Notes, rests, and octaves

The pitch table

ThaiMusicXML uses Thai scale degrees as note names. There are seven degrees, each with three valid spellings:

Degree	Numeric	Romanized	Thai
1	1	D	ด
2	2	R	ร
3	3	M	ม
4	4	F	ฟ
5	5	S	ซ
6	6	L	ล
7	7	T	ท

All three spellings name the same note. pitch="1", pitch="D", and pitch="ด" produce identical output. A file picks one spelling convention and keeps to it.

The romanized letters are case-insensitive: d and D are the same degree. Numeric and Thai spellings each have only one form.

Octave marks

The seven degrees cover one octave. To reach higher or lower octaves, Thai notation uses two modifiers:

Modifier	Thai	Effect	Example
นิคหิต	ํ	Raises one octave	ดํ is ด one octave up
พินทุ	ฺ	Lowers one octave	ทฺ is ท one octave down

The modifiers attach to any of the three spellings: 1ํ, Dํ, and ดํ all mean the same note, one octave higher than ด. They can stack: ดํํ is two octaves up, though in practice most music stays within two octaves in either direction.

The default octave (no modifier) is the middle register. นิคหิต raises from there; พินทุ lowers.

Octaves beyond the Thai spellings

When music reaches registers that the Thai modifiers cannot express cleanly, the octave attribute gives an explicit number:

<note pitch="ด" octave="2"/>
<note pitch="D" octave="-2"/>

octave="0" is the default middle register. Positive numbers go up, negative go down. The attribute works with any spelling.

Rests

A <rest> takes one beat, the same as a <note>. It means the instrument strikes nothing new on that beat. As page 3 explained, Thai instruments have no notated sustain: a rest is not silence, it is an absence of attack. A note left ringing under a rest is the instrument behaving normally.

<rest/>

A rest is self-closing with no attributes. Every beat in a measure is either a <note>, a <rest>, or a <group>.

Unpitched parts

Some instruments, like the ฉิ่ง (small cymbals), do not play pitched notes. Setting type="unpitched" on a <part> means its notes use sound instead of pitch:

<rest/><rest/><rest/><note sound="ฉิ่ง"/>

The sound attribute takes any string. The values are local to the part, so an <annotation> inside the <section-ref> is the usual place to document them.

From the tutorial file, the ฉิ่ง part in สองชั้น:

<line number="1">
  <measure number="1"><rest/><rest/><rest/><note sound="ฉิ่ง"/></measure>
  <measure number="2"><rest/><rest/><rest/><note sound="ฉับ"/></measure>
</line>

In สองชั้น the ฉิ่ง plays one stroke per measure, alternating ฉิ่ง and ฉับ every measure. In ชั้นเดียว the cycle completes within a single measure: rest, ฉิ่ง, rest, ฉับ.

Drill: pitch spellings

The file public/corpus/valid/pitch-spellings.txml exercises all three spellings and both modifiers on a single line:

<part-data part="P1">
  <section-ref section="s1">
    <line number="1">
      <measure number="1">
        <note pitch="1"/><note pitch="2"/><note pitch="3"/><note pitch="4"/>
      </measure>
      <measure number="2">
        <note pitch="S"/><note pitch="L"/><note pitch="t"/><note pitch="d"/>
      </measure>
      <measure number="3">
        <note pitch="ด"/><note pitch="ร"/><note pitch="ม"/><note pitch="ฟ"/>
      </measure>
      <measure number="4">
        <note pitch="ดํ"/><note pitch="ทฺ"/><note pitch="ด" octave="2"/><note pitch="D" octave="-2"/>
      </measure>
    </line>
  </section-ref>
</part-data>

Measure 1 uses numeric, measure 2 romanized, measure 3 Thai. Measure 4 shows the modifiers: นิคหิต (ดํ), พินทุ (ทฺ), and the octave attribute.

---

Next, see Beats and subdivision for the <group> element, which splits a beat into equal parts.

Elements introduced

<note pitch>, <note sound>, <rest>, octave attribute, type="unpitched"

Try it in the Playground