

This works exactly how it does in 3ML, but if you still do not understand, read further.


 
The coloured bars just represents the note value according to the time signature assigned. Reading this can help you determine whether a note has the wrong value or is not the right note before even playing the ‘play’ button to listen to what you have written. The coloured bars closest to the piano on the left is shows note what is being played according to the piano keys (so if you memorized the piano octave earlier it will be helpful). The length of the coloured bars will represent the note value. Read the “key signature” in 3ML for more detail.


 
Commands:


 
You can also refer to this site, or you can read mine and see which one you prefer and understand better from:

http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/view/MML


 
‘o1,o2,o3,etc’

‘o’ refers to octave and the number in front refers to which octave. In mml, you can see there’s all the keys to a typical piano. So o1 being the lowest, and o8 being the highest. The default octave is the middle octave (o4) so you don’t have to type it in.


 
‘>, <’

 ‘>’ makes the next note you write an octave higher, while ‘<’ makes the next note you write an octave lower.


 
‘&/.’

These are used for tied notes or a dotted note.  So a dotted minim (2beats+half=3beats). Will be written as : ‘a2&a’. Occasionally used for ties.


 
‘t120’

The ‘t’ before the number represents the word tempo and the number after it the tempo speed. In 3ML is can be seen has BPM (beats per minute). Higher values mean a faster paced song. Ranges from t32 – t255


 
‘l8’

The ‘l’ represents length and the value after it represents the note length/value.


 
‘#/+’

These two mean the same thing. So C# = C+

                               

‘l8’

‘l’ represents length and the number after it represents the note value. So any note written after this is assigned the note value stated by the length command. So for ‘l8’ , writing the following notes: cdefg is the same as writing c8d8e8f8g8. This is merely a shortcut in writing notes, especially when a bar is composed of nothing but quavers.


 
‘r8/c8’

‘r’ represents a rest and ‘c’ is the note (can be any note i.e. A,B,D,E,etc). The value after r and c is the note value. In this case it is a quaver (half a beat/quarter note).


 
‘n35’

‘n’ represents ‘number’ and 35 represents a particular note in the octave ranges, in this case n35 is the note B in the octave 2 . Refer to this link to find the note and its octave:

http://www.electronics.dit.ie/staff/tscarff/Music_technology/midi/midi_note_numbers_for_octaves.htm


 
‘v5’

‘V’ represents ‘volume’ and the number after v is the intensity/loudness of the volume. Where v0 is the softest and v15 is the loudest. Anything after you set the v5 command will be played in volume 5 until you change it. Default volume is v8, so if you write your music without including v15 in front, all notes will be played in v8 unless changed.


 
After writing an mml of this format,  right click each tab and click optimize. As the word suggests it will turn whatever you created into the shortest form possible.


 
Note/rest values:

 
Because it’s hard to show pictures/symbols of notes here ill direct you to a Wikipedia site:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_value


 
Refer the Wikipedia table from 4th row downwards; I’ll try to explain those better than Wikipedia.


 
Notes and rests have the same value, but different symbol. Obviously note=play, rest=pause/silence for the duration of the beat(s).

 
Whatever is in first three rows: I’ve never seen these before so I won’t bother explaining, never seen them on music sheet either, I highly doubt that will be on whatever music you wanna compose.

Semibreve: Value of 4 beats. Tip: the semibreve and minim rests are very similar, expect ones upright and the other upside-down, a tip one of my music teachers taught my long ago that you could use to differentiate between the two is upside = stronger (can support its weight), therefore higher value. Upright=weaker (needs support). No matter the time signature, one semibreve is a rest for the whole bar.

Minim: Value of 2 beats.

Crotchet: value of 1 beats

Quaver: value of ½ a beat (half a crotchet), also known as a quarter note.

Semi Quaver: value of ¼ a beat (quarter of crotchet, half a quaver)

Prefix Quaver : personally I did not learn any quavers below semiquaver, but if you see a note that has say 3 curly ends of a semi quaver it is half the value of the note with 2 curly ends of a semi quaver. So looking at Wikipedia you can tell that by the note values they give you. Often when reading music, you usually won’t come across demisemiquaver or lower.


 
Reading a music sheet to convert into 3ML format


 
Again, you might want to refer to : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
when reading through this.


 
Key Signature:   Depending on the number of flats and sharps on the key signature, you make have a hard time remembering what note is what especially for flats, where it needs to be converted to sharps in 3ML. The number of #/♭has their respective major/minor, but that will not need to be covered. Reading the flats/sharps from the left they have the order:


 
Key Signature


 

 

 
Number of #/♭

#

♭

3ML (♭)

1

F#

B♭

A#

2

F#, C#

B♭, E ♭

A#, D#

3

F#, C#, G#

B♭,E♭, A♭

A#, D#, G#

4

F#, C#, G#, D#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭

A#, D#, G#, C#

5

F#, C#, G#, D#, A#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭,G♭

A#, D#, G#, C#, F#

There are more, but I cannot be bothered listing more and its unlikely the music sheet will have that many. So basically whatever key signature you have with the respective number of #/♭, the notes according the table will be applied to EVERY note in the whole music sheet UNLESS the key signature changes elsewhere, so look out for those key signatures.


 
Natural(♮): If this is come across in the key signature, then certain notes that are meant to be played as a sharp/flat is played normally. So, according to the table above, if you see ‘##,N,#’ from left to right for a time signature for #, it means that only F#, C#, D# are changed, the G note is played normally.


 
Dotted Note: If you come across a note with a dot on the right hand side of the note, it means add half the value of the dotted note when you play that dotted note. So a dotted minim (2 beats) means play a minim plus half a minim (1 beat) which totals to 3 beats to be played for that dotted note.


 
Tie: This appears as a curved convex time linking two notes together. This just means you play that one note for the value of the two notes combined. Composers use this when a value of a note they want played is not half the value of the original note.

For dotted notes: crotchet + quaver = 1.5 beats, if the composer wants crotchet + semiquaver, by definition that is not a dotted note, so a tie is used: crotchet + semiquaver = 1.25 beats.


 
Staccato: This appears as a dot on top of a note and means it’s played at roughly half the value of the note. To imitate this on 3ML write the note of half its original value and add a rest also half fo its original value.

Example: A staccato placed on a crotchet ‘C’ note will be written as the following in 3ML: ‘c8r8’


 
Accent: This tells you that the note with a ‘>’ sign on top is played louder than the other notes without the accent. So in 3ML change the volume to a higher value i.e. v10 (higher than base volume 8)


 
8va----------: This is written on starting note and the ‘----‘ part will span to all notes that this is applied to. This is usually written so that the instrument player doesn’t not need to read ridiculously high notes that they probably will not know (unless they start counting from the highest note they know. It means play those notes an octave higher. So in 3ML you will just need to up the octave by one.


 
Vibrato/Arpeggio: This tells you that all those notes are played quickly in ascending order for the duration of the value.


 
Using the Wikipedia example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-arpeggio.svg

Assuming treble clef, 3 notes: G,B,D with the value of 4 beats. So G is played first, followed by B then D.

To imitate this is 3ML I would write:

g8b8>d2&d2 or  g16b16>d8&d2&d8

The first two notes are played at whatever speed you prefer then the last note is held for the remaining duration of the note value. So in case 1, two quavers are used (1 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 1 = 3 remaining beats). While in case 2, 2 semiquavers are used (0.5 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 0.5 = 3.5 beats)


 
If the vibrato has more than 3 notes piled on top of each other, the method does not change, only the last note (the remainder) will have a different value.


 

 
Triplets (tuplet): Triplets are typically notes that have 3 joined quavers (can be 3 minims, crotchets, etc too!) with a ‘3’ written on top. This indicates that those 3 notes are played for duration of 2 quavers (or crotchet). Refer to the basics of 3ML table for the triplet values.


 
You do not need to know this unless you encounter other tuplets or triples in semiquavers or higher: For triplets, you need to get the total beat duration (American terminology) divided by the number of notes to get the 3ML note length.

Example:

Crotchets: beat duration (2 crotchets = 1 minim = (1/2) note) / number of notes (triplets: 3) = 1/6

So C6 is used.

Likewise for quavers: beat duration (2 quavers = 1 crotchet = (1/4) note) / note duration (triplets: 3) = 1/12

So C12 is used.


 
Appoggiatura/Acciaccatura: These are notes (usually quavers or lower values) that are printed really small before or in between notes. This wants you to play that note quickly without playing the next note. This is notably seen in most versions of “River Flows in You” by Yiruma.


 

 
Fermata: To do this in 3ML obviously just assign that note value to be longer. So if a fermata is placed on a semibreve for example, perhaps play it for the value of two semibreves.


 
Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-fermata.svg

Assuming treble clef, the note is ‘G’ with a value of 1 beat.

So instead of writing ‘f’ you write ‘f2’ or ‘f1’ or however long you want the value to be.


 

 
Crescendo, Decrescendo: These are the wide ‘greater than or less than signs’ on top of a group of notes. Crescendo being the long less than, and the decrescendo being the long ‘greater than’, each meaning gradually getting louder and gradually getting softer. To imitate this, change the volume of each note or group of notes i.e. assigning v10 for louder notes, v6 going softer, v2 going even softer…etc. The volume increments are entirely up to you. A little playing around may help.


 
3ML layout


 
When reading from sheet to 3ML, you should assign the line of bars (several bars of music writing in a line before starting a new one below the previous line of bars) on the music sheet to also be a line of notes in 3ML by pressing ‘spacebar’. This will allow you to quickly navigate what sections of music of the music sheet you have already written, opposed to writing one song is one long line in 3ML. You will also notice that after you pressed spacebar there will be an arrow pointing down, which juts indicates that the next note to be played will be found on the next line. If you follow the time signature, you can also tell whether the notes you write are of the right values by checking the time signature lines (see 3ML (adv), time signature).


 

 
Basic 3ML Example


 
Using ‘mary had a little lamb’ as an example from: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/music/sheetmusic/maryhadalittlelamb.shtml


 
The entire first row of bars it can be written as:


 
bagabbb2aaa2b>dd2


 
Notes: Notice that there is a sharp before the time signature, which is F#. There is not ‘F’ note on the first row so it is not used. As the first note starts in octave 4, there is no need to write ‘o4’ in front as it is the default octave.


 
Intermediate 3ML Example


 
Using ‘Axel F’ as an example:

http://musime.excalibur-nw.com/sites/default/files/sheetmusic/axel_f_beverly_hills_theme-trnscrbd-mattie.pdf


 
The entire first row of the TREBLE CLEF with (5) bars it can be written as:


 
Bar1: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8

Bar2: f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8

Bar3-4:f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2

Bar5: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 
Whole row: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8 f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8 f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2 fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 

 
Notes: There are 4 flats before the time signature, which means there’s B♭, E ♭,A♭,D♭. So any B,E,A,D notes you come across are all flats. Since this is at a 3ML format you have to remember that it is A#,D#,G#,C# instead.


 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guide


 
Nothing too much to ask, just start taking piano lessons and you are well on your way to writing mmls


 
Will continue updating or fixing stuff up if people spot mistakes etc.(my music theory is a little hazy)


 
Jokes aside this is just my style of writing 3ML by looking at a music sheet; it most likely is different from most mml writers in the community. In my opinion, this method of writing is easy to understand when you read it and help find those mistakes easily, I’m not the most proficient with 3ML so there are probably shortcuts that could have been done that I have not done. At the end of the day when you’re done writing the mml, you can optimize it so it hopefully can be composed in mabi so the shortcuts are done there. This guide hopefully will show you how read music sheets and compose in mml form on the program 3ML. Can be used for music sheets for piano and any music piece that has a treble clef in it. That means instruments like viola which has a clef of its own (alto clef) is not covered here.

