Around the time of Deep State Synergetics, I was reconnecting with talent I'd met through edu-sig, the vibrant Python community listserv (implemented in Mailman, itself a Python app), and getting some tutoring about French geography and MIDI.
I've always posed to myself those questions about where to spot-weld the maths to music. We're used to the frequencies approach, focusing on pitch, but how about MIDI itself, the entire protocol? Pitch is included, as data bytes following specific command bytes, but so is so much more, such as channel selection, emphasis (key pressure), attack (velocity) and so on.
MIDI is a code language, not in the sense of "encrypted" so much as "encoded". What's the diff? Encryption is about concealing a message from all but an intended receiver. Encoding is about sending payloads of information by means of discernable signals, which in our Digital Age means ones and zeroes.
Given I'm at the headwaters, where the salmon come to spawn and die, it's not for me to now downscript all the lesson plans, down to the minute or even to the specific devices. I might do that for my own workshops naturally, but I'm not publicizing those plans. I do go down to the slide deck level, so it's not like I'll avoid a good demo, especially if it's my own value added.
I remember at Junior English School we had two instruments to choose from: recorder and melodica. I took the recorder fairly seriously and my parents indulged me, by buying me a bass (same shape, but bigger). But I never got any serious instruction on that instrument (I did on piano) and to this day can't read music at speed. I'm retarded in that respect (lag behind, don't keep up).
So I'm grateful my own disabilities do not define the limitations of what I record as my curriculum.
Let's do some stuff with MIDI is all I want to say. Leave it to Faculty XYZ to decide what their focus will be. Some might mandate attention to some specific tune, such as Star Spangled Banner or some school anthem. For local faculty, mandating such specific content would go with the territory, whereas such mandates from me might constitute an abuse of power (serving only to make my performance seem awkward and out of step).
Indeed, my French connection is reminding me that MIDI doesn't need to be about music creation. As a protocol, we're free to map it, taking advantage of existing devices yet making them control geometric objects instead.
Replace pitch with color, volume with size, and allow pitch bending to mean rotation around some axis why not?
Again, the details are beneath me (i.e. above my paygrade) to have to specify. Don't let me be the bottleneck for a great idea. I don't even have Python midi modules installed, yet.
