System and method for scoring a singing voice

A system for scoring a singing voice, the system comprising:

• a. a receiving means for receiving a singing reference audio signal or a pitch contour representation (PCR) thereof and a singing user audio signal or a pitch contour representation (PCR) thereof wherein the PCR is a graph of voice-pitch in said audio signals plotted against time, the graph being annotated with syllable onset locations;
• b. a processor means connected to the receiving means and comprising
• i. a pitch contour representation (PCR) module for determining a PCR of the singing reference audio signal and singing user audio signal;
• ii. a time synchronization module for time synchronizing the reference and user PCRs;
• iii. a selection module for
• a. selecting a segment of the reference PCR having musical expressivity which being determined on the basis of presence of prominent inflexions and modulations in said reference PCR;
• b. selecting a segment of the time-synchronized user PCR corresponding to the segment selected in reference PCR
• iv. a cross-correlation module for performing time-warped cross-correlation of said selected segments of reference and user PCRs and outputting a cross-correlation score;
• v. a key matching module for key matching the corresponding unselected segments of the reference and user PCRs by filtering said unselected segments through a low-pass filter for suppressing small and involuntary fluctuations in pitch, generating a histogram of said filtered unselected segments and performing a linear correlation between said histograms for determining a key matching score;
• vi. a rhythm matching module for rhythm matching the reference and user PCRs by generating an inter-onset-interval (IOI) histogram from syllable onset locations of the respective PCRs and performing a linear correlation between said IOI histograms for determining a rhythm matching score;
• vii. a scoring module for determining a singing score for singing user audio signal based on a combination of a pre-determined weightage of the cross-correlation, key matching and rhythm matching scores;
• c. a user interface means connected to the processor means for changing at least one module parameter within at least one module;
• d. a storing means connected to the processor means;
• and
• e. a display means connected to the processor means for displaying the PCR and singing score.