Patent Application
20180144729
The present disclosure relates to simplifying rhythms in a musical composition to be more appropriately suited for a player's proficiency level, and in particular, to systems and methods for changing rhythmic complexity in simple and compound meters to accommodate a player's proficiency.
Two elements that make up how a player interprets the difficulty of any given selection of music are rhythmic complexity and note range. In practice, sheet music is written with the proficiency level of the player in mind. When creating an alternate version of a naturally difficult arrangement, choices are carefully made by an arranger to simplify the rhythm of a piece in order to best capture its original characteristics. For instance, a melody made up primarily of sixteenth notes can be simplified to eighth notes by skipping every other note. Simplification is common practice to allow a player who is not capable of performing the original version to be able to play a version that sounds similar to the original melody but written in a level-appropriate manner.
As a result, musical arrangement users, such as band directors, plano students, and private lesson teachers, and even creators of sheet music, are forced to manually adjust the music in order to simplify it. This process is time-consuming and often requires manually entering in every single note as a starting point. In some cases, ensemble users may not have the ability or training to rewrite the fixed musical arrangement, therefore, they are limited in their selection and likely to end up with sub-optimal results. If a title is not already available for purchase at the correct proficiency level, it may either be passed over as an option to perform, or the player will be forced to struggle through playing an arrangement that is too difficult for their playing level.
Systems and methods are provided for simplifying any combination of note and rest values in a wide variety of commonly used simple and compound meters. This is achieved by receiving note and rest information, assessing the information based on one or more factors, and making adjustments according to the proficiency level, rhythmic value of notes or rests needing to be updated, the placement of the notes within the measure, the location of the notes according to the beat structure of the meter, and the types of notes and rests surrounding the notes and rests being updated.
The disclosed system and method evaluates rhythms one measure at a time and uses the note lengths, the order of those notes or rests, how they are positioned in the measure based on which beat the note is found in a measure, and position in relation to the closest beat as defined by the time signature.
In one aspect, the disclosed system and method utilizes one or more simplification processes, each of which is designed to accept as input a musical arrangement having a higher (more difficult to play) proficiency to the generate as output a musical arrangement having a lower (simpler) proficiency. The simplification processes are referred to herein by the input and output proficiency levels, e.g., the 4-3 process takes a selection of music having a “4” proficiency level and outputs a simplified version having a “3” proficiency level.
Users may select either a defined simplification process (such as proficiency level 3 to level 2) or may simply select a destination proficiency which triggers the required sequence of simplification processes to achieve the final result. For example, a user wishing to simplify an arrangement to proficiency 1 can simply select a target proficiency of 1. This would trigger a 4-3 process, a 3-2 process, and finally a 2-1 process.
In some embodiments, for example, embodiments configured to execute within a desktop notation software application, the invention may take the form of a plugin that could be labeled “3 to 2.” The process for 4 to 3 and then 3 to 2 would be performed in this scenario to achieve the desired rhythmic simplification, as will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts presented herein.
In another aspect, an objective of the disclosed system and method is to adjust the rhythmic elements of the notation, and to make choices for which pitches will be kept or deleted in those cases when notes and rests are removed as part of the simplification process. These choices are carefully defined and efforts are made to best preserve the rhythmic integrity of the song, and retain as many unique pitches as possible.
Any further note range modifications or transposition at this point may be performed by a complementary melodic simplification process. In practice, for example, the disclosed rhythmic simplification system may be employed in conjunction with other simplification processes to adjust for example, note ranges, to produce arrangements that are completely adjusted to a player's proficiency level. Examples of other simplification processes which may be employed in conjunction with the present invention are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,202,448 entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CREATING CUSTOMIZED MUSIC ARRANGEMENTS” and U.S. Pat. No. 9,489,932 entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CREATING CUSTOMIZED MUSIC ARRANGEMENTS,” each of which is owned by the assignee of the present application and incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.
The system and method supports simplifying meters where a quarter note is considered the beat (4/4, ¾, 7/4, etc.), meters where dotted quarter notes are considered the main beat ( 6/8, 9/8, 12/8, etc), meters where half notes are considered the main beat (2/2, 3/2, 5/2, etc.) as well as symbols such as cut and common time (or imperfect time).
The beat evaluation location is an element used throughout the process to reference which location within the measure is being evaluated. For example: beat 4 of 5 or beat 3.25 of 4. It should be understood that, while there can be 4 beats a measure, the disclosed system can have a beat evaluation location of, for example, 4.5. In this example, beat 4.5 of a 4 beat measure in simple meter would represent the midpoint of the fourth beat, e.g., the “and” of the fourth beat (e.g., the second eighth note of the fourth beat). There are no zero values, so all measures are regarded as starting with beat evaluation location 1.