 
Getting started


 
First read the 3ML (basics section to learn the basic stuff of the music writing program 3ML. Then you can move on to music theory that will hopefully allow you to read music sheets to convert into mml format using 3ML.


 
I recommend remembering the keys of a piano, as it helps visualize what the notes are and how to go about writing it. If you can try memorizing that it will be really helpful when writing mmls.


 
Here’s a link of a piano octave and try memorizing it:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

or just type in google images ‘one piano octave’ This can helpful as it helps you visualize the notes on the music sheet. The ‘♭’ in this picture are hard to see and kind of looks like a comma, so be vary it’s a flat!.


 
3ML(basics)


 
3ML is a good way to know what your composing and plays roughly what you would hear in-game in mabinogi. There are restrictions with this program, but the only ones that come to my attention are: flats, vibrato, note values, triplets and characters. Methods of doing this in 3ML are explained further on. If you want to compose an mml in 3ML by reading off the music sheet, first read the basic music theory.


 
Characters: In 3ML you can compose whatever length of song you want, but keep in mind that in mabinogi, there is a character limit for composing music scores.

(rank 1 composing: Melody and Song notes Max 1200, Harmony 1 notes Max 800, Harmony 2 notes Max 500).
Tip: if you have say 3 tabs worth of music that have roughly 1000 characters, you will have to turn that to a 3-man ensemble. i.e. cut paste each tab to the melody bar of each score.


 
Basics of 3ML


 
3ML format is strange, if you tried reading the basic music theory on notes/rests, you would know that in a 4/4 time signature: a crotchet is 1 beat, semiquaver is ½ a beat, etc. but in 3ML it’s written different. The table below shows the difference (hopefully). The note ‘C’ will be used as an example for the 3ML column:


 
British/American Terminology

Value (beats)

3ML (note length)

Semibreve/Whole Note

4

C1

Minim/(1/2) Note

2

C2

Minim/(1/2) Triplet Note

2

C3

Crotchet/(1/4) Note

1

C/C4

Crotchet/(1/4)  Triplet Note

1

C6

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C8

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C12

Semiquaver/(1/16) Note

0.25

C16

Demisemiquaver/(1/32) Note

0.125

C32

Hemidemisemiquaver/(1/64) Note

0.0625

C64


 
-Note that some sites refer 1 value to be a semibreve and hence crotchet would be named ‘quarter note’ (4 crotchets in a semibreve) but in this guide 1 beat (not value) is 1 crotchet. So 1/8 is not 0.5 technically speaking.

-The Default note value is 1 beats called a crotchet, so if you write in 3ML of the note ‘g’, it will be the same as ‘g4’ i.e. a ‘G’ note with the value of a beat.

 
Music Theory


 
Now for the fun part and to confuse you all.


 
Reading music sheets: musical Symbols/Terms


 
When reading music sheets refer to the Wikipedia symbols list and learn what they mean if you can:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
There are some things Wikipedia surprisingly missed out or didn’t explain properly as well so watch out for those.


 
If you’re unsure about something ask on the forum and others will answer it, if not I’ll have a go.

Here are some terms you may wanna remember if you want to read off music sheets as it will help you understand what I’m blabbering about further. (Or read the part you want and refer to this later)


 
Octave:  An octave consists of the notes: C , C#/D♭, D , D#/E♭ , E , F , F#/G♭ , G , G#/A♭ , A , A#/B♭, B. If you don’t understand refer to the image from the first link in ‘getting started’

Where C is the lowest note and B is the highest. The next octave will have the notes in the exact same order, expect they will be of higher values, or lower values if it is the octave below. C on lets say octave 4 (middle octave of a piano) compared to octave 5 will sound the same, expect higher. Hard to explain until you hear it.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): These are written depending on the key signature usually and rarely will you see both flats and sharps here and there in a music sheet. If you remember from the one piano octave picture, C# = D♭,D# = E♭and so on.

Natural(♮): This symbol just means play the original note (no flats/sharps).


 
Clefs: Just remember that the notes are different in both respective clefs so make sure you are reading the right clef. See ‘reading musical notes’ for more information.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): When a note in a bar has a flat/sharp written on it, which tells you to play a flat/sharp for that note in the bar only. So if there is a C# represent in the bar, any other C notes that appear in this bar has to be played as C#. If you memorized one octave of a piano and its notes to its corresponding keys, you might wonder: what about C♭,E#,F♭, B#. This isn’t often used, but when it is, it just means you play the notes D,F,E,C (one octave higher) respectively.

Natural(♮): This only happens in music sheets if there are flats/sharps present, especially when there is a key signature. Like flats and sharps, whenever is this applied on a note in a bar, it lasts for the duration of the bar. Sometimes it will appear twice for the same note in the bar to remind you it’s a natural (optional for the writer).


 
Time Signature:  The number on top of a number (a bit like a fraction) or the letter ‘c’ in the beginning of the bar of a song. This is optional and is not really needed for mml formatting, but if you understand how it works it can be helpful to track down if you have the right values of notes in a bar. See time signature (advanced) for more detail.


 
Time Signature (advanced):  The top number of the time signature represents the number of notes in a bar. The bottom number represents the number of beats one note will have in a bar. Most songs are of 4/4 or C time signature, which means 4 notes of the value 4, which is a crotchet, similar to 3ML format. Thus other signatures such as 4/8, 8/16 will mean 4 notes of the value 8 (quavers) and 8 notes of the value 16 (semiquavers) and so on.


 
Key Signature:   The stuff in front time signature often has a number of sharps or flats at different places. If there is no sharps/flats in the beginning bar of the song present you can read the sheet normally. If there is, your life is just made harder.


 
Tempo: Most music sheets should have this and will be displayed as a crotchet symbol = a number above the treble clef.  The higher this number is, the faster the whole song is to be played and the lower the number, the slower it is played. When there is not crochet symbol = a number written, there probably will be an Italian word there such as: moderato, allegro. Refer to this link to get your tempo number:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo#Italian_tempo_markings


 
Reading music sheets: musical Notes


 
Open this link here to show you some notes along the treble and bass clef:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg/2000px-Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg.png


 
Note that these notes do not have ‘staves’ or long vertical line that appears on the note, so they do not really have values (except for G4 which is semibreve). This is merely an example, you will not come across stateless notes in an actual music sheet.


 
In the treble clef, you can see an octave and a half worth of notes, starting with C note in the octave 4 ending with G note in the octave 5. In 3ML the default octave is o4, so writing ‘C’ in 3ML is the note labelled C4 in the link shown above. You will notice two ‘C’ notes present. Refer to musical terms: octave to learn why is this case.


 
Writing the treble clef notes in 3ML will have the following format, assuming all the staveless notes are crotchets:

cdefg1ab>cdefg

If you do not understand this format, scroll down to read the 3ML section


 
In the bass clef, the starting note is E in octave 2 (two octave lower than E of the 4th octave) up to the note B in octave 3. Note that in the treble clef, the note of the same position is note C in octave 4, so be wary which clef you are reading.


 

 
3ML(advanced)


 
‘♭’ in 3ML

There is no such thing as a flat in 3ML so you need to convert it to a sharp. Referring to this link again for the example:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

Examples: G ♭= F#,  B♭ = A#, C♭ = B


 
Key Signature in 3ML:


 
If you read the previous explanation of key signature it will explain what it is. Now if you apply it to 3ML it can be helpful to spot mistakes or notes that you entered that are assigned the wrong value. In 3ML you will notice two sets of piano keys. One on the very top that’s in blue and black and the one that is facing sideways in black and white with a grey columns everwhere. Notice that there is a silver bar on top of the grey columns and black/white piano keys as this is important for time signature. The numbers displayed represent the bar number and will have a dark vertical line to differentiate between each bar. And the columns between two light/dark coloured vertical lines represent a beat of the assigned value in the time signature. So in a 4/8 time signature, there will be 4 columns a bar. Each column represents a value of 1/8 of a beat (quaver). In a 4/4 time signature, there will also be 4 columns in a bar, but compared to 4/8 the columns will noticeable be smaller as their beat values are different.


 
The coloured bars:


 
If you’ve seen music videos on youtube, you might have come across something similar to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lOnEth0p-Y

This works exactly how it does in 3ML, but if you still do not understand, read further.


 
The coloured bars just represents the note value according to the time signature assigned. Reading this can help you determine whether a note has the wrong value or is not the right note before even playing the ‘play’ button to listen to what you have written. The coloured bars closest to the piano on the left is shows note what is being played according to the piano keys (so if you memorized the piano octave earlier it will be helpful). The length of the coloured bars will represent the note value. Read the “key signature” in 3ML for more detail.


 
Commands:


 
You can also refer to this site, or you can read mine and see which one you prefer and understand better from:

http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/view/MML


 
‘o1,o2,o3,etc’

‘o’ refers to octave and the number in front refers to which octave. In mml, you can see there’s all the keys to a typical piano. So o1 being the lowest, and o8 being the highest. The default octave is the middle octave (o4) so you don’t have to type it in.


 
‘>, <’

 ‘>’ makes the next note you write an octave higher, while ‘<’ makes the next note you write an octave lower.


 
‘&/.’

These are used for tied notes or a dotted note.  So a dotted minim (2beats+half=3beats). Will be written as : ‘a2&a’. Occasionally used for ties.


 
‘t120’

The ‘t’ before the number represents the word tempo and the number after it the tempo speed. In 3ML is can be seen has BPM (beats per minute). Higher values mean a faster paced song. Ranges from t32 – t255


 
‘l8’

The ‘l’ represents length and the value after it represents the note length/value.


 
‘#/+’

These two mean the same thing. So C# = C+

                               

‘l8’

‘l’ represents length and the number after it represents the note value. So any note written after this is assigned the note value stated by the length command. So for ‘l8’ , writing the following notes: cdefg is the same as writing c8d8e8f8g8. This is merely a shortcut in writing notes, especially when a bar is composed of nothing but quavers.


 
‘r8/c8’

‘r’ represents a rest and ‘c’ is the note (can be any note i.e. A,B,D,E,etc). The value after r and c is the note value. In this case it is a quaver (half a beat/quarter note).


 
‘n35’

‘n’ represents ‘number’ and 35 represents a particular note in the octave ranges, in this case n35 is the note B in the octave 2 . Refer to this link to find the note and its octave:

http://www.electronics.dit.ie/staff/tscarff/Music_technology/midi/midi_note_numbers_for_octaves.htm


 
‘v5’

‘V’ represents ‘volume’ and the number after v is the intensity/loudness of the volume. Where v0 is the softest and v15 is the loudest. Anything after you set the v5 command will be played in volume 5 until you change it. Default volume is v8, so if you write your music without including v15 in front, all notes will be played in v8 unless changed.


 
After writing an mml of this format,  right click each tab and click optimize. As the word suggests it will turn whatever you created into the shortest form possible.


 
Note/rest values:

 
Because it’s hard to show pictures/symbols of notes here ill direct you to a Wikipedia site:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_value


 
Refer the Wikipedia table from 4th row downwards; I’ll try to explain those better than Wikipedia.


 
Notes and rests have the same value, but different symbol. Obviously note=play, rest=pause/silence for the duration of the beat(s).

 
Whatever is in first three rows: I’ve never seen these before so I won’t bother explaining, never seen them on music sheet either, I highly doubt that will be on whatever music you wanna compose.

Semibreve: Value of 4 beats. Tip: the semibreve and minim rests are very similar, expect ones upright and the other upside-down, a tip one of my music teachers taught my long ago that you could use to differentiate between the two is upside = stronger (can support its weight), therefore higher value. Upright=weaker (needs support). No matter the time signature, one semibreve is a rest for the whole bar.

Minim: Value of 2 beats.

