Update to Music Block

Changed files

.codex-plugin/plugin.json →

skills/ensemble-arranging/SKILL.md →

skills/ensemble-arranging/agents/openai.yaml →

skills/ensemble-arranging/references/choir.md →

skills/ensemble-arranging/references/folk.md →

skills/ensemble-arranging/references/jazz-horns.md →

skills/ensemble-arranging/references/rhythm-section-bands.md →

skills/ensemble-arranging/references/string-quartet.md →

skills/human-melodic-phrasing/SKILL.md →

skills/human-melodic-phrasing/agents/openai.yaml →

skills/human-melodic-phrasing/references/bebop.md →

skills/human-melodic-phrasing/references/blues.md →

skills/human-melodic-phrasing/references/pop.md →

skills/instrument-ranges-and-idioms/SKILL.md →

skills/instrument-ranges-and-idioms/agents/openai.yaml →

skills/instrument-ranges-and-idioms/references/brass.md →

skills/instrument-ranges-and-idioms/references/drums.md →

skills/instrument-ranges-and-idioms/references/piano.md →

skills/instrument-ranges-and-idioms/references/strings.md →

skills/instrument-ranges-and-idioms/references/voices.md →

skills/instrument-ranges-and-idioms/references/winds.md →

skills/playable-fretted-parts/SKILL.md →

skills/playable-fretted-parts/agents/openai.yaml →

skills/human-melodic-phrasing/SKILL.md

--- before
+++ after
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+---
+name: human-melodic-phrasing
+description: Compose melodies, licks, riffs, solos, bass lines and vocal lines for Music Block that sound like a musician played them rather than a scale generator. Use whenever composing any melodic line, and when a user says the result sounds robotic, mechanical or boring.
+---
+
+Use this skill when composing any pitched line for Music Block: a guitar lick,
+a horn melody, a bass line, a vocal phrase, a piano right hand. It does not
+cover fingering (see playable-fretted-parts) or instrument ranges (see
+instrument-ranges-and-idioms).
+
+The Music Block format has no dynamics, accents, staccato, grace notes, ties
+or slurs. Everything human about the line must therefore come from four
+things you do control: which notes, which rhythms, where the rests are, and
+the technique markings on fretted instruments. Write with that in mind.
+
+## Workflow
+
+1. Name the idiom (blues, bebop, pop, folk, funk, classical) and open the
+   matching file in `references/` if one exists. Its target notes and
+   rhythmic habits override the generic advice here.
+2. Design a motif: a two- to four-note idea with a distinctive rhythm that
+   fits in half a bar or one bar.
+3. Draw a phrase map before writing notes. For a 4-bar example: bar 1 states
+   the motif, bar 2 repeats it with one change, bar 3 contrasts (new contour
+   or register), bar 4 resolves and leaves space. For 2 bars: state, then
+   answer. For 8 bars: two 4-bar phrases where the second ends more
+   conclusively.
+4. Place the target notes on strong beats, then fill between them.
+5. Write the rhythm with rests and one or two syncopations, then the pitches.
+6. Add technique markings (fretted) at the expressive points.
+7. Run the self-check, then call the tool.
+
+## Motif and repetition
+
+- Repetition is what makes a line sound intentional. Every example longer
+  than one bar should repeat at least one rhythmic or melodic cell.
+- Vary a repeat by one parameter at a time: transpose it to the next chord,
+  change its last note, displace it by an eighth, or invert its direction.
+- A lick that never repeats anything is the single most common "generated"
+  tell. So is a lick where every bar is different.
+
+## Breathing and space
+
+- End phrases before the barline or on the downbeat, then rest. Never fill
+  every beat of every bar. In a 4-bar lick, at least one full beat is rest.
+- Not every bar starts on beat 1. Use pickups: start a phrase on the "and" of
+  4 or on beat 4 of the previous bar, with rest beats first so the tool keeps
+  the notes in place.
+- Long notes are phrasing too. A held note with vibrato after a run is how
+  players mark a phrase end.
+
+## Contour
+
+- Mostly stepwise motion (seconds and thirds). One larger leap per phrase,
+  then move back by step in the opposite direction.
+- One clear peak per phrase, usually in the second half. Do not visit the
+  peak twice.
+- Avoid sawtooth scales: running straight up or straight down for more than
+  five notes in a row without a change of direction or a repeated note.
+- Avoid the arpeggio wander: chord tones cycled up and down in even values
+  with no goal note.
+
+## Target notes and harmony
+
+- On beats 1 and 3, land on chord tones of the current chord (3rd and 7th
+  say the most; the root says the least). Tensions and passing notes go on
+  weak beats and offbeats and resolve by step.
+- Over a dominant chord, tensions (b9, #9, #11, b13) resolve down by half
+  step into a chord tone of the next chord. Over a ii-V-I, aim the line at
+  the 3rd of the I chord on its downbeat.
+- Approach a target from below by half step or from above by scale step;
+  enclosures (one note above, one below, then the target) are idiomatic in
+  jazz and blues.
+- When the example demonstrates a scale, still phrase it: group the scale
+  into a rhythm, end on a chord tone, add one rest.
+
+## Rhythm
+
+- Mix values inside a bar: eighths with one dotted figure, a triplet, or a
+  quarter placed on an offbeat. A bar of eight identical eighths is fine once
+  per example, not in every bar.
+- Syncopate with rests and dotted notes, since ties are not available: a
+  dotted quarter on the "and" of 1, an eighth rest before beat 3, a note on
+  the "and" of 4 that ends the bar.
+- For swing, bebop, shuffle and jazz-blues set the example's `feel` field
+  and write straight eighths. Never fake swing with 12/8 or triplets.
+- Keep one rhythmic motif recognisable across bars; change pitches more than
+  rhythms.
+
+## Technique markings as expression (fretted parts)
+
+- Slide into the first note of a phrase or into a target note.
+- Hammer-ons and pull-offs for pairs of eighths or sixteenths in a run;
+  they mark the legato a player would use.
+- Bends at phrase peaks; a full bend to the target with vibrato is a phrase
+  ending in blues and rock.
+- Vibrato on quarter notes or longer that end a phrase.
+- Two to four markings per lick. A marking on every note is as robotic as
+  none.
+
+## Avoid list
+
+- Unbroken streams of eighths or sixteenths with no rest.
+- Straight scale runs of six or more notes in one direction.
+- Identical rhythm in every bar.
+- Every phrase starting on beat 1 and ending on the root.
+- Arpeggios cycled up and down with no target.
+- Constantly new material with nothing repeated.
+- A wide leap followed by another leap in the same direction.
+- Tension notes on strong beats without resolution.
+
+## Self-check before calling the tool
+
+- The line has one motif that appears at least twice, varied once.
+- There is at least one rest per two bars and a pickup or offbeat start
+  somewhere.
+- Strong beats carry chord tones; tensions resolve by step.
+- No run longer than five notes in one direction; one peak per phrase.
+- Rhythm varies within bars but a cell recurs across bars.
+- Swing is set through `feel`, not through note values.
+- Fretted parts carry two to four technique markings at expressive points.