NotesProduction note
Composing with Claude Code: ask in words, get a chord progression and MIDI
2026.10.29
Give Claude Code (Claude running in your terminal) a music toolkit, and a plain request like "something wistful, lo-fi" is enough to get a chord progression, MIDI and a check MP3. You don't need to know music theory.
The flow
- Open a terminal inside the toolkit folder and start claude. Started anywhere else, the toolkit's rules aren't loaded
- Ask: "Run the startup check and tell me the version"
- Ask for a test render ("C major, 90 BPM, 8 bars") and check the output
- Ask for the track you want. A vague request gives a safe, ordinary progression, so add chords per bar and a mood
What you get
- In renders/: a check MP3 and a prompt .html for Suno
- In renders/<name>_v<N>_midi/: the MIDI (.mid)
The MP3 is just keys and pads. It is for judging the chords, not a finished track.
Example request
Something wistful, lo-fi. 84 BPM, one chord per bar, an eight-chord progression.
I want to check the chords, so render with keys + pads only.Point at the spot you want changed ("the 5th chord floats"). Staying in the same chat lets each fix build on the last.
Works on Mac and Windows. On Windows, use PowerShell and read python3 as python.