Crotchet: value of 1 beats

Quaver: value of ½ a beat (half a crotchet), also known as a quarter note.

Semi Quaver: value of ¼ a beat (quarter of crotchet, half a quaver)

Prefix Quaver : personally I did not learn any quavers below semiquaver, but if you see a note that has say 3 curly ends of a semi quaver it is half the value of the note with 2 curly ends of a semi quaver. So looking at Wikipedia you can tell that by the note values they give you. Often when reading music, you usually won’t come across demisemiquaver or lower.


 
Reading a music sheet to convert into 3ML format


 
Again, you might want to refer to : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
when reading through this.


 
Key Signature:   Depending on the number of flats and sharps on the key signature, you make have a hard time remembering what note is what especially for flats, where it needs to be converted to sharps in 3ML. The number of #/♭has their respective major/minor, but that will not need to be covered. Reading the flats/sharps from the left they have the order:


 
Key Signature


 

 

 
Number of #/♭

#

♭

3ML (♭)

1

F#

B♭

A#

2

F#, C#

B♭, E ♭

A#, D#

3

F#, C#, G#

B♭,E♭, A♭

A#, D#, G#

4

F#, C#, G#, D#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭

A#, D#, G#, C#

5

F#, C#, G#, D#, A#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭,G♭

A#, D#, G#, C#, F#

There are more, but I cannot be bothered listing more and its unlikely the music sheet will have that many. So basically whatever key signature you have with the respective number of #/♭, the notes according the table will be applied to EVERY note in the whole music sheet UNLESS the key signature changes elsewhere, so look out for those key signatures.


 
Natural(♮): If this is come across in the key signature, then certain notes that are meant to be played as a sharp/flat is played normally. So, according to the table above, if you see ‘##,N,#’ from left to right for a time signature for #, it means that only F#, C#, D# are changed, the G note is played normally.


 
Dotted Note: If you come across a note with a dot on the right hand side of the note, it means add half the value of the dotted note when you play that dotted note. So a dotted minim (2 beats) means play a minim plus half a minim (1 beat) which totals to 3 beats to be played for that dotted note.


 
Tie: This appears as a curved convex time linking two notes together. This just means you play that one note for the value of the two notes combined. Composers use this when a value of a note they want played is not half the value of the original note.

For dotted notes: crotchet + quaver = 1.5 beats, if the composer wants crotchet + semiquaver, by definition that is not a dotted note, so a tie is used: crotchet + semiquaver = 1.25 beats.


 
Staccato: This appears as a dot on top of a note and means it’s played at roughly half the value of the note. To imitate this on 3ML write the note of half its original value and add a rest also half fo its original value.

Example: A staccato placed on a crotchet ‘C’ note will be written as the following in 3ML: ‘c8r8’


 
Accent: This tells you that the note with a ‘>’ sign on top is played louder than the other notes without the accent. So in 3ML change the volume to a higher value i.e. v10 (higher than base volume 8)


 
8va----------: This is written on starting note and the ‘----‘ part will span to all notes that this is applied to. This is usually written so that the instrument player doesn’t not need to read ridiculously high notes that they probably will not know (unless they start counting from the highest note they know. It means play those notes an octave higher. So in 3ML you will just need to up the octave by one.


 
Vibrato/Arpeggio: This tells you that all those notes are played quickly in ascending order for the duration of the value.


 
Using the Wikipedia example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-arpeggio.svg

Assuming treble clef, 3 notes: G,B,D with the value of 4 beats. So G is played first, followed by B then D.

To imitate this is 3ML I would write:

g8b8>d2&d2 or  g16b16>d8&d2&d8

The first two notes are played at whatever speed you prefer then the last note is held for the remaining duration of the note value. So in case 1, two quavers are used (1 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 1 = 3 remaining beats). While in case 2, 2 semiquavers are used (0.5 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 0.5 = 3.5 beats)


 
If the vibrato has more than 3 notes piled on top of each other, the method does not change, only the last note (the remainder) will have a different value.


 

 
Triplets (tuplet): Triplets are typically notes that have 3 joined quavers (can be 3 minims, crotchets, etc too!) with a ‘3’ written on top. This indicates that those 3 notes are played for duration of 2 quavers (or crotchet). Refer to the basics of 3ML table for the triplet values.


 
You do not need to know this unless you encounter other tuplets or triples in semiquavers or higher: For triplets, you need to get the total beat duration (American terminology) divided by the number of notes to get the 3ML note length.

Example:

Crotchets: beat duration (2 crotchets = 1 minim = (1/2) note) / number of notes (triplets: 3) = 1/6

So C6 is used.

Likewise for quavers: beat duration (2 quavers = 1 crotchet = (1/4) note) / note duration (triplets: 3) = 1/12

So C12 is used.


 
Appoggiatura/Acciaccatura: These are notes (usually quavers or lower values) that are printed really small before or in between notes. This wants you to play that note quickly without playing the next note. This is notably seen in most versions of “River Flows in You” by Yiruma.


 

 
Fermata: To do this in 3ML obviously just assign that note value to be longer. So if a fermata is placed on a semibreve for example, perhaps play it for the value of two semibreves.


 
Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-fermata.svg

Assuming treble clef, the note is ‘G’ with a value of 1 beat.

So instead of writing ‘f’ you write ‘f2’ or ‘f1’ or however long you want the value to be.


 

 
Crescendo, Decrescendo: These are the wide ‘greater than or less than signs’ on top of a group of notes. Crescendo being the long less than, and the decrescendo being the long ‘greater than’, each meaning gradually getting louder and gradually getting softer. To imitate this, change the volume of each note or group of notes i.e. assigning v10 for louder notes, v6 going softer, v2 going even softer…etc. The volume increments are entirely up to you. A little playing around may help.


 
3ML layout


 
When reading from sheet to 3ML, you should assign the line of bars (several bars of music writing in a line before starting a new one below the previous line of bars) on the music sheet to also be a line of notes in 3ML by pressing ‘spacebar’. This will allow you to quickly navigate what sections of music of the music sheet you have already written, opposed to writing one song is one long line in 3ML. You will also notice that after you pressed spacebar there will be an arrow pointing down, which juts indicates that the next note to be played will be found on the next line. If you follow the time signature, you can also tell whether the notes you write are of the right values by checking the time signature lines (see 3ML (adv), time signature).


 

 
Basic 3ML Example


 
Using ‘mary had a little lamb’ as an example from: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/music/sheetmusic/maryhadalittlelamb.shtml


 
The entire first row of bars it can be written as:


 
bagabbb2aaa2b>dd2


 
Notes: Notice that there is a sharp before the time signature, which is F#. There is not ‘F’ note on the first row so it is not used. As the first note starts in octave 4, there is no need to write ‘o4’ in front as it is the default octave.


 
Intermediate 3ML Example


 
Using ‘Axel F’ as an example:

http://musime.excalibur-nw.com/sites/default/files/sheetmusic/axel_f_beverly_hills_theme-trnscrbd-mattie.pdf


 
The entire first row of the TREBLE CLEF with (5) bars it can be written as:


 
Bar1: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8

Bar2: f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8

Bar3-4:f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2

Bar5: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 
Whole row: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8 f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8 f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2 fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 

 
Notes: There are 4 flats before the time signature, which means there’s B♭, E ♭,A♭,D♭. So any B,E,A,D notes you come across are all flats. Since this is at a 3ML format you have to remember that it is A#,D#,G#,C# instead.


 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guide


 
Nothing too much to ask, just start taking piano lessons and you are well on your way to writing mmls


 
Will continue updating or fixing stuff up if people spot mistakes etc.(my music theory is a little hazy)


 
Jokes aside this is just my style of writing 3ML by looking at a music sheet; it most likely is different from most mml writers in the community. In my opinion, this method of writing is easy to understand when you read it and help find those mistakes easily, I’m not the most proficient with 3ML so there are probably shortcuts that could have been done that I have not done. At the end of the day when you’re done writing the mml, you can optimize it so it hopefully can be composed in mabi so the shortcuts are done there. This guide hopefully will show you how read music sheets and compose in mml form on the program 3ML. Can be used for music sheets for piano and any music piece that has a treble clef in it. That means instruments like viola which has a clef of its own (alto clef) is not covered here.

 
Getting started


 
First read the 3ML (basics section to learn the basic stuff of the music writing program 3ML. Then you can move on to music theory that will hopefully allow you to read music sheets to convert into mml format using 3ML.


 
I recommend remembering the keys of a piano, as it helps visualize what the notes are and how to go about writing it. If you can try memorizing that it will be really helpful when writing mmls.


 
Here’s a link of a piano octave and try memorizing it:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

or just type in google images ‘one piano octave’ This can helpful as it helps you visualize the notes on the music sheet. The ‘♭’ in this picture are hard to see and kind of looks like a comma, so be vary it’s a flat!.


 
3ML(basics)


 
3ML is a good way to know what your composing and plays roughly what you would hear in-game in mabinogi. There are restrictions with this program, but the only ones that come to my attention are: flats, vibrato, note values, triplets and characters. Methods of doing this in 3ML are explained further on. If you want to compose an mml in 3ML by reading off the music sheet, first read the basic music theory.


 
Characters: In 3ML you can compose whatever length of song you want, but keep in mind that in mabinogi, there is a character limit for composing music scores.

(rank 1 composing: Melody and Song notes Max 1200, Harmony 1 notes Max 800, Harmony 2 notes Max 500).
Tip: if you have say 3 tabs worth of music that have roughly 1000 characters, you will have to turn that to a 3-man ensemble. i.e. cut paste each tab to the melody bar of each score.


 
Basics of 3ML


 
3ML format is strange, if you tried reading the basic music theory on notes/rests, you would know that in a 4/4 time signature: a crotchet is 1 beat, semiquaver is ½ a beat, etc. but in 3ML it’s written different. The table below shows the difference (hopefully). The note ‘C’ will be used as an example for the 3ML column:


 
British/American Terminology

Value (beats)

3ML (note length)

Semibreve/Whole Note

4

C1

Minim/(1/2) Note

2

C2

Minim/(1/2) Triplet Note

2

C3

Crotchet/(1/4) Note

1

C/C4

Crotchet/(1/4)  Triplet Note

1

C6

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C8

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C12

Semiquaver/(1/16) Note

0.25

C16

Demisemiquaver/(1/32) Note

0.125

C32

Hemidemisemiquaver/(1/64) Note

0.0625

C64


 
-Note that some sites refer 1 value to be a semibreve and hence crotchet would be named ‘quarter note’ (4 crotchets in a semibreve) but in this guide 1 beat (not value) is 1 crotchet. So 1/8 is not 0.5 technically speaking.

-The Default note value is 1 beats called a crotchet, so if you write in 3ML of the note ‘g’, it will be the same as ‘g4’ i.e. a ‘G’ note with the value of a beat.

 
Music Theory


 
Now for the fun part and to confuse you all.


 
Reading music sheets: musical Symbols/Terms


 
When reading music sheets refer to the Wikipedia symbols list and learn what they mean if you can:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
There are some things Wikipedia surprisingly missed out or didn’t explain properly as well so watch out for those.


 
If you’re unsure about something ask on the forum and others will answer it, if not I’ll have a go.

Here are some terms you may wanna remember if you want to read off music sheets as it will help you understand what I’m blabbering about further. (Or read the part you want and refer to this later)


 
Octave:  An octave consists of the notes: C , C#/D♭, D , D#/E♭ , E , F , F#/G♭ , G , G#/A♭ , A , A#/B♭, B. If you don’t understand refer to the image from the first link in ‘getting started’

Where C is the lowest note and B is the highest. The next octave will have the notes in the exact same order, expect they will be of higher values, or lower values if it is the octave below. C on lets say octave 4 (middle octave of a piano) compared to octave 5 will sound the same, expect higher. Hard to explain until you hear it.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): These are written depending on the key signature usually and rarely will you see both flats and sharps here and there in a music sheet. If you remember from the one piano octave picture, C# = D♭,D# = E♭and so on.

