One bit of every data byte is spent saying 'I am not a command' — and that single design decision explains the 0-127 range, the velocity-zero quirk, running status, and why pitch bend needed its own message.
The previous lesson said a Note On is "144, 60, 64" and moved on. Those numbers are not arbitrary, and taking them apart is worth an hour of your life, because nearly every strange MIDI behaviour you will ever meet turns out to be a byte doing exactly what it was defined to do.
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