Doug Wrote:
>Creating a key is not the problem that I've encountered. I have tried
several times just to get started - it's the heuristics that I can't get.
For instance -
1. Is it a Song or a Call? Song - go to 2. Call, go to 3.
2. Is it complex (more than 3 syllables)? go to 5. Simple (less than 4
syllables)? Go to 6.
Here's an interesting parallel development. A friend pointed out an
interesting web site: http://name-this-tune.com/
It's designed to identify melodies by their contour (is the next step
up, down or the same?). This contour is encoded as a series of ASCII
characters. Granted, birdsong is a lot more complicated when it comes
to determining the "melody" being sung, but it's an interesting area
for further consideration. Perhaps breaking down creature sounds into
some sort of chunk/database might be possible, eventually.
The melody ID engine is based on "Parsons code." Here's a link to a
BBC article on the subject, from which I quote the opening of below:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A860663
> We all know the problem. You hear a tune, but you can't place it.
>What's it called? Who wrote it? Who recorded it? It may be so
>familiar that it drives you half-crazy trying to pin it down. Or it
>may be completely new to you, but you just love it and want to get
>the record.
If you are musical enough you might be able to write it down in
music notation and show it to friends, or hum, whistle or even play
it to them. But it isn't everyone who can do that in a way that makes
it recognisable, even if your friends would just happen to know the
details of the tune you are looking for (assuming they could
recognise it from your tuneless whistling).
Of course, if it was a word and you wanted to find out what it
means or how to spell it, you could look it up in a dictionary. Even
though a dictionary contains many thousands of entries, you can find
what you want because the entries are arranged according to that
seemingly illogical jumble we call alphabetical order. Fortunately,
the ABC was drummed into most of us in early childhood, and with a
bit of luck we can still use it to navigate our way through a
dictionary. But a dictionary of tunes?
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