Natural(♮): This symbol just means play the original note (no flats/sharps).


 
Clefs: Just remember that the notes are different in both respective clefs so make sure you are reading the right clef. See ‘reading musical notes’ for more information.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): When a note in a bar has a flat/sharp written on it, which tells you to play a flat/sharp for that note in the bar only. So if there is a C# represent in the bar, any other C notes that appear in this bar has to be played as C#. If you memorized one octave of a piano and its notes to its corresponding keys, you might wonder: what about C♭,E#,F♭, B#. This isn’t often used, but when it is, it just means you play the notes D,F,E,C (one octave higher) respectively.

Natural(♮): This only happens in music sheets if there are flats/sharps present, especially when there is a key signature. Like flats and sharps, whenever is this applied on a note in a bar, it lasts for the duration of the bar. Sometimes it will appear twice for the same note in the bar to remind you it’s a natural (optional for the writer).


 
Time Signature:  The number on top of a number (a bit like a fraction) or the letter ‘c’ in the beginning of the bar of a song. This is optional and is not really needed for mml formatting, but if you understand how it works it can be helpful to track down if you have the right values of notes in a bar. See time signature (advanced) for more detail.


 
Time Signature (advanced):  The top number of the time signature represents the number of notes in a bar. The bottom number represents the number of beats one note will have in a bar. Most songs are of 4/4 or C time signature, which means 4 notes of the value 4, which is a crotchet, similar to 3ML format. Thus other signatures such as 4/8, 8/16 will mean 4 notes of the value 8 (quavers) and 8 notes of the value 16 (semiquavers) and so on.


 
Key Signature:   The stuff in front time signature often has a number of sharps or flats at different places. If there is no sharps/flats in the beginning bar of the song present you can read the sheet normally. If there is, your life is just made harder.


 
Tempo: Most music sheets should have this and will be displayed as a crotchet symbol = a number above the treble clef.  The higher this number is, the faster the whole song is to be played and the lower the number, the slower it is played. When there is not crochet symbol = a number written, there probably will be an Italian word there such as: moderato, allegro. Refer to this link to get your tempo number:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo#Italian_tempo_markings


 
Reading music sheets: musical Notes


 
Open this link here to show you some notes along the treble and bass clef:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg/2000px-Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg.png


 
Note that these notes do not have ‘staves’ or long vertical line that appears on the note, so they do not really have values (except for G4 which is semibreve). This is merely an example, you will not come across stateless notes in an actual music sheet.


 
In the treble clef, you can see an octave and a half worth of notes, starting with C note in the octave 4 ending with G note in the octave 5. In 3ML the default octave is o4, so writing ‘C’ in 3ML is the note labelled C4 in the link shown above. You will notice two ‘C’ notes present. Refer to musical terms: octave to learn why is this case.


 
Writing the treble clef notes in 3ML will have the following format, assuming all the staveless notes are crotchets:

cdefg1ab>cdefg

If you do not understand this format, scroll down to read the 3ML section


 
In the bass clef, the starting note is E in octave 2 (two octave lower than E of the 4th octave) up to the note B in octave 3. Note that in the treble clef, the note of the same position is note C in octave 4, so be wary which clef you are reading.


 

 
3ML(advanced)


 
‘♭’ in 3ML

There is no such thing as a flat in 3ML so you need to convert it to a sharp. Referring to this link again for the example:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

Examples: G ♭= F#,  B♭ = A#, C♭ = B


 
Key Signature in 3ML:


 
If you read the previous explanation of key signature it will explain what it is. Now if you apply it to 3ML it can be helpful to spot mistakes or notes that you entered that are assigned the wrong value. In 3ML you will notice two sets of piano keys. One on the very top that’s in blue and black and the one that is facing sideways in black and white with a grey columns everwhere. Notice that there is a silver bar on top of the grey columns and black/white piano keys as this is important for time signature. The numbers displayed represent the bar number and will have a dark vertical line to differentiate between each bar. And the columns between two light/dark coloured vertical lines represent a beat of the assigned value in the time signature. So in a 4/8 time signature, there will be 4 columns a bar. Each column represents a value of 1/8 of a beat (quaver). In a 4/4 time signature, there will also be 4 columns in a bar, but compared to 4/8 the columns will noticeable be smaller as their beat values are different.


 
The coloured bars:


 
If you’ve seen music videos on youtube, you might have come across something similar to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lOnEth0p-Y

This works exactly how it does in 3ML, but if you still do not understand, read further.


 
The coloured bars just represents the note value according to the time signature assigned. Reading this can help you determine whether a note has the wrong value or is not the right note before even playing the ‘play’ button to listen to what you have written. The coloured bars closest to the piano on the left is shows note what is being played according to the piano keys (so if you memorized the piano octave earlier it will be helpful). The length of the coloured bars will represent the note value. Read the “key signature” in 3ML for more detail.


 
Commands:


 
You can also refer to this site, or you can read mine and see which one you prefer and understand better from:

http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/view/MML


 
‘o1,o2,o3,etc’

‘o’ refers to octave and the number in front refers to which octave. In mml, you can see there’s all the keys to a typical piano. So o1 being the lowest, and o8 being the highest. The default octave is the middle octave (o4) so you don’t have to type it in.


 
‘>, <’

 ‘>’ makes the next note you write an octave higher, while ‘<’ makes the next note you write an octave lower.


 
‘&/.’

These are used for tied notes or a dotted note.  So a dotted minim (2beats+half=3beats). Will be written as : ‘a2&a’. Occasionally used for ties.


 
‘t120’

The ‘t’ before the number represents the word tempo and the number after it the tempo speed. In 3ML is can be seen has BPM (beats per minute). Higher values mean a faster paced song. Ranges from t32 – t255


 
‘l8’

The ‘l’ represents length and the value after it represents the note length/value.


 
‘#/+’

These two mean the same thing. So C# = C+

                               

‘l8’

‘l’ represents length and the number after it represents the note value. So any note written after this is assigned the note value stated by the length command. So for ‘l8’ , writing the following notes: cdefg is the same as writing c8d8e8f8g8. This is merely a shortcut in writing notes, especially when a bar is composed of nothing but quavers.


 
‘r8/c8’

‘r’ represents a rest and ‘c’ is the note (can be any note i.e. A,B,D,E,etc). The value after r and c is the note value. In this case it is a quaver (half a beat/quarter note).


 
‘n35’

‘n’ represents ‘number’ and 35 represents a particular note in the octave ranges, in this case n35 is the note B in the octave 2 . Refer to this link to find the note and its octave:

http://www.electronics.dit.ie/staff/tscarff/Music_technology/midi/midi_note_numbers_for_octaves.htm


 
‘v5’

‘V’ represents ‘volume’ and the number after v is the intensity/loudness of the volume. Where v0 is the softest and v15 is the loudest. Anything after you set the v5 command will be played in volume 5 until you change it. Default volume is v8, so if you write your music without including v15 in front, all notes will be played in v8 unless changed.


 
After writing an mml of this format,  right click each tab and click optimize. As the word suggests it will turn whatever you created into the shortest form possible.


 
Note/rest values:

 
Because it’s hard to show pictures/symbols of notes here ill direct you to a Wikipedia site:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_value


 
Refer the Wikipedia table from 4th row downwards; I’ll try to explain those better than Wikipedia.


 
Notes and rests have the same value, but different symbol. Obviously note=play, rest=pause/silence for the duration of the beat(s).

 
Whatever is in first three rows: I’ve never seen these before so I won’t bother explaining, never seen them on music sheet either, I highly doubt that will be on whatever music you wanna compose.

Semibreve: Value of 4 beats. Tip: the semibreve and minim rests are very similar, expect ones upright and the other upside-down, a tip one of my music teachers taught my long ago that you could use to differentiate between the two is upside = stronger (can support its weight), therefore higher value. Upright=weaker (needs support). No matter the time signature, one semibreve is a rest for the whole bar.

Minim: Value of 2 beats.

Crotchet: value of 1 beats

Quaver: value of ½ a beat (half a crotchet), also known as a quarter note.

Semi Quaver: value of ¼ a beat (quarter of crotchet, half a quaver)

Prefix Quaver : personally I did not learn any quavers below semiquaver, but if you see a note that has say 3 curly ends of a semi quaver it is half the value of the note with 2 curly ends of a semi quaver. So looking at Wikipedia you can tell that by the note values they give you. Often when reading music, you usually won’t come across demisemiquaver or lower.


 
Reading a music sheet to convert into 3ML format


 
Again, you might want to refer to : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
when reading through this.


 
Key Signature:   Depending on the number of flats and sharps on the key signature, you make have a hard time remembering what note is what especially for flats, where it needs to be converted to sharps in 3ML. The number of #/♭has their respective major/minor, but that will not need to be covered. Reading the flats/sharps from the left they have the order:


 
Key Signature


 

 

 
Number of #/♭

#

♭

3ML (♭)

1

F#

B♭

A#

2

F#, C#

B♭, E ♭

A#, D#

3

F#, C#, G#

B♭,E♭, A♭

A#, D#, G#

4

F#, C#, G#, D#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭

A#, D#, G#, C#

5

F#, C#, G#, D#, A#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭,G♭

A#, D#, G#, C#, F#

There are more, but I cannot be bothered listing more and its unlikely the music sheet will have that many. So basically whatever key signature you have with the respective number of #/♭, the notes according the table will be applied to EVERY note in the whole music sheet UNLESS the key signature changes elsewhere, so look out for those key signatures.


 
Natural(♮): If this is come across in the key signature, then certain notes that are meant to be played as a sharp/flat is played normally. So, according to the table above, if you see ‘##,N,#’ from left to right for a time signature for #, it means that only F#, C#, D# are changed, the G note is played normally.


 
Dotted Note: If you come across a note with a dot on the right hand side of the note, it means add half the value of the dotted note when you play that dotted note. So a dotted minim (2 beats) means play a minim plus half a minim (1 beat) which totals to 3 beats to be played for that dotted note.


 
Tie: This appears as a curved convex time linking two notes together. This just means you play that one note for the value of the two notes combined. Composers use this when a value of a note they want played is not half the value of the original note.

For dotted notes: crotchet + quaver = 1.5 beats, if the composer wants crotchet + semiquaver, by definition that is not a dotted note, so a tie is used: crotchet + semiquaver = 1.25 beats.


 
Staccato: This appears as a dot on top of a note and means it’s played at roughly half the value of the note. To imitate this on 3ML write the note of half its original value and add a rest also half fo its original value.

Example: A staccato placed on a crotchet ‘C’ note will be written as the following in 3ML: ‘c8r8’


 
Accent: This tells you that the note with a ‘>’ sign on top is played louder than the other notes without the accent. So in 3ML change the volume to a higher value i.e. v10 (higher than base volume 8)


 
8va----------: This is written on starting note and the ‘----‘ part will span to all notes that this is applied to. This is usually written so that the instrument player doesn’t not need to read ridiculously high notes that they probably will not know (unless they start counting from the highest note they know. It means play those notes an octave higher. So in 3ML you will just need to up the octave by one.


 
Vibrato/Arpeggio: This tells you that all those notes are played quickly in ascending order for the duration of the value.


 
Using the Wikipedia example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-arpeggio.svg

Assuming treble clef, 3 notes: G,B,D with the value of 4 beats. So G is played first, followed by B then D.

