The csbeats language is very simple, having only 5 kinds of statement, and only one of them has any complexity. In general the introductory word for each statement type is case insensitive, so "QUIT", "quit", "QuIt"... are all the same. Comments can be introduced in either ANSI C89 format or C++ (that is either /* ... */ or // to the end of line) or Csound's semicolon. QUIT Causes csbeats to exit. For flexibility the command END is also accepted for the identical action. BEATS=integer Sets the number of beats per minute for the following score until the end or until it is reset. The default value is 60bpm. The token BPS is also acceptable instead of BEATS. PERMEASURE=integer Sets the number of beats in a bar. The default value is 4. BAR Start a new bar. BAR integer Start the bar whose number is given. i integer attributes Specified a note event for the numbered instrument. The attributes may be any of a pitch, duration or dynamic, or a positioning of the note to a beat or measure, and can be in any order. Pitches are specified with a conventional note name (English form) in upper case optionally followed by a #, x (for double sharp), b (for flat) or bb (for double flat). A note of Z is a rest (think zzzz). All notes except rests must be followed by an octave number, with A4 being international A (440Hz). Pitches are passed to Csound in Hertz in the parameter p4, and are twelve tone equal temprament. Durations are coded in lower case with the initial letter of the name for whole, half, quarter, eigth and sixteeth notes, or th for thirtysecondth notes. Except for w these can be moderated by appending as suffix: d or . Dotted note (half as long again) dd or .. Dotted note (three quarters as long again) t Triplet note (third notes in two) t. Dotted triplet note q Quintuplet (Five notes in four) s Septuplet (Seven notes in eight) Durations can be added together by giving more that one duration. To make this more intuitive a + sign can be used instead of white space. The dynamics are written in conventional notation, that is fff, ff, f, mf, mp, p, pp, ppp, pppp. These are passed to the instrument as p5 as 0 for fff, and one less dB for each step below. The default dynamic is fortissimo. Additional parameters (p-fields) can be specified in an instrument statement by giving statements like p6=42 which would set the p6 field to 42 until it is changed. The number must be 6 or greater as the first 5 fields are taken with fixed information. Each instrument number has its own additional parameters. If any of these attributes is missing it carried forward from the previous note, with beat position being incremented to the end of the previous note. In addition an event can be directed to a particular measure with an m attribute or a particular beat with a b.