Thank you for your testing and suggestions.

Dependencies:

1. smf (found by ./configure)

2. python-gtksourceview2 (found trying to run it--please test for this in ./configure script).

The check for python-gtksourceview2 is missing. The full list of dependencies can be found here: http://linuxband.org/documentation.html

Ideas:

1. No need to require jack for simple MIDI. Maybe allow an option here. (Unfortunately, my jack is not working right now so could not play anything :-()

This would need more work I'm not going to do. For serious audio work on Linux you have to use JACK so I went straight for it.

2. With or without jack, need to be able to set some MIDI output device. Better, program should show up as an alsa/jack MIDI source which can be connected using jack or alsa connections such as in qjackctl. (I see no provision for this in mma's CLI, however--does it do stdin->stdout?)

Don't know if I understand correctly. LinuxBand will create a JACK Midi port called linuxband-player. You can connect it using qjackctl. mma cli is a Midi generator not a player.

3. You might look at Jammer's interface. The measures/bars view show chords and styles (plus user part names and such). There is indication of tempo changes, key and time signatures and such, all in place and all visible.

Yes, thanks, I'll check it out for inspiration.