MML will always default to a starting note of middle C, Octave 4. Octaves can go from 0-8. If you want the notes to go higher or lower than that octave, you will need to do that manually. Alternatively, you can use N#, where # is a specific number referring to a specifc key (for instance, middle C is 60 ). This, of course, requires that you know which key is which number. As for tempos -->