A minimum note duration refers to the smallest type of note allowed in given particular proficiency level. All other notes must be larger. For example, if the minimum note duration is an eighth note, a quarter note is permitted, while a sixteenth note is not.
Because of the variety and inconsistency in notation software commonly used to create the output files generated by the system, particularly with respect to the way some tuplets are created, in the example embodiment a messaging facility is utilized to notify users/arrangers of measures that should be examined manually. This will help ensure these rare notations are handled properly. The process generates a log of measures that should be examined after simplification. The field “Display Non-Standard Rhythmic Phrase Message” is a catchall error message that either indicates the presence of incorrectly formatted notation, or a rhythmic phrase that falls outside the parameters of this process (e.g., tuplets smaller than triplets).
The goal of the 4 to 3 process is to prevent no more than 2 consecutive sixteenth notes which will yield a rhythmic interpretation level commensurate with a low-intermediate player. The 3 to 2 process eliminates sixteenth notes and does not allow notes larger than eighth notes, which is consistent with a beginner's rhythmic interpretation ability. Finally the 2 to 1 process eliminates all eighth notes forcing the music to fit within quarter note or larger notes and rests, which is consistent with an early beginner's rhythmic interpretation ability.
An example of output when running the 4 to 3 process is shown in
An example of output when running the Proficiency 3 to 2 Process is shown in
An example of output when running the Proficiency 2 to 1 Process is shown in
In some embodiments, the results of a simplification process may be cached, which would enable future simplification processes for the same piece of music to be generated more quickly by using the cached version rather than having to re-process any intermediate or final simplifications.
According to embodiments of the present disclosure, a system and method is provided that enables a user to simplify rhythms and, additionally or alternatively, adjust the positioning of notes found in written music notation as needed and in real time, to match the proficiency level of a specific player.
The disclosed processes account for changes in time signature across the notation being evaluated and handles both simple and compound meters. In the event an odd time signature (such as ⅞ or 9/8) is presented, no action may be taken to simplify the notation.
In circumstances where the notation provided to the simplification processes is not written in a standard form, simplification of the incorrectly formatted music may not be achievable. Any measures containing a non-standard rhythmic phrase is noted by the simplification process for further review and, if necessary, a simplification may be accomplished manually.
In embodiments, the present invention may be embodied as a software plug-in suitable for use with notation software, such as Sibelius® or Finale®. In these embodiments, the user may be presented with a list of measures having non-standard rhythmic phrasing for further review after the necessary simplification processes have concluded. In some embodiments, the presence of a non-standard rhythmic phrase will simply not be changed for any effected measures.
Accordingly, several advantages are provided, including the ability, preferably when used in conjunction with a note range correction system, for users to receive immediate customized updates to arrangements based on the proficiency level of the player that will be assigned this part. This process can be applied to any form of musical data which tracks note duration including MIDI, MusicXML and any other open source music format or proprietary software format.
Other features and advantages should become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Various embodiments disclosed herein are described in detail with reference to the following figures. The drawings are provided for purposes of illustration only and merely depict typical or exemplary embodiments. These drawings are provided to facilitate the reader's understanding and shall not be considered limiting of the breadth, scope, or applicability of the embodiments.
Particular illustrative embodiments of the present disclosure are described hereinbelow with reference to the accompanying drawings; however, the disclosed embodiments are merely examples of the disclosure, which may be embodied in various forms. The rhythmic simplification processes described herein may be fully understood with reference to the drawings, and to the description which, for brevity, avoids superfluous, repetitive or redundant detail. Similarly, well-known functions or constructions are not described in detail to avoid obscuring the present disclosure in unnecessary or redundant detail. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present disclosure in virtually any appropriately detailed structure. In this description, as well as in the drawings, like-referenced numbers represent elements which may perform the same, similar, or equivalent functions. The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. The word “example” may be used interchangeably with the term “exemplary.”
The present disclosure may be described herein in terms of functional block components, code listings, optional selections, page displays, and various processing steps. It should be appreciated that such functional blocks may be realized by any number of hardware and/or software components configured to perform the specified functions. For example, the present disclosure may employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements, processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, and the like, which may carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or more microprocessors or other control devices.
