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As a part of my academic paper, I wish to use the "Sequence" word.

Here is the problem:

  1. As you can see in the picture, the "Start Time" of each note is mentioned on the time axis. I want to measure the time differences between A,B,C, and D but I do not know which terms fit in this context.
  • The sequences of notes' start time
  • The sequences of starting time of notes
  • The sequences of music scores
  1. In another part, I trace the time differences when users press the piano keys. Again the same problem
  • The sequences of key-pressed events

I would be grateful if you guys could help me to find a suitable term for this context.

enter image description here

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  • Is this a paper dealing with the mechanics or electronics of musical instruments or the MIDI protocol rather than a discussion of musical performance? Musicians are used to thinking of sequences of notes but then thinking of the duration of the notes and don't usually think of the notes as being steps on a time scale starting from the sounding of the first note. Also as a point a crotchet is a quater of a semibrieve, not a half of one so the start times should be 0, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75 and 2 rather than as your diagram shows.
    – BoldBen
    Oct 17, 2020 at 0:39
  • As a musician I'm concerned that the time from the first note (the chord) to the second should not be 1, but 2 for the rest of the timings to be correct. It's also unfortunate that you need to use the word "sequence", which has a specific meaning when discussing music.
    – Old Brixtonian
    Oct 17, 2020 at 0:41
  • BoldBen's start times would be equally valid.
    – Old Brixtonian
    Oct 17, 2020 at 0:43
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    (Thanks for the edit) Ah! I get it. To find out whether, and by how much, the musician plays the notes early or late. So in MIDI terminology you'll be looking at the 'Note on' times. You have a note-sequence - ie the sheet music or score - the start times of whose notes are easily measured once you know the tempo. If it is crotchet=60 the first chord is on 0", then the next notes are on 4" 5" 6" and 7".... I can't see how the word 'sequence' is going to be useful, except in talking about the note-sequence. (Was your comment meant for me btw?)
    – Old Brixtonian
    Oct 17, 2020 at 1:15
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    I think your best bet, now that @OldBrixtonian has reminded me of the name of the event, is to talk about a series of Note On events with time offsets from the initial Note On event (however you'd have to pair each one with a Note Off event otherwise it'd sound horrible:-) Of course each Note Off event doesn't have to coincide with the next Note On event because you can play them staccato or sustain them so you allow them to overlap a little. Are you thinking of MIDI files recorded from performance or ones which have been generated electronically?
    – BoldBen
    Oct 17, 2020 at 1:35

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