Melody encoding and searching system

A method of generating a melodic contour comprising:

• storing a set of change codes having non-uniform step sizes in semitones to quantize note interval changes between consecutive musical notes in any given sequence of musical notes, wherein different change codes in the set of change codes represent different counts or ranges of note interval changes;
• receiving an input sequence of musical notes;
• and
• generating the melodic contour as a particular sequence of the change codes determined by detecting note interval changes between successive musical notes in the input sequence of musical notes and mapping the detected note interval changes to corresponding ones of the change codes;
• wherein storing the set of change codes comprises storing a first subset of change codes corresponding to upward note interval changes, and a second subset of change codes minoring the step sizes of the first subset of change codes but corresponding to downward note interval changes;
• wherein storing the set of change codes further comprises storing one or more repeat codes, each repeat code representing a different number or range of consecutively repeated musical notes;
• and
• wherein storing one or more repeat codes comprises storing a first repeat code corresponding to two to three identical musical notes in a row, storing a second repeat code corresponding to four to five identical musical notes in a row, and storing a third repeat code corresponding to six or more identical musical notes in a row.

A method of generating a melodic contour comprising:

• storing a set of change codes having non-uniform step sizes in semitones to quantize note interval changes between consecutive musical notes in any given sequence of musical notes, wherein different change codes in the set of change codes represent different counts or ranges of note interval changes;
• receiving an input sequence of musical notes;
• and
• generating the melodic contour as a particular sequence of the change codes determined by detecting note interval changes between successive musical notes in the input sequence of musical notes and mapping the detected note interval changes to corresponding ones of the change codes;
• wherein storing the set of change codes comprises storing two different sets of change codes, including a higher-resolution set and a lower-resolution set, and wherein generating the melodic contour comprises using the higher-resolution set of change codes to generate a higher-resolution input melodic contour from the input sequence of musical notes and using the lower-resolution set of change codes to generate a lower-resolution input melodic contour from the input sequence of musical notes or from the higher-resolution input melodic contour.

A method of generating a melodic contour comprising:

• storing a set of change codes having non-uniform step sizes in semitones to quantize note interval changes between consecutive musical notes in any given sequence of musical notes, wherein different change codes in the set of change codes represent different counts or ranges of note interval changes;
• receiving an input sequence of musical notes;
• and
• generating the melodic contour as a particular sequence of the change codes determined by detecting note interval changes between successive musical notes in the input sequence of musical notes and mapping the detected note interval changes to corresponding ones of the change codes;
• wherein storing the set of change codes comprises storing a first subset of up and down change codes comprising a higher resolution first set of step sizes for quantizing note interval changes and storing a second subset of up and down change codes comprising a lower resolution second set of step sizes for quantizing note interval changes.

A method of melody matching based on melodic contours comprising:

• defining the melodic contour for any given sequence of musical notes as the corresponding sequence of change codes selected from a defined set of change codes having non-uniform step sizes that quantize note interval changes between consecutive musical notes in the given sequence of musical notes;
• comparing an input melodic contour for an input sequence of musical notes to a database of stored melodic contours to determine matching information indicating whether or to what extent the input melodic contour matches one or more of the stored melodic contours;
• and
• providing the matching information to a user associated with the input melodic contour:
• wherein the input melodic contour comprises a high-resolution input melodic contour and a low-resolution input melodic contour, and wherein comparing an input melodic contour for an input sequence of musical notes to a database of stored melodic contours to determine matching information indicating whether or to what extent the input melodic contour matches one or more of the stored melodic contours comprises, for a narrow matching search, comparing the high-resolution input melodic contour to a database of stored high-resolution melodic contours, and comprises, for a broad matching search, comparing the low-resolution input melodic contour to a database of stored low-resolution melodic contours, or to low-resolution versions of high-resolution stored melodic contours derived from the database of stored high-resolution melodic contours.

A method of melody matching based on melodic contours comprising:

• defining the melodic contour for any given sequence of musical notes as the corresponding sequence of change codes selected from a defined set of change codes having non-uniform step sizes that quantize note interval changes between consecutive musical notes in the given sequence of musical notes;
• comparing an input melodic contour for an input sequence of musical notes to a database of stored melodic contours to determine matching information indicating whether or to what extent the input melodic contour matches one or more of the stored melodic contours;
• and
• providing the matching information to a user associated with the input melodic contour;
• wherein the defined set of change codes include a high-resolution set and a low-resolution set, for generating one or both a high-resolution melodic contour and a low-resolution melodic contour, based on the given sequence of musical notes.