Similarly, the software elements of the present disclosure may be implemented with any programming or scripting language such as C, C++, C#, Java, COBOL, assembler, PERL, Python, PHP, or the like, with the various algorithms being implemented with any combination of data structures, objects, processes, routines or other programming elements. The object code created may be executed by any device having a data connection capable of connecting to the Internet, on a variety of operating systems including without limitation Apple OSX®, Apple MacOS®, Apple iOS®, Google Android®, HP WebOS®, any of the many UNIX variants including Linux, Microsoft Windows®, and/or Microsoft Windows Mobile®.
It should be appreciated that the particular implementations described herein are illustrative of the disclosure and its best mode and are not intended to otherwise limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Examples are presented herein which may include sample data items which are intended as examples and are not to be construed as limiting. Indeed, for the sake of brevity, conventional data networking, music file formats, data file input, output and storage, application development and other functional aspects of the systems (and components of the individual operating components of the systems) may not be described in detail herein. It should be noted that many alternative or additional functional relationships or physical or virtual connections may be present in a practical electronic system or apparatus. In the discussion contained herein, the terms user interface element and/or button are understood to be non-limiting, and include other user interface elements such as, without limitation, a hyperlink, clickable image, and the like.
As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the present disclosure may be embodied as a method, a data processing system, a device for data processing, and/or a computer program product. Accordingly, the present disclosure may take the form of an entirely software embodiment, an entirely hardware embodiment, or an embodiment combining aspects of both software and hardware. Furthermore, the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code means embodied in the storage medium. Any suitable computer-readable storage medium may be utilized, including hard disks, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, semiconductor storage devices (e.g., flash memory, USB thumb drives) and/or the like.
Computer program instructions embodying the present disclosure may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture, including instruction means, that implement the function specified in the description or flowchart block(s). The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that the instructions that execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the present disclosure.
One skilled in the art will also appreciate that, for security reasons, any databases, systems, or components of the present disclosure may consist of any combination of databases or components at a single location or at multiple locations, wherein each database or system includes any of various suitable security features, such as firewalls, access codes, encryption, de-encryption, compression, decompression, and/or the like The steps recited herein may be executed in any order and are not limited to the order presented. Moreover, two or more steps or actions recited herein may be conducted concurrently.
The disclosed systems and/or methods may be embodied, at least in part, in application software that may be downloaded, in whole or in part, from either a website or an application store (“app store”) to the mobile device. In another embodiment, the disclosed system and method may be included in the mobile device firmware, hardware, and/or software. In another embodiment, the disclosed systems and/or methods may be embodied, at least in part, in application software executing within a webserver to provide a web-based interface to the described functionality.
In yet other embodiments, all or part of the disclosed systems and/or methods may be provided as one or more callable modules, an application programming interface (e.g., an API), a source library, an object library, a plug-in or snap-in, a dynamic link library (e.g., DLL), or any software architecture capable of providing the functionality disclosed herein.
Systems and methods for simplifying music rhythms based on multiple criteria are provided herein. In an embodiment, a user chooses a musical selection from a database of musical selections. The musical selection may be encoded in any suitable notation format, including without limitation MIDI file format, MusicXML, and/or any other suitable open source music format or proprietary software format. The user inputs, into the system, information about a player's proficiency level rated on a scale of, for example, 1 to 4 or, alternatively, 1 to 5, where a lower number indicates a lower proficiency and a higher number indicates a higher proficiency. In the exemplary embodiments presented herein, level 1 represents an early beginner, level 2 represents a beginner, level 3 represents an intermediate player, and 4 represents an advanced player.
Note that, if using a 1 to 5 scale, where 5 represents an expert professional player, level 5 will be treated the same as level 4 in terms of rhythmic difficulty. However, in some embodiments, the proficiency difference from level 5 to level 4 may be relevant for other non-rhythmic based criteria that utilized by a complementary simplification process, such as an instrument range simplification process, for example. That is, changing from proficiency 5 to proficiency 4 would not cause any change to the rhythmic simplification, but could result in other changes such as melodic simplification or instrument range, for example.
In one aspect, each rhythmic simplification process is characterized by its input level and output level. For example, the 4 to 3 process is designed to accept an arrangement requiring a proficiency level of 4, and to output a simplified arrangement suitable for a player of proficiency 3. Each level change is therefore carried out by a rhythmic simplification process designed to accomplish one specific level change: the 4 to 3 process, the 3 to 2 process, and the 2 to 1 process. When the user chooses a desired final proficiency level, all higher-level simplification processes are first performed in descending order. For example, if a user chooses to run a level 2 simplification, the 4 to 3 process is performed first, followed by the 3 to 2 process, at which point the simplification process is completed (e.g, concludes without running the 2 to 1 process). This ensures that any complex rhythms that may exist in the original arrangement are appropriately simplified prior reaching the next simplification level. In another aspect, each simplification process may be characterized by set of simplification rules, such as a minimum note duration rule, a combination rule, and/or a beat-shifting rule.