To imitate this is 3ML I would write:

g8b8>d2&d2 or  g16b16>d8&d2&d8

The first two notes are played at whatever speed you prefer then the last note is held for the remaining duration of the note value. So in case 1, two quavers are used (1 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 1 = 3 remaining beats). While in case 2, 2 semiquavers are used (0.5 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 0.5 = 3.5 beats)


 
If the vibrato has more than 3 notes piled on top of each other, the method does not change, only the last note (the remainder) will have a different value.


 

 
Triplets (tuplet): Triplets are typically notes that have 3 joined quavers (can be 3 minims, crotchets, etc too!) with a ‘3’ written on top. This indicates that those 3 notes are played for duration of 2 quavers (or crotchet). Refer to the basics of 3ML table for the triplet values.


 
You do not need to know this unless you encounter other tuplets or triples in semiquavers or higher: For triplets, you need to get the total beat duration (American terminology) divided by the number of notes to get the 3ML note length.

Example:

Crotchets: beat duration (2 crotchets = 1 minim = (1/2) note) / number of notes (triplets: 3) = 1/6

So C6 is used.

Likewise for quavers: beat duration (2 quavers = 1 crotchet = (1/4) note) / note duration (triplets: 3) = 1/12

So C12 is used.


 
Appoggiatura/Acciaccatura: These are notes (usually quavers or lower values) that are printed really small before or in between notes. This wants you to play that note quickly without playing the next note. This is notably seen in most versions of “River Flows in You” by Yiruma.


 

 
Fermata: To do this in 3ML obviously just assign that note value to be longer. So if a fermata is placed on a semibreve for example, perhaps play it for the value of two semibreves.


 
Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-fermata.svg

Assuming treble clef, the note is ‘G’ with a value of 1 beat.

So instead of writing ‘f’ you write ‘f2’ or ‘f1’ or however long you want the value to be.


 

 
Crescendo, Decrescendo: These are the wide ‘greater than or less than signs’ on top of a group of notes. Crescendo being the long less than, and the decrescendo being the long ‘greater than’, each meaning gradually getting louder and gradually getting softer. To imitate this, change the volume of each note or group of notes i.e. assigning v10 for louder notes, v6 going softer, v2 going even softer…etc. The volume increments are entirely up to you. A little playing around may help.


 
3ML layout


 
When reading from sheet to 3ML, you should assign the line of bars (several bars of music writing in a line before starting a new one below the previous line of bars) on the music sheet to also be a line of notes in 3ML by pressing ‘spacebar’. This will allow you to quickly navigate what sections of music of the music sheet you have already written, opposed to writing one song is one long line in 3ML. You will also notice that after you pressed spacebar there will be an arrow pointing down, which juts indicates that the next note to be played will be found on the next line. If you follow the time signature, you can also tell whether the notes you write are of the right values by checking the time signature lines (see 3ML (adv), time signature).


 

 
Basic 3ML Example


 
Using ‘mary had a little lamb’ as an example from: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/music/sheetmusic/maryhadalittlelamb.shtml


 
The entire first row of bars it can be written as:


 
bagabbb2aaa2b>dd2


 
Notes: Notice that there is a sharp before the time signature, which is F#. There is not ‘F’ note on the first row so it is not used. As the first note starts in octave 4, there is no need to write ‘o4’ in front as it is the default octave.


 
Intermediate 3ML Example


 
Using ‘Axel F’ as an example:

http://musime.excalibur-nw.com/sites/default/files/sheetmusic/axel_f_beverly_hills_theme-trnscrbd-mattie.pdf


 
The entire first row of the TREBLE CLEF with (5) bars it can be written as:


 
Bar1: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8

Bar2: f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8

Bar3-4:f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2

Bar5: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 
Whole row: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8 f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8 f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2 fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 

 
Notes: There are 4 flats before the time signature, which means there’s B♭, E ♭,A♭,D♭. So any B,E,A,D notes you come across are all flats. Since this is at a 3ML format you have to remember that it is A#,D#,G#,C# instead.


 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guide


 
Nothing too much to ask, just start taking piano lessons and you are well on your way to writing mmls


 
Will continue updating or fixing stuff up if people spot mistakes etc.(my music theory is a little hazy)


 
Jokes aside this is just my style of writing 3ML by looking at a music sheet; it most likely is different from most mml writers in the community. In my opinion, this method of writing is easy to understand when you read it and help find those mistakes easily, I’m not the most proficient with 3ML so there are probably shortcuts that could have been done that I have not done. At the end of the day when you’re done writing the mml, you can optimize it so it hopefully can be composed in mabi so the shortcuts are done there. This guide hopefully will show you how read music sheets and compose in mml form on the program 3ML. Can be used for music sheets for piano and any music piece that has a treble clef in it. That means instruments like viola which has a clef of its own (alto clef) is not covered here.

 
Getting started


 
First read the 3ML (basics section to learn the basic stuff of the music writing program 3ML. Then you can move on to music theory that will hopefully allow you to read music sheets to convert into mml format using 3ML.


 
I recommend remembering the keys of a piano, as it helps visualize what the notes are and how to go about writing it. If you can try memorizing that it will be really helpful when writing mmls.


 
Here’s a link of a piano octave and try memorizing it:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

or just type in google images ‘one piano octave’ This can helpful as it helps you visualize the notes on the music sheet. The ‘♭’ in this picture are hard to see and kind of looks like a comma, so be vary it’s a flat!.


 
3ML(basics)


 
3ML is a good way to know what your composing and plays roughly what you would hear in-game in mabinogi. There are restrictions with this program, but the only ones that come to my attention are: flats, vibrato, note values, triplets and characters. Methods of doing this in 3ML are explained further on. If you want to compose an mml in 3ML by reading off the music sheet, first read the basic music theory.


 
Characters: In 3ML you can compose whatever length of song you want, but keep in mind that in mabinogi, there is a character limit for composing music scores.

(rank 1 composing: Melody and Song notes Max 1200, Harmony 1 notes Max 800, Harmony 2 notes Max 500).
Tip: if you have say 3 tabs worth of music that have roughly 1000 characters, you will have to turn that to a 3-man ensemble. i.e. cut paste each tab to the melody bar of each score.


 
Basics of 3ML


 
3ML format is strange, if you tried reading the basic music theory on notes/rests, you would know that in a 4/4 time signature: a crotchet is 1 beat, semiquaver is ½ a beat, etc. but in 3ML it’s written different. The table below shows the difference (hopefully). The note ‘C’ will be used as an example for the 3ML column:


 
British/American Terminology

Value (beats)

3ML (note length)

Semibreve/Whole Note

4

C1

Minim/(1/2) Note

2

C2

Minim/(1/2) Triplet Note

2

C3

Crotchet/(1/4) Note

1

C/C4

Crotchet/(1/4)  Triplet Note

1

C6

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C8

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C12

Semiquaver/(1/16) Note

0.25

C16

Demisemiquaver/(1/32) Note

0.125

C32

Hemidemisemiquaver/(1/64) Note

0.0625

C64


 
-Note that some sites refer 1 value to be a semibreve and hence crotchet would be named ‘quarter note’ (4 crotchets in a semibreve) but in this guide 1 beat (not value) is 1 crotchet. So 1/8 is not 0.5 technically speaking.

-The Default note value is 1 beats called a crotchet, so if you write in 3ML of the note ‘g’, it will be the same as ‘g4’ i.e. a ‘G’ note with the value of a beat.

 
Music Theory


 
Now for the fun part and to confuse you all.


 
Reading music sheets: musical Symbols/Terms


 
When reading music sheets refer to the Wikipedia symbols list and learn what they mean if you can:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
There are some things Wikipedia surprisingly missed out or didn’t explain properly as well so watch out for those.


 
If you’re unsure about something ask on the forum and others will answer it, if not I’ll have a go.

Here are some terms you may wanna remember if you want to read off music sheets as it will help you understand what I’m blabbering about further. (Or read the part you want and refer to this later)


 
Octave:  An octave consists of the notes: C , C#/D♭, D , D#/E♭ , E , F , F#/G♭ , G , G#/A♭ , A , A#/B♭, B. If you don’t understand refer to the image from the first link in ‘getting started’

Where C is the lowest note and B is the highest. The next octave will have the notes in the exact same order, expect they will be of higher values, or lower values if it is the octave below. C on lets say octave 4 (middle octave of a piano) compared to octave 5 will sound the same, expect higher. Hard to explain until you hear it.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): These are written depending on the key signature usually and rarely will you see both flats and sharps here and there in a music sheet. If you remember from the one piano octave picture, C# = D♭,D# = E♭and so on.

Natural(♮): This symbol just means play the original note (no flats/sharps).


 
Clefs: Just remember that the notes are different in both respective clefs so make sure you are reading the right clef. See ‘reading musical notes’ for more information.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): When a note in a bar has a flat/sharp written on it, which tells you to play a flat/sharp for that note in the bar only. So if there is a C# represent in the bar, any other C notes that appear in this bar has to be played as C#. If you memorized one octave of a piano and its notes to its corresponding keys, you might wonder: what about C♭,E#,F♭, B#. This isn’t often used, but when it is, it just means you play the notes D,F,E,C (one octave higher) respectively.

Natural(♮): This only happens in music sheets if there are flats/sharps present, especially when there is a key signature. Like flats and sharps, whenever is this applied on a note in a bar, it lasts for the duration of the bar. Sometimes it will appear twice for the same note in the bar to remind you it’s a natural (optional for the writer).


 
Time Signature:  The number on top of a number (a bit like a fraction) or the letter ‘c’ in the beginning of the bar of a song. This is optional and is not really needed for mml formatting, but if you understand how it works it can be helpful to track down if you have the right values of notes in a bar. See time signature (advanced) for more detail.


 
Time Signature (advanced):  The top number of the time signature represents the number of notes in a bar. The bottom number represents the number of beats one note will have in a bar. Most songs are of 4/4 or C time signature, which means 4 notes of the value 4, which is a crotchet, similar to 3ML format. Thus other signatures such as 4/8, 8/16 will mean 4 notes of the value 8 (quavers) and 8 notes of the value 16 (semiquavers) and so on.


 
Key Signature:   The stuff in front time signature often has a number of sharps or flats at different places. If there is no sharps/flats in the beginning bar of the song present you can read the sheet normally. If there is, your life is just made harder.


 
Tempo: Most music sheets should have this and will be displayed as a crotchet symbol = a number above the treble clef.  The higher this number is, the faster the whole song is to be played and the lower the number, the slower it is played. When there is not crochet symbol = a number written, there probably will be an Italian word there such as: moderato, allegro. Refer to this link to get your tempo number:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo#Italian_tempo_markings


 
Reading music sheets: musical Notes


 
Open this link here to show you some notes along the treble and bass clef:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg/2000px-Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg.png


 
Note that these notes do not have ‘staves’ or long vertical line that appears on the note, so they do not really have values (except for G4 which is semibreve). This is merely an example, you will not come across stateless notes in an actual music sheet.


 
In the treble clef, you can see an octave and a half worth of notes, starting with C note in the octave 4 ending with G note in the octave 5. In 3ML the default octave is o4, so writing ‘C’ in 3ML is the note labelled C4 in the link shown above. You will notice two ‘C’ notes present. Refer to musical terms: octave to learn why is this case.


 
Writing the treble clef notes in 3ML will have the following format, assuming all the staveless notes are crotchets:

cdefg1ab>cdefg

If you do not understand this format, scroll down to read the 3ML section


 
In the bass clef, the starting note is E in octave 2 (two octave lower than E of the 4th octave) up to the note B in octave 3. Note that in the treble clef, the note of the same position is note C in octave 4, so be wary which clef you are reading.


