Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: Music search engine (Read 9072 times) previous topic - next topic

Music search engine

If there's such a thing as getting banned from a forum from posting too much, it'll probably happen to me... :)

Back in 2001, I heard of a proposal for a music search engine that would search for a the title/author/year/etc. of a song, based on an input of notes.  I thought this was an awesome idea, and ever so often I come across another proposal for it.

Well, this would be another proposal...for anyone who has too much time and doesn't know what to do with it.

Such a search engine would be a powerful tool, which, like Noteworthy, allows the user to enter a series of notes (although it wouldn't need all of the dynamic capabilities and such), possibly select the instrument that plays those notes, and even allow for errors in timing and extra notes.  At the very minimum, it should be able to transpose those notes to check other keys.

For example, if I entered the following text: "GGGE-" (flat represented by a minus sign, sharp by a plus) the search engine would bring up Beethoven's 5th at the top, (being a popular result), as well as any songs that contained those notes in that order, such as Bohemian Rhapsody, which contains those chords in that order.  A more advanced search might look like this: "n:8g8g8g1e-" (forgive me, I don't know how long that fourth note is!). ("n:" says to do a search for songs with notes (as opposed to chords), and the numbers represent durations ("8" for eighths, "1" for wholes, "2." or "2,1" for dotted halves.  A period is a dot on a note, and a comma is a tie.)) This would bring up all the songs in which the timing with those notes was somewhat identical.  A search for Bohemian Rhapsody using those chords would look more like this: "c:ggge-" ("c:" would call a chord search).

So...anybody bored and want to take on this proposal that appears to be going on 10 years old or more?  Or share your thoughts.  Maybe.  Let me know how dumb this idea is, or how it could be improved.  (Perhaps someday when I get my degree, I can take on the challenge myself!)

Re: Music search engine

Reply #1 –
There is a program such as you describe and I had it on my PC, but I have lost it and cannot recall the title.

You could insert your ideas in a number of ways,

if you had a   microphone you could whistle or sing it;
you could insert the rhythm of the piece by tapping it out on  any key on your keyboard;
you could enter it by keying in 's', 'u'  or 'd'  ( or some similar convention) to indicate whether each note was of the same pitch, higher or lower than the the one before

there may well have been other ways which I cannot remember
 It seemed to work remarkably well with the input of surprisingly  few  notes.

Tony

Re: Music search engine

Reply #2 –
G'day Tony,
from memory what you describe is called "Parsons code" - there is a search engine on the net: http://www.melodyhound.com/
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Music search engine

Reply #3 –
Amazing!

I just tried searching for that fugue, and I overloaded it's memory with the 45-note rhythm in the fugue part...this is exactly what I was hoping to find, thanks!

*bookmark!*

Let me go try that search again...

Re: Music search engine

Reply #4 –
Um, yeah.  It's sort of great.  Great that someone implemented the idea, but it seems to either not have the songs I want or it leaves too much room for error.  The voice recording element is worthless.

I wish it had a note-entering feature similar to Noteworthy.  Clicking on the keyboard keys is sort of difficult to master, since I am not a keyboardist.

Now that would be interesting...if Noteworthy had a song recognition search thing where you could punch in some notes and see what song you've entered.  Of course, it would mean lots of knowledgeable people would need to a) program it, and b) enter tunes for it to associate queries with.

Re: Music search engine

Reply #5 –
Now where's that kitchen sink..?    :)

I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Music search engine

Reply #6 –
that's what I always think at the end of the Messiah:
... to receive power, and and ritches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing, and the kitchen sink.

cheers, Rob.

Re: Music search engine

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Lawrie Pardy –
Now where's that kitchen sink..?    :)



:)

I think it would be a neat idea, although it will probably never happen, since that's not what Noteworthy was created to do.  But I thought of that because I was so dissatisfied with the difficulty I had in searching...and didn't EVEN find what I looked for, or anything close.  Thanks for the link, though.  Maybe I just entered a rare song.  I'll try it again when I'm thinking of a more popular tune.

Re: Music search engine

Reply #8 –
S'OK Bob, I was just funnin' with ya, mate.

I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Music search engine

Reply #10 –
Lawrie,
I excuse my memory lapse on account of old age !  In my mind I had been running through all sorts of words beginning with 'p' and missed the obvious one.
I first made contact with this after I had spent a lot of time on devising my own "same pitch" , "up", or "down" system to identify hymn tunes in the Methodist Hymn Book. I found it too time consuming and had difficulty in making my entries line up in an orderly fashion.

Tony

Re: Music search engine

Reply #11 –
G'day Tony,
I usually blame "CRAFT" disease mate: "Can't Remember A Flamin' Thing"  :)
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Music search engine

Reply #12 –
I thought Ryuichi "Richie" Iwamura's Classical Music Search was well known? It works much like you describe, but with a database only loaded with famous classical pieces.
http://iwamura.home.znet.com/page2.html
 

Re: Music search engine

Reply #13 –
I like this search engine much better, although I still haven't found the name of the piece I'm looking for.  I have a hunch it had a title like Jubilee or something.