As seen in
Each measure is evaluated by initially setting the beat evaluation location in the measure to 1, and examining each note and rest in the measure starting with the first note or rest. Each note or rest in the measure is distinguished by duration, position within the measure, and position relative to the beat to determine which simplification process applies to the note or rest's musical context.
If the current note or rest is an eighth, dotted eighth, quarter, dotted quarter, double dotted quarter, half, dotted half, double dotted half, triple dotted half, whole, dotted whole, or breve (double whole note), the 4-3 process continues at step 120 (
If the current note or rest is a dotted eighth, double dotted quarter, or triple dotted half, dotted-note simplification is potentially required (
If the current note or rest is 1/16th note based (e.g., includes tuplet 16th notes and single, double, triple dotted notes), 1/16th note simplification processing is potentially required as shown in
If the current note or rest is a double or triple dotted ⅛th, or triple dotted quarter note, simplification proceeds at
If the measure is empty, any changes already made (e.g., combining rests) are retained and the next measure is processed. If additional elements (notes or rests) remain in the measure, the current beat evaluation location is positioned at the note (or rest) after the quarter note or rest just created.
For example, an “on the beat” simplification in the 4-3 process examines whether element is a note or a rest (
Otherwise, the element is followed by a 1/16th note. If no further notes exist in the measure, the current element and following 16th notes remain as original and processing continues with the next measure. If additional notes exist in the measure, the current element and following 1/16th notes are kept and evaluation of this measure skips ahead to the next element (note or rest) following the 1/16th note.
If the rest located at the current beat evaluation location is not a double dotted ¼ note rest, processing proceeds at
In
Otherwise, processing advances to
If the rest located at the current beat evaluation location is something other than a double dotted ¼ note rest, processing continues at
Additional 4-to-3 note processing occurs at
In
In
In
Depicted in
The arrangement server 6104 will be responsible for receiving the individual player or ensemble information input by the user at the user device 6102 and creating the appropriate arrangements. The arrangement server 6104 may include one or more computing devices, as described below, and will also be connected with one or more databases which store the arrangements, arrangement rules and received input information. In one embodiment, an arrangements database 6106 is connected with the arrangement server 6104 and stores information about all of the possible musical selections and arrangements for each musical selection. A rules database 6108 may store the rules described above for selecting a particular arrangement for a particular musical instrument, musical part in the arrangement, the rhythmic simplification logic and any other relevant criteria utilized for selecting the appropriate arrangement based on the input ensemble information. It is understood that the information stored in the arrangements database 6106 and the rules database may be stored in a single database and utilize multiple relational database tables. Additional databases and/or database tables may be utilized to store additional information understood by one of skill in the art, such as user account information, rights information, graphical user interface data, etc.
The arrangement server 6104 may then be configured to output the customized music arrangements to the user device 6102, where the user can view, print, download or otherwise receive the arrangements. In one embodiment, the arrangement server 6104 may be connected with a plurality of user devices such that each musician in the ensemble has a user device (such as a tablet or monitor) which will display their own customized arrangement. This embodiment can also apply to individual players not part of an ensemble. Thus, the arrangements could be created and displayed to the members of the ensemble or individual players not part of an ensemble on their user devices in real-time.
While various embodiments have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not of limitation. The breadth and scope should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments. Where this document refers to technologies that would be apparent or known to one of ordinary skill in the art, such technologies encompass those apparent or known to the skilled artisan now or at any time in the future. In addition, the described embodiments are not restricted to the illustrated example architectures or configurations, but the desired features can be implemented using a variety of alternative architectures and configurations. As will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after reading this document, the illustrated embodiments and their various alternatives can be implemented without confinement to the illustrated example. One of ordinary skill in the art would also understand how alternative functional, logical or physical partitioning and configurations could be utilized to implement the desired features of the described embodiments.
Furthermore, although items, elements or components may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated to be within the scope thereof unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated. The presence of broadening words and phrases such as “one or more,” “at least,” “but not limited to” or other like phrases in some instances shall not be read to mean that the narrower case is intended or required in instances where such broadening phrases may be absent.
This application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/426,054 entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SIMPLIFYING MUSIC RHYTHMS” and filed Nov. 23, 2016, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62426054 | Nov 2016 | US |
