Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Automatic Music Transcription With Convolutional Neural Networks Using Intuitive Filter Shapes, Jonathan Sleep

Master's Theses

This thesis explores the challenge of automatic music transcription with a combination of digital signal processing and machine learning methods. Automatic music transcription is important for musicians who can't do it themselves or find it tedious. We start with an existing model, designed by Sigtia, Benetos and Dixon, and develop it in a number of original ways. We find that by using convolutional neural networks with filter shapes more tailored for spectrogram data, we see better and faster transcription results when evaluating the new model on a dataset of classical piano music. We also find that employing better practices shows …

Pianote: A Sight-Reading Program That Algorithmically Generates Music Based On Human Performance, Drew Schulz

Master's Theses

Sight-reading is the act of performing a piece of music at first sight. This can be a difficult task to master, because it requires extensive knowledge of music theory, practice, quick thinking, and most importantly, a wide variety of musical material. A musician can only effectively sight-read with a new piece of music. This not only requires many resources, but also musical pieces that are challenging while also within a player's abilities.

This thesis presents PiaNote, a sight-reading web application for pianists that algorithmically generates music based on human performance. PiaNote's goal is to alleviate some of the hassles pianists …

Using Spectral Analysis To Evaluate Flute Tone Quality, Ron Yorita

Master's Theses

Many skilled flutists place a high priority on "good" tone quality, or timbre. Timbre can be defined as the audible difference in character that a listener perceives for two notes played at the same pitch. Different timbres are determined by the combination and balance of harmonics that comprise a note. Unlike pitch and rhythm, timbre is difficult to objectively quantify. This project explores (1) how tone quality is described by skilled flutists, (2) whether the harmonic spectrum has some correlation with tone quality, (3) whether certain harmonic spectra are preferred, or considered "good".

Thirty-one flutists ranging from high school students …

California As Music To American Ears: Migration, Technology, And Rock And Roll In The Golden State, 1946–2000, Toby T. Willett

Master's Theses

Migrations and technological advances in California following World War II, spurred radical changes in the production and development of popular music, most notably rock and roll. California largely lacked the entrenched traditions of the American Northeast, and in many ways its exploding population translated into the growth of a culture built around embracing newer methodologies, whether technological innovations or radical artistic departures. In large part owing to its increasing ethnic diversity during the economic expansion, California was uniquely poised to become a center of incredible postwar dynamism, especially when seen in the production, consumption, and stylistic development of music. Nevertheless, …