This application allows music notation to be created on a mobile phone. Load / view / edit / save midi files.

Have you ever wanted to write down or listen to a musical idea eg on the bus or train but you don't have a piano with you?

Or have you ever been practising and wondered how a particular rhythm should sound? Or have you ever downloaded a midi file to your phone to help with learning a song and wanted to view the notes?

Like a standard sequencer, files can have multiple tracks, use midi instruments, change time signature (simple and compound time), key signatures and tempo.

Unfortunately I have not had time to perfect this app - it won't always work as expected. Some rhythms, chords and quantising may be a bit broken by some events like pitch bend... Having said that - it works enough for me to have found it useful so it stands to reason that other people might find it useful too. It is not quite Sibelius or Cakewalk or Cubase for the mobile phone - but it is a start!

Instructions

J2ME score writing / music notation - Display layout
The top left of the screen shows the position indicator Bar:Beat(tick) -- Highlighted-note-duration Highlighted-note-name (Highlighted-note-deltaTime ie time between highlighted note and the next note starting) -- (number of selected notes)
Underneath that on the left is an indicator for SHIFT (ie move notes up and down an octave and scroll a bar at a time instead of a single note). To the right of that is the Select indicator either off, SINGLE or MULTI.

On the right of the screen is the Note Duration Indicator - this can be made smaller by pressing 1 and made larger by pressing 3 and can be applied to the currently selected note (not rest) by pressing 5.
To the right of that is the Insert Mode Indicator. 0 is normal and pressing left or right will just move to the next note. 1 allows notes to be inserted at the same time as the currently highlighted note ie a chord is created when pressing right. 2 moves the starting position of the currently highlighted note. Did I mention those bugs earlier? Less bugs will be encountered if you just create monophonic melodies on each track...

Under these indicators is the score itself - the size of the note head (to which everything else is drawn in proportion) can be set in the options menu, along with the colours.
Under the score is some debugging information and an exception because it should play a short sound when you change the pitch but it doesn't work on most devices... Under that is the Midi channel number - Track number - Track Name. All can be set in an individual Track Menu from the score menu. Under that is the General Midi Instrument Number - Instrument Name of the current track.


J2ME score writing / music notation - Keypad controls
On first run (and maybe second - I told you it is not finished yet, but should be fine after the second time) - File softkey to access the file menu and choose options. From the options menu choose "Set Controls". You will then be asked to press the keys you want to use for specific functions. For devices with numeric keypads, simply press the key it requests but for devices with a QWERTY keypad you may wish to use other keys. This application won't work very well on devices where the only input is a touchscreen - unless there is an onscreen keypad...

1 - Decrease the value of Note Duration Indicator

2 - Move pitch up 1 semitone - or 1 octave if SHIFT is applied. Applies to highlighted note and all selected notes.

3 - Increase the value of Note Duration Indicator

4 - Toggle SHIFT on and off.

5 (or middle of 4 navigation buttons) - Apply value of Note Duration Indicator to the currently highlighted note (not rest). Select the note in Single Select mode.

6 - Toggle SELECT between OFF, SINGLE and MULTI. In Single select, highlight a note and press 5 to select it. In Multi Select a note will be selected by highlighting it and scrolling past it. The pitch of all selected notes can be changed at once. Press * to access the Additional Actions Screen to use the clipboard.

7 - Add or remove a dot (adds half to the duration) to the currently highlighted note (not rest).

8 - Move pitch down 1 seimtone - or 1 octave if SHIFT is applied. Applies to highlighted note and all selected notes.

9 - Toggle Insert Mode Indicator between 0, 1 and 2.

* - Show or hide Additional Actions Screen for using clipboard, placing markers and toggling settings - each square represents the keypad numbers 1 to 9.

0 - Toggle the highlighted note between a rest and a note.

# - Add or remove a tie to the currently highlighted note if musically valid.

Four way navigation - Scroll left and right through score and change pitch of currently highlighted and selected notes.

Download

J2ME MIDI Sequencer v0.7 - released 04.04.2010 (approx)
• First release. There are still many bugs but the app usable for simple scores.

J2ME MIDI Sequencer v0.72 - released 22.07.2012
• Fixed a bug which made sound stop after a few plays on some devices.
• When a new track is added, it will be given the next free channel number (excluding channel 10 which is used for percussion). If all channels are used then it will be assigned to channel 1.

Download Musical Score Composing App for J2ME phones
It requires a phone that supports Java - more specifically it requires MIDP2.0 and CLDC1.1 which I believe is supported by the majority of J2ME enabled mobile phones from 2004 onwards. I have tested it on a Sony Ericsson K750i and a Nokia E71.

To download J2ME Score, either download directly via your phone's web browser or download it to a computer and use Bluetooth or a cable to transfer it to your phone.