Although not a composer myself, I found the "Lesson in MIDI" series to be an intriguing set of articles that outlines the basics of how MIDI works. From the perspective of an everyday user, Ron takes you through the ropes, explaining basic concepts and terms along the way. I was utterly fascinated with the explanations of the MIDI standard and what the sequencer actually does.

A very unique set of articles...

A Lesson in MIDI Part I: An Intro to the MIDI and MIDI-MITE by Ron Collins "The upcoming ADAMCon-04, an 'international convention' for ADAM owners everywhere, is to be held in my own back yard, so to speak. Cleveland is only a 34 mile drive up the highway from my home in Barberton, OH so you can bet I'll be there July 23 to 26, 1992 with my own MIDI equipment to show off!" (added 2/6/2000)

A Lesson in MIDI Part II: What MIDI Instruments Will I Need? by Ron Collins "The first problem was to find out just what type of sound making equipment I should purchase. I looked at various YAMAHA and CASIO keyboards over the course of several months. The YAMAHA's all had plenty of features to choose from, but the CASIO line has a consistently higher quality of instrument reproduction. For an obvious beginner, I was starting from scratch, with little money to invest in what could easily become a costly new hobby..." (added 2/6/2000)

A Lesson in MIDI Part III: An Explanation of MIDI Song Files by Ron Collins "Let's get back to our song file. A few things happen when this song is played in. Suppose the song is being played in on a professional quality, full size MIDI keyboard. As the piano score is played, a special code is placed at the beginning of the line. This is a program change control code that tells the keyboard to use a piano sound..." (added 2/6/2000)

A Lesson in MIDI Parts IV-V: Using a Downloaded MIDI File by Ron Collins "Remember, each computer system can have a special file type. Some of the ones I've run into are MID, MFF, SNG, SMF, MF1, MF0, WRY and even some really goofy ones I won't bother to mention; we can't use them anyway! On this system, the types we will be able to use are MID, MFF, MF1 and MF0. These all designate the file as a standard MIDI file format..." (added 2/10/2000)