 

 
3ML(advanced)


 
‘♭’ in 3ML

There is no such thing as a flat in 3ML so you need to convert it to a sharp. Referring to this link again for the example:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

Examples: G ♭= F#,  B♭ = A#, C♭ = B


 
Key Signature in 3ML:


 
If you read the previous explanation of key signature it will explain what it is. Now if you apply it to 3ML it can be helpful to spot mistakes or notes that you entered that are assigned the wrong value. In 3ML you will notice two sets of piano keys. One on the very top that’s in blue and black and the one that is facing sideways in black and white with a grey columns everwhere. Notice that there is a silver bar on top of the grey columns and black/white piano keys as this is important for time signature. The numbers displayed represent the bar number and will have a dark vertical line to differentiate between each bar. And the columns between two light/dark coloured vertical lines represent a beat of the assigned value in the time signature. So in a 4/8 time signature, there will be 4 columns a bar. Each column represents a value of 1/8 of a beat (quaver). In a 4/4 time signature, there will also be 4 columns in a bar, but compared to 4/8 the columns will noticeable be smaller as their beat values are different.


 
The coloured bars:


 
If you’ve seen music videos on youtube, you might have come across something similar to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lOnEth0p-Y

This works exactly how it does in 3ML, but if you still do not understand, read further.


 
The coloured bars just represents the note value according to the time signature assigned. Reading this can help you determine whether a note has the wrong value or is not the right note before even playing the ‘play’ button to listen to what you have written. The coloured bars closest to the piano on the left is shows note what is being played according to the piano keys (so if you memorized the piano octave earlier it will be helpful). The length of the coloured bars will represent the note value. Read the “key signature” in 3ML for more detail.


 
Commands:


 
You can also refer to this site, or you can read mine and see which one you prefer and understand better from:

http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/view/MML


 
‘o1,o2,o3,etc’

‘o’ refers to octave and the number in front refers to which octave. In mml, you can see there’s all the keys to a typical piano. So o1 being the lowest, and o8 being the highest. The default octave is the middle octave (o4) so you don’t have to type it in.


 
‘>, <’

 ‘>’ makes the next note you write an octave higher, while ‘<’ makes the next note you write an octave lower.


 
‘&/.’

These are used for tied notes or a dotted note.  So a dotted minim (2beats+half=3beats). Will be written as : ‘a2&a’. Occasionally used for ties.


 
‘t120’

The ‘t’ before the number represents the word tempo and the number after it the tempo speed. In 3ML is can be seen has BPM (beats per minute). Higher values mean a faster paced song. Ranges from t32 – t255


 
‘l8’

The ‘l’ represents length and the value after it represents the note length/value.


 
‘#/+’

These two mean the same thing. So C# = C+

                               

‘l8’

‘l’ represents length and the number after it represents the note value. So any note written after this is assigned the note value stated by the length command. So for ‘l8’ , writing the following notes: cdefg is the same as writing c8d8e8f8g8. This is merely a shortcut in writing notes, especially when a bar is composed of nothing but quavers.


 
‘r8/c8’

‘r’ represents a rest and ‘c’ is the note (can be any note i.e. A,B,D,E,etc). The value after r and c is the note value. In this case it is a quaver (half a beat/quarter note).


 
‘n35’

‘n’ represents ‘number’ and 35 represents a particular note in the octave ranges, in this case n35 is the note B in the octave 2 . Refer to this link to find the note and its octave:

http://www.electronics.dit.ie/staff/tscarff/Music_technology/midi/midi_note_numbers_for_octaves.htm


 
‘v5’

‘V’ represents ‘volume’ and the number after v is the intensity/loudness of the volume. Where v0 is the softest and v15 is the loudest. Anything after you set the v5 command will be played in volume 5 until you change it. Default volume is v8, so if you write your music without including v15 in front, all notes will be played in v8 unless changed.


 
After writing an mml of this format,  right click each tab and click optimize. As the word suggests it will turn whatever you created into the shortest form possible.


 
Note/rest values:

 
Because it’s hard to show pictures/symbols of notes here ill direct you to a Wikipedia site:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_value


 
Refer the Wikipedia table from 4th row downwards; I’ll try to explain those better than Wikipedia.


 
Notes and rests have the same value, but different symbol. Obviously note=play, rest=pause/silence for the duration of the beat(s).

 
Whatever is in first three rows: I’ve never seen these before so I won’t bother explaining, never seen them on music sheet either, I highly doubt that will be on whatever music you wanna compose.

Semibreve: Value of 4 beats. Tip: the semibreve and minim rests are very similar, expect ones upright and the other upside-down, a tip one of my music teachers taught my long ago that you could use to differentiate between the two is upside = stronger (can support its weight), therefore higher value. Upright=weaker (needs support). No matter the time signature, one semibreve is a rest for the whole bar.

Minim: Value of 2 beats.

Crotchet: value of 1 beats

Quaver: value of ½ a beat (half a crotchet), also known as a quarter note.

Semi Quaver: value of ¼ a beat (quarter of crotchet, half a quaver)

Prefix Quaver : personally I did not learn any quavers below semiquaver, but if you see a note that has say 3 curly ends of a semi quaver it is half the value of the note with 2 curly ends of a semi quaver. So looking at Wikipedia you can tell that by the note values they give you. Often when reading music, you usually won’t come across demisemiquaver or lower.


 
Reading a music sheet to convert into 3ML format


 
Again, you might want to refer to : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
when reading through this.


 
Key Signature:   Depending on the number of flats and sharps on the key signature, you make have a hard time remembering what note is what especially for flats, where it needs to be converted to sharps in 3ML. The number of #/♭has their respective major/minor, but that will not need to be covered. Reading the flats/sharps from the left they have the order:


 
Key Signature


 

 

 
Number of #/♭

#

♭

3ML (♭)

1

F#

B♭

A#

2

F#, C#

B♭, E ♭

A#, D#

3

F#, C#, G#

B♭,E♭, A♭

A#, D#, G#

4

F#, C#, G#, D#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭

A#, D#, G#, C#

5

F#, C#, G#, D#, A#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭,G♭

A#, D#, G#, C#, F#

There are more, but I cannot be bothered listing more and its unlikely the music sheet will have that many. So basically whatever key signature you have with the respective number of #/♭, the notes according the table will be applied to EVERY note in the whole music sheet UNLESS the key signature changes elsewhere, so look out for those key signatures.


 
Natural(♮): If this is come across in the key signature, then certain notes that are meant to be played as a sharp/flat is played normally. So, according to the table above, if you see ‘##,N,#’ from left to right for a time signature for #, it means that only F#, C#, D# are changed, the G note is played normally.


 
Dotted Note: If you come across a note with a dot on the right hand side of the note, it means add half the value of the dotted note when you play that dotted note. So a dotted minim (2 beats) means play a minim plus half a minim (1 beat) which totals to 3 beats to be played for that dotted note.


 
Tie: This appears as a curved convex time linking two notes together. This just means you play that one note for the value of the two notes combined. Composers use this when a value of a note they want played is not half the value of the original note.

For dotted notes: crotchet + quaver = 1.5 beats, if the composer wants crotchet + semiquaver, by definition that is not a dotted note, so a tie is used: crotchet + semiquaver = 1.25 beats.


 
Staccato: This appears as a dot on top of a note and means it’s played at roughly half the value of the note. To imitate this on 3ML write the note of half its original value and add a rest also half fo its original value.

Example: A staccato placed on a crotchet ‘C’ note will be written as the following in 3ML: ‘c8r8’


 
Accent: This tells you that the note with a ‘>’ sign on top is played louder than the other notes without the accent. So in 3ML change the volume to a higher value i.e. v10 (higher than base volume 8)


 
8va----------: This is written on starting note and the ‘----‘ part will span to all notes that this is applied to. This is usually written so that the instrument player doesn’t not need to read ridiculously high notes that they probably will not know (unless they start counting from the highest note they know. It means play those notes an octave higher. So in 3ML you will just need to up the octave by one.


 
Vibrato/Arpeggio: This tells you that all those notes are played quickly in ascending order for the duration of the value.


 
Using the Wikipedia example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-arpeggio.svg

Assuming treble clef, 3 notes: G,B,D with the value of 4 beats. So G is played first, followed by B then D.

To imitate this is 3ML I would write:

g8b8>d2&d2 or  g16b16>d8&d2&d8

The first two notes are played at whatever speed you prefer then the last note is held for the remaining duration of the note value. So in case 1, two quavers are used (1 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 1 = 3 remaining beats). While in case 2, 2 semiquavers are used (0.5 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 0.5 = 3.5 beats)


 
If the vibrato has more than 3 notes piled on top of each other, the method does not change, only the last note (the remainder) will have a different value.


 

 
Triplets (tuplet): Triplets are typically notes that have 3 joined quavers (can be 3 minims, crotchets, etc too!) with a ‘3’ written on top. This indicates that those 3 notes are played for duration of 2 quavers (or crotchet). Refer to the basics of 3ML table for the triplet values.


 
You do not need to know this unless you encounter other tuplets or triples in semiquavers or higher: For triplets, you need to get the total beat duration (American terminology) divided by the number of notes to get the 3ML note length.

Example:

Crotchets: beat duration (2 crotchets = 1 minim = (1/2) note) / number of notes (triplets: 3) = 1/6

So C6 is used.

Likewise for quavers: beat duration (2 quavers = 1 crotchet = (1/4) note) / note duration (triplets: 3) = 1/12

So C12 is used.


 
Appoggiatura/Acciaccatura: These are notes (usually quavers or lower values) that are printed really small before or in between notes. This wants you to play that note quickly without playing the next note. This is notably seen in most versions of “River Flows in You” by Yiruma.


 

 
Fermata: To do this in 3ML obviously just assign that note value to be longer. So if a fermata is placed on a semibreve for example, perhaps play it for the value of two semibreves.


 
Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-fermata.svg

Assuming treble clef, the note is ‘G’ with a value of 1 beat.

So instead of writing ‘f’ you write ‘f2’ or ‘f1’ or however long you want the value to be.


 

 
Crescendo, Decrescendo: These are the wide ‘greater than or less than signs’ on top of a group of notes. Crescendo being the long less than, and the decrescendo being the long ‘greater than’, each meaning gradually getting louder and gradually getting softer. To imitate this, change the volume of each note or group of notes i.e. assigning v10 for louder notes, v6 going softer, v2 going even softer…etc. The volume increments are entirely up to you. A little playing around may help.


 
3ML layout


 
When reading from sheet to 3ML, you should assign the line of bars (several bars of music writing in a line before starting a new one below the previous line of bars) on the music sheet to also be a line of notes in 3ML by pressing ‘spacebar’. This will allow you to quickly navigate what sections of music of the music sheet you have already written, opposed to writing one song is one long line in 3ML. You will also notice that after you pressed spacebar there will be an arrow pointing down, which juts indicates that the next note to be played will be found on the next line. If you follow the time signature, you can also tell whether the notes you write are of the right values by checking the time signature lines (see 3ML (adv), time signature).


 

 
Basic 3ML Example


 
Using ‘mary had a little lamb’ as an example from: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/music/sheetmusic/maryhadalittlelamb.shtml


 
The entire first row of bars it can be written as:


 
bagabbb2aaa2b>dd2


 
Notes: Notice that there is a sharp before the time signature, which is F#. There is not ‘F’ note on the first row so it is not used. As the first note starts in octave 4, there is no need to write ‘o4’ in front as it is the default octave.


 
Intermediate 3ML Example


 
Using ‘Axel F’ as an example:

http://musime.excalibur-nw.com/sites/default/files/sheetmusic/axel_f_beverly_hills_theme-trnscrbd-mattie.pdf


 
The entire first row of the TREBLE CLEF with (5) bars it can be written as:


 
Bar1: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8

Bar2: f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8

Bar3-4:f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2

Bar5: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 
Whole row: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8 f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8 f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2 fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 

 
Notes: There are 4 flats before the time signature, which means there’s B♭, E ♭,A♭,D♭. So any B,E,A,D notes you come across are all flats. Since this is at a 3ML format you have to remember that it is A#,D#,G#,C# instead.


