I'm into music. I have a MIDI program on my computer, and a MIDI keyboard on my desk. I've been using MIDI for at least 16 years, mostly with Noteworthy Composer. I download music, edit music, compose music and post music to the net, mostly here at the Mudcat. So those are my qualifications.

I won't detail the problems I've run into. I'll just say that if you wish to post music to the Internet and you hope that people will use and enjoy it, then please follow the following steps.

1. Put the proper key on the piece. For example, if it's in D, tell your computer.   Otherwise, the computer assumes it's in C and puts an accidental on every F and C. The person downloading the piece sees a piece bristling with accidentals, and a beginner will be fooled into thinking it's a goofy, useless file. Others will waste time figuring out what key it's really in and fixing it.

Humans know that a piece with no key signature on it is in the key of C, but computers don't know that. If it's in C, tell your computer. Why? Because a computer needs to know it's in C if anybody ever wants to transpose the piece.

2. If a piece starts with pick-up notes, put the rests that fill up the measure in front of the pick-up notes. Then save your MIDI file. It looks funny, but if you don't, the next computer will put the pick-up notes at the beginning of the first measure, will have all bar lines in the wrong place, and will generate specious ties which have to be removed, one by tiresome one.

3. Learn to recognize a triplet and mark triplets in your file as needed. If you don't, your computer will save them as a goofy little set of notes that nobody can time. I just encountered this in a workshop where not even the music majors recognized them.

4. Mark the right tempo on the piece. If you don't, your computer will label it 120, the default tempo. When I see a piece labelled 120, I wonder whether the author actually selected it or was too amateur to assign a tempo.

Usually we master dances at 120, and then we are told to play slower when we get to the dance. Thus wasting our practice time...

5. For some reason, many programs print titles in size 24 type. I think that's too big - wastes ink and wastes space. I've set up a template and all my titles are 12. Nobody's complained yet.

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Here endeth the lesson.