21st Century music Challenge:

I had the most wonderful lucid dream this morning about how to bring music notation, interpretation and reading into the 21st Century.
I'm looking to connect with a collaborator(s), with whom we can shake second millennium baggage from our backs and revolutionise the music world. That is, to drag it from the analogue world of parchment, crow quills and Indian ink, fully into the digital age.
Computer programmers have, for some time now, gone to extraordinary lengths in software development companies to computerise ancient music notation (e.g. Finale, Sibelius). Although this is very useful to musicians trained to read the archaic code of this notation, it's much less useful to those who have not spent the years necessary to be able to read and speak (sing/play) the language.
The proposed 21stCmusic suite of applications will be enjoyed by all ELM vc singers and potentially every singer of every choir in the English Speaking world and beyond (once the software is offered in multiple languages). Its potential is HUGE! Who can hazard a guess 'How many choristers are there in the English speaking world?' I had a go and came up with a figure of about 500,000
I'd particularly love to discuss this opportunity with aspiring young computer programmers and musicians who can see the potential to make a name for themselves and are game to go this exciting journey with me... to built a suite of open freeware 'killer apps' named 21stCmusic that retain the fundamental design concepts of traditional music notation but with graphic representation now remodeled and optimised to exploit the fabulous computer power available at an affordable price to those of us today. I have a particular vision of how this notation will be represented but it's too difficult to explain in a few words. A design brief and functional specification need to be prepared.
I'm looking to connect with a collaborator(s), with whom we can shake second millennium baggage from our backs and revolutionise the music world. That is, to drag it from the analogue world of parchment, crow quills and Indian ink, fully into the digital age.
Computer programmers have, for some time now, gone to extraordinary lengths in software development companies to computerise ancient music notation (e.g. Finale, Sibelius). Although this is very useful to musicians trained to read the archaic code of this notation, it's much less useful to those who have not spent the years necessary to be able to read and speak (sing/play) the language.
The proposed 21stCmusic suite of applications will be enjoyed by all ELM vc singers and potentially every singer of every choir in the English Speaking world and beyond (once the software is offered in multiple languages). Its potential is HUGE! Who can hazard a guess 'How many choristers are there in the English speaking world?' I had a go and came up with a figure of about 500,000
I'd particularly love to discuss this opportunity with aspiring young computer programmers and musicians who can see the potential to make a name for themselves and are game to go this exciting journey with me... to built a suite of open freeware 'killer apps' named 21stCmusic that retain the fundamental design concepts of traditional music notation but with graphic representation now remodeled and optimised to exploit the fabulous computer power available at an affordable price to those of us today. I have a particular vision of how this notation will be represented but it's too difficult to explain in a few words. A design brief and functional specification need to be prepared.
SingingCoach Simulation:The key application in the suite is SingingCoach. In addition to preparing functional requirement and design documents for the application, a simulation of how it is intended to function.
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Other than Sony Singstar (the game that sparked my vision), I'm unaware of any serious music practise tools with functionality similar to those shown in the simulation and listed below. If there are, please contact me and tell me what you know of them. Audacity seems to provide some potential as a open system upon which 21stCmusic functionality could be added.
The suite will comprise:
The development of these applications has a two-fold objective:
If you believe you've got what it takes to meet the 21stCmusic Challenge, then contact me!
The suite will comprise:
- Converter
A utility or import module to convert MusicXML formated files to 21stCmusic format - SingingCoach practise and recording application
A play along app that runs on popular computerised devices (desktop, laptop, tablet, smart phone) that plays music in practise form using 21stCmusic notation displayed on the screen. As the notation scrolls across the screen (R to L) the person practicing listens to the audio through headphone and plays or sings into a microphone. The tool will provide dynamic and objective feedback on pitch, timing and volume accuracy and tonal quality by superimposing their actual performance on the screen. Inaccuracies in pitch, timing and tonal quality will be immediately and graphically apparent to the player/singer. At the conclusion of the practise session, a virtual coach will provide a constructive critique on their performance using statistical analysis, graphs etc and encourage them to do better next time. Think of a more complete, refined and useful manifestation of the Sony Playstation computer game Singstar. Finally, when the person practicing believes they have improved as much as they are able for the current assignment/gig, the tool will provide a graphical replay capability and a means of saving/exporting their best performance in common audio/video file formats, complete with the statistical meta-data of that performance (including overall score 0-100%), for post-practice review/use.
The development of these applications has a two-fold objective:
- Provide the Each Living Moment virtual choir with world-leading capabilities. This tool would eliminate or substantially reduce many of the key technical issues that make the collation of hundreds/thousands of individual audio/video submission from singers problematic and laborious. Synchronising tracks would no longer be an issue. The serious issue of performance errors (pitch, timing, tone) could be dealt with largely automatically by utilizing the statistical meta data (scrubbing, volume control).
- As a spin off, provide every singer (or musician if made MIDI capable) in the world, who performs by ear, an easy to use tool for reading music notation and practising their art, combined with constructive and accurate feedback from their own expert coach, essential advise for improving their performance.
If you believe you've got what it takes to meet the 21stCmusic Challenge, then contact me!
Walter Bennett
07/10/12 |
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