 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guide


 
Nothing too much to ask, just start taking piano lessons and you are well on your way to writing mmls


 
Will continue updating or fixing stuff up if people spot mistakes etc.(my music theory is a little hazy)


 
Jokes aside this is just my style of writing 3ML by looking at a music sheet; it most likely is different from most mml writers in the community. In my opinion, this method of writing is easy to understand when you read it and help find those mistakes easily, I’m not the most proficient with 3ML so there are probably shortcuts that could have been done that I have not done. At the end of the day when you’re done writing the mml, you can optimize it so it hopefully can be composed in mabi so the shortcuts are done there. This guide hopefully will show you how read music sheets and compose in mml form on the program 3ML. Can be used for music sheets for piano and any music piece that has a treble clef in it. That means instruments like viola which has a clef of its own (alto clef) is not covered here.

 
Getting started


 
First read the 3ML (basics section to learn the basic stuff of the music writing program 3ML. Then you can move on to music theory that will hopefully allow you to read music sheets to convert into mml format using 3ML.


 
I recommend remembering the keys of a piano, as it helps visualize what the notes are and how to go about writing it. If you can try memorizing that it will be really helpful when writing mmls.


 
Here’s a link of a piano octave and try memorizing it:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

or just type in google images ‘one piano octave’ This can helpful as it helps you visualize the notes on the music sheet. The ‘♭’ in this picture are hard to see and kind of looks like a comma, so be vary it’s a flat!.


 
3ML(basics)


 
3ML is a good way to know what your composing and plays roughly what you would hear in-game in mabinogi. There are restrictions with this program, but the only ones that come to my attention are: flats, vibrato, note values, triplets and characters. Methods of doing this in 3ML are explained further on. If you want to compose an mml in 3ML by reading off the music sheet, first read the basic music theory.


 
Characters: In 3ML you can compose whatever length of song you want, but keep in mind that in mabinogi, there is a character limit for composing music scores.

(rank 1 composing: Melody and Song notes Max 1200, Harmony 1 notes Max 800, Harmony 2 notes Max 500).
Tip: if you have say 3 tabs worth of music that have roughly 1000 characters, you will have to turn that to a 3-man ensemble. i.e. cut paste each tab to the melody bar of each score.


 
Basics of 3ML


 
3ML format is strange, if you tried reading the basic music theory on notes/rests, you would know that in a 4/4 time signature: a crotchet is 1 beat, semiquaver is ½ a beat, etc. but in 3ML it’s written different. The table below shows the difference (hopefully). The note ‘C’ will be used as an example for the 3ML column:


 
British/American Terminology

Value (beats)

3ML (note length)

Semibreve/Whole Note

4

C1

Minim/(1/2) Note

2

C2

Minim/(1/2) Triplet Note

2

C3

Crotchet/(1/4) Note

1

C/C4

Crotchet/(1/4)  Triplet Note

1

C6

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C8

Quaver/(1/8) Note

0.5

C12

Semiquaver/(1/16) Note

0.25

C16

Demisemiquaver/(1/32) Note

0.125

C32

Hemidemisemiquaver/(1/64) Note

0.0625

C64


 
-Note that some sites refer 1 value to be a semibreve and hence crotchet would be named ‘quarter note’ (4 crotchets in a semibreve) but in this guide 1 beat (not value) is 1 crotchet. So 1/8 is not 0.5 technically speaking.

-The Default note value is 1 beats called a crotchet, so if you write in 3ML of the note ‘g’, it will be the same as ‘g4’ i.e. a ‘G’ note with the value of a beat.

 
Music Theory


 
Now for the fun part and to confuse you all.


 
Reading music sheets: musical Symbols/Terms


 
When reading music sheets refer to the Wikipedia symbols list and learn what they mean if you can:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
There are some things Wikipedia surprisingly missed out or didn’t explain properly as well so watch out for those.


 
If you’re unsure about something ask on the forum and others will answer it, if not I’ll have a go.

Here are some terms you may wanna remember if you want to read off music sheets as it will help you understand what I’m blabbering about further. (Or read the part you want and refer to this later)


 
Octave:  An octave consists of the notes: C , C#/D♭, D , D#/E♭ , E , F , F#/G♭ , G , G#/A♭ , A , A#/B♭, B. If you don’t understand refer to the image from the first link in ‘getting started’

Where C is the lowest note and B is the highest. The next octave will have the notes in the exact same order, expect they will be of higher values, or lower values if it is the octave below. C on lets say octave 4 (middle octave of a piano) compared to octave 5 will sound the same, expect higher. Hard to explain until you hear it.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): These are written depending on the key signature usually and rarely will you see both flats and sharps here and there in a music sheet. If you remember from the one piano octave picture, C# = D♭,D# = E♭and so on.

Natural(♮): This symbol just means play the original note (no flats/sharps).


 
Clefs: Just remember that the notes are different in both respective clefs so make sure you are reading the right clef. See ‘reading musical notes’ for more information.


 
Flats/Sharps(♭/#): When a note in a bar has a flat/sharp written on it, which tells you to play a flat/sharp for that note in the bar only. So if there is a C# represent in the bar, any other C notes that appear in this bar has to be played as C#. If you memorized one octave of a piano and its notes to its corresponding keys, you might wonder: what about C♭,E#,F♭, B#. This isn’t often used, but when it is, it just means you play the notes D,F,E,C (one octave higher) respectively.

Natural(♮): This only happens in music sheets if there are flats/sharps present, especially when there is a key signature. Like flats and sharps, whenever is this applied on a note in a bar, it lasts for the duration of the bar. Sometimes it will appear twice for the same note in the bar to remind you it’s a natural (optional for the writer).


 
Time Signature:  The number on top of a number (a bit like a fraction) or the letter ‘c’ in the beginning of the bar of a song. This is optional and is not really needed for mml formatting, but if you understand how it works it can be helpful to track down if you have the right values of notes in a bar. See time signature (advanced) for more detail.


 
Time Signature (advanced):  The top number of the time signature represents the number of notes in a bar. The bottom number represents the number of beats one note will have in a bar. Most songs are of 4/4 or C time signature, which means 4 notes of the value 4, which is a crotchet, similar to 3ML format. Thus other signatures such as 4/8, 8/16 will mean 4 notes of the value 8 (quavers) and 8 notes of the value 16 (semiquavers) and so on.


 
Key Signature:   The stuff in front time signature often has a number of sharps or flats at different places. If there is no sharps/flats in the beginning bar of the song present you can read the sheet normally. If there is, your life is just made harder.


 
Tempo: Most music sheets should have this and will be displayed as a crotchet symbol = a number above the treble clef.  The higher this number is, the faster the whole song is to be played and the lower the number, the slower it is played. When there is not crochet symbol = a number written, there probably will be an Italian word there such as: moderato, allegro. Refer to this link to get your tempo number:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo#Italian_tempo_markings


 
Reading music sheets: musical Notes


 
Open this link here to show you some notes along the treble and bass clef:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg/2000px-Bass_and_Treble_clef.svg.png


 
Note that these notes do not have ‘staves’ or long vertical line that appears on the note, so they do not really have values (except for G4 which is semibreve). This is merely an example, you will not come across stateless notes in an actual music sheet.


 
In the treble clef, you can see an octave and a half worth of notes, starting with C note in the octave 4 ending with G note in the octave 5. In 3ML the default octave is o4, so writing ‘C’ in 3ML is the note labelled C4 in the link shown above. You will notice two ‘C’ notes present. Refer to musical terms: octave to learn why is this case.


 
Writing the treble clef notes in 3ML will have the following format, assuming all the staveless notes are crotchets:

cdefg1ab>cdefg

If you do not understand this format, scroll down to read the 3ML section


 
In the bass clef, the starting note is E in octave 2 (two octave lower than E of the 4th octave) up to the note B in octave 3. Note that in the treble clef, the note of the same position is note C in octave 4, so be wary which clef you are reading.


 

 
3ML(advanced)


 
‘♭’ in 3ML

There is no such thing as a flat in 3ML so you need to convert it to a sharp. Referring to this link again for the example:

http://www.pineviewchoirs.org/uploads/1/7/2/9/17292140/6001963_orig.jpg

Examples: G ♭= F#,  B♭ = A#, C♭ = B


 
Key Signature in 3ML:


 
If you read the previous explanation of key signature it will explain what it is. Now if you apply it to 3ML it can be helpful to spot mistakes or notes that you entered that are assigned the wrong value. In 3ML you will notice two sets of piano keys. One on the very top that’s in blue and black and the one that is facing sideways in black and white with a grey columns everwhere. Notice that there is a silver bar on top of the grey columns and black/white piano keys as this is important for time signature. The numbers displayed represent the bar number and will have a dark vertical line to differentiate between each bar. And the columns between two light/dark coloured vertical lines represent a beat of the assigned value in the time signature. So in a 4/8 time signature, there will be 4 columns a bar. Each column represents a value of 1/8 of a beat (quaver). In a 4/4 time signature, there will also be 4 columns in a bar, but compared to 4/8 the columns will noticeable be smaller as their beat values are different.


 
The coloured bars:


 
If you’ve seen music videos on youtube, you might have come across something similar to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lOnEth0p-Y

This works exactly how it does in 3ML, but if you still do not understand, read further.


 
The coloured bars just represents the note value according to the time signature assigned. Reading this can help you determine whether a note has the wrong value or is not the right note before even playing the ‘play’ button to listen to what you have written. The coloured bars closest to the piano on the left is shows note what is being played according to the piano keys (so if you memorized the piano octave earlier it will be helpful). The length of the coloured bars will represent the note value. Read the “key signature” in 3ML for more detail.


 
Commands:


 
You can also refer to this site, or you can read mine and see which one you prefer and understand better from:

http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/view/MML


 
‘o1,o2,o3,etc’

‘o’ refers to octave and the number in front refers to which octave. In mml, you can see there’s all the keys to a typical piano. So o1 being the lowest, and o8 being the highest. The default octave is the middle octave (o4) so you don’t have to type it in.


 
‘>, <’

 ‘>’ makes the next note you write an octave higher, while ‘<’ makes the next note you write an octave lower.


 
‘&/.’

These are used for tied notes or a dotted note.  So a dotted minim (2beats+half=3beats). Will be written as : ‘a2&a’. Occasionally used for ties.


 
‘t120’

The ‘t’ before the number represents the word tempo and the number after it the tempo speed. In 3ML is can be seen has BPM (beats per minute). Higher values mean a faster paced song. Ranges from t32 – t255


 
‘l8’

The ‘l’ represents length and the value after it represents the note length/value.


 
‘#/+’

These two mean the same thing. So C# = C+

                               

‘l8’

‘l’ represents length and the number after it represents the note value. So any note written after this is assigned the note value stated by the length command. So for ‘l8’ , writing the following notes: cdefg is the same as writing c8d8e8f8g8. This is merely a shortcut in writing notes, especially when a bar is composed of nothing but quavers.


 
‘r8/c8’

‘r’ represents a rest and ‘c’ is the note (can be any note i.e. A,B,D,E,etc). The value after r and c is the note value. In this case it is a quaver (half a beat/quarter note).


 
‘n35’

‘n’ represents ‘number’ and 35 represents a particular note in the octave ranges, in this case n35 is the note B in the octave 2 . Refer to this link to find the note and its octave:

http://www.electronics.dit.ie/staff/tscarff/Music_technology/midi/midi_note_numbers_for_octaves.htm


 
‘v5’

‘V’ represents ‘volume’ and the number after v is the intensity/loudness of the volume. Where v0 is the softest and v15 is the loudest. Anything after you set the v5 command will be played in volume 5 until you change it. Default volume is v8, so if you write your music without including v15 in front, all notes will be played in v8 unless changed.


 
After writing an mml of this format,  right click each tab and click optimize. As the word suggests it will turn whatever you created into the shortest form possible.


 
Note/rest values:

 
Because it’s hard to show pictures/symbols of notes here ill direct you to a Wikipedia site:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_value


 
Refer the Wikipedia table from 4th row downwards; I’ll try to explain those better than Wikipedia.


 
Notes and rests have the same value, but different symbol. Obviously note=play, rest=pause/silence for the duration of the beat(s).

 
Whatever is in first three rows: I’ve never seen these before so I won’t bother explaining, never seen them on music sheet either, I highly doubt that will be on whatever music you wanna compose.

Semibreve: Value of 4 beats. Tip: the semibreve and minim rests are very similar, expect ones upright and the other upside-down, a tip one of my music teachers taught my long ago that you could use to differentiate between the two is upside = stronger (can support its weight), therefore higher value. Upright=weaker (needs support). No matter the time signature, one semibreve is a rest for the whole bar.

Minim: Value of 2 beats.

Crotchet: value of 1 beats

Quaver: value of ½ a beat (half a crotchet), also known as a quarter note.

Semi Quaver: value of ¼ a beat (quarter of crotchet, half a quaver)

Prefix Quaver : personally I did not learn any quavers below semiquaver, but if you see a note that has say 3 curly ends of a semi quaver it is half the value of the note with 2 curly ends of a semi quaver. So looking at Wikipedia you can tell that by the note values they give you. Often when reading music, you usually won’t come across demisemiquaver or lower.


 
Reading a music sheet to convert into 3ML format


 
Again, you might want to refer to : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols
when reading through this.


 
Key Signature:   Depending on the number of flats and sharps on the key signature, you make have a hard time remembering what note is what especially for flats, where it needs to be converted to sharps in 3ML. The number of #/♭has their respective major/minor, but that will not need to be covered. Reading the flats/sharps from the left they have the order:


 
Key Signature


 

 

 
Number of #/♭

#

♭

3ML (♭)

1

F#

B♭

A#

2

F#, C#

B♭, E ♭

A#, D#

3

F#, C#, G#

B♭,E♭, A♭

A#, D#, G#

4

F#, C#, G#, D#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭

A#, D#, G#, C#

5

F#, C#, G#, D#, A#

B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭,G♭

A#, D#, G#, C#, F#

There are more, but I cannot be bothered listing more and its unlikely the music sheet will have that many. So basically whatever key signature you have with the respective number of #/♭, the notes according the table will be applied to EVERY note in the whole music sheet UNLESS the key signature changes elsewhere, so look out for those key signatures.


 
Natural(♮): If this is come across in the key signature, then certain notes that are meant to be played as a sharp/flat is played normally. So, according to the table above, if you see ‘##,N,#’ from left to right for a time signature for #, it means that only F#, C#, D# are changed, the G note is played normally.


 
Dotted Note: If you come across a note with a dot on the right hand side of the note, it means add half the value of the dotted note when you play that dotted note. So a dotted minim (2 beats) means play a minim plus half a minim (1 beat) which totals to 3 beats to be played for that dotted note.


 
Tie: This appears as a curved convex time linking two notes together. This just means you play that one note for the value of the two notes combined. Composers use this when a value of a note they want played is not half the value of the original note.

For dotted notes: crotchet + quaver = 1.5 beats, if the composer wants crotchet + semiquaver, by definition that is not a dotted note, so a tie is used: crotchet + semiquaver = 1.25 beats.


 
Staccato: This appears as a dot on top of a note and means it’s played at roughly half the value of the note. To imitate this on 3ML write the note of half its original value and add a rest also half fo its original value.

Example: A staccato placed on a crotchet ‘C’ note will be written as the following in 3ML: ‘c8r8’


 
Accent: This tells you that the note with a ‘>’ sign on top is played louder than the other notes without the accent. So in 3ML change the volume to a higher value i.e. v10 (higher than base volume 8)


 
8va----------: This is written on starting note and the ‘----‘ part will span to all notes that this is applied to. This is usually written so that the instrument player doesn’t not need to read ridiculously high notes that they probably will not know (unless they start counting from the highest note they know. It means play those notes an octave higher. So in 3ML you will just need to up the octave by one.


 
Vibrato/Arpeggio: This tells you that all those notes are played quickly in ascending order for the duration of the value.


 
Using the Wikipedia example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-arpeggio.svg

Assuming treble clef, 3 notes: G,B,D with the value of 4 beats. So G is played first, followed by B then D.

To imitate this is 3ML I would write:

g8b8>d2&d2 or  g16b16>d8&d2&d8

The first two notes are played at whatever speed you prefer then the last note is held for the remaining duration of the note value. So in case 1, two quavers are used (1 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 1 = 3 remaining beats). While in case 2, 2 semiquavers are used (0.5 beat) and the remaining duration is (4 - 0.5 = 3.5 beats)


 
If the vibrato has more than 3 notes piled on top of each other, the method does not change, only the last note (the remainder) will have a different value.


 

 
Triplets (tuplet): Triplets are typically notes that have 3 joined quavers (can be 3 minims, crotchets, etc too!) with a ‘3’ written on top. This indicates that those 3 notes are played for duration of 2 quavers (or crotchet). Refer to the basics of 3ML table for the triplet values.


 
You do not need to know this unless you encounter other tuplets or triples in semiquavers or higher: For triplets, you need to get the total beat duration (American terminology) divided by the number of notes to get the 3ML note length.

Example:

Crotchets: beat duration (2 crotchets = 1 minim = (1/2) note) / number of notes (triplets: 3) = 1/6

So C6 is used.

Likewise for quavers: beat duration (2 quavers = 1 crotchet = (1/4) note) / note duration (triplets: 3) = 1/12

So C12 is used.


 
Appoggiatura/Acciaccatura: These are notes (usually quavers or lower values) that are printed really small before or in between notes. This wants you to play that note quickly without playing the next note. This is notably seen in most versions of “River Flows in You” by Yiruma.


 

 
Fermata: To do this in 3ML obviously just assign that note value to be longer. So if a fermata is placed on a semibreve for example, perhaps play it for the value of two semibreves.


 
Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#/media/File:Music-fermata.svg

Assuming treble clef, the note is ‘G’ with a value of 1 beat.

So instead of writing ‘f’ you write ‘f2’ or ‘f1’ or however long you want the value to be.


 

 
Crescendo, Decrescendo: These are the wide ‘greater than or less than signs’ on top of a group of notes. Crescendo being the long less than, and the decrescendo being the long ‘greater than’, each meaning gradually getting louder and gradually getting softer. To imitate this, change the volume of each note or group of notes i.e. assigning v10 for louder notes, v6 going softer, v2 going even softer…etc. The volume increments are entirely up to you. A little playing around may help.


 
3ML layout


 
When reading from sheet to 3ML, you should assign the line of bars (several bars of music writing in a line before starting a new one below the previous line of bars) on the music sheet to also be a line of notes in 3ML by pressing ‘spacebar’. This will allow you to quickly navigate what sections of music of the music sheet you have already written, opposed to writing one song is one long line in 3ML. You will also notice that after you pressed spacebar there will be an arrow pointing down, which juts indicates that the next note to be played will be found on the next line. If you follow the time signature, you can also tell whether the notes you write are of the right values by checking the time signature lines (see 3ML (adv), time signature).


 

 
Basic 3ML Example


 
Using ‘mary had a little lamb’ as an example from: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/music/sheetmusic/maryhadalittlelamb.shtml


 
The entire first row of bars it can be written as:


 
bagabbb2aaa2b>dd2


 
Notes: Notice that there is a sharp before the time signature, which is F#. There is not ‘F’ note on the first row so it is not used. As the first note starts in octave 4, there is no need to write ‘o4’ in front as it is the default octave.


 
Intermediate 3ML Example


 
Using ‘Axel F’ as an example:

http://musime.excalibur-nw.com/sites/default/files/sheetmusic/axel_f_beverly_hills_theme-trnscrbd-mattie.pdf


 
The entire first row of the TREBLE CLEF with (5) bars it can be written as:


 
Bar1: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8

Bar2: f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8

Bar3-4:f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2

Bar5: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 
Whole row: fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8 f>c8&c16<f8f16>c#8c8<g#8 f8>c8f8<f16d#8d#16c8g8f8&f2r2 fg#8&g#16f8f16a#8f8d#8


 

 
Notes: There are 4 flats before the time signature, which means there’s B♭, E ♭,A♭,D♭. So any B,E,A,D notes you come across are all flats. Since this is at a 3ML format you have to remember that it is A#,D#,G#,C# instead.


 

 

 

 

 

 

This reminds me of a documentary or something i watched which happened to show doctors saving a persons life and that person did not show an ounce of gratitude. Then said something along the lines of : "Sometimes this is a thankless job, but in the future there will still be lives to be saved and I will be there to make it happen"
If you think of it that way, then this problem presented here is of far less importance. In other words just give and expect nothing back. That's the attitude that all composers of this sort (MML writers) should have. Especially since the music you are writing isn't even written by you to begin with. You are really just taking a long time to rewrite/rearrange what is already written .

This reminds me of a documentary or something i watched which happened to show doctors saving a persons life and that person did not show an ounce of gratitude. Then said something along the lines of : "Sometimes this is a thankless job, but in the future there will still be lives to be saved and I will be there to make it happen"
If you think of it that way, then this problem presented here is of far less importance. In other words just give and expect nothing back. That's the attitude that all composers of this sort (MML writers) should have. Especially since the music you are writing isn't even written by you to begin with. You are really just taking a long time to rewrite/rearrange what is already written .

This reminds me of a documentary or something i watched which happened to show doctors saving a persons life and that person did not show an ounce of gratitude. Then said something along the lines of : "Sometimes this is a thankless job, but in the future there will still be lives to be saved and I will be there to make it happen"
If you think of it that way, then this problem presented here is of far less importance. In other words just give and expect nothing back. That's the attitude that all composers of this sort (MML writers) should have. Especially since the music you are writing isn't even written by you to begin with. You are really just taking a long time to rewrite/rearrange what is already written .

That's your decision, however copy/pasting is a reality that should be accepted and just lived with, submitting an MML to the internet is almost like saying "Here have a free cookie." because its pretty much free domain, and while you did spend your time and effort into the creation of the MML, most people just do not know where an MML came from.

While proper credits are important, its good to know that if you are not willing to accept that your work is more than likely not going to get properly credited past your name being attached to your submissions (Meaning that if someone else copies it, they are likely to not give you any credits, or even take 5 seconds to look at who posted the MML for that matter in most cases.) you should probably not share your work.

It's impossible to make sure MML is properly credited, and that extends past MabiBeats and applies to anywhere on the internet unfortunately its just a thing that composers have to let go of if they choose to share their MML code.

Heart of Courage,
 
spirited away-Always with me
 
Str of 1000 men
 
Archangel
Maybe ill try those. so far heart of courage doesnt sound that good cuz the choir is the major component. And mabi has horrible 'song' skill sounds

Why, hello.
I've been told there's crazy people here so watch out ;D
Nonetheless enjoy your time at mabibeats
And oh...goodbye

I uh, compose some music on mabi when I'm bored and yea can be a bit of a troll. But nonetheless there is a degree of seriousness behind it. 
I felt like using Shantottos quote in dissidia for some reason, don't ask why.
I play on Alexina server and go by the name of Dragonfuery.
Cya around I guess.