Patent ID: 7518052
Filing Date: 2009-04-14
Classification: G10H

Abstract:
1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for retrieving musical information from a database of musical themes, said computer-executable instructions comprising: inputting a musical query from a user, said query comprising a sequence of musical notes; characterizing the melody of the musical query based on a digital representation of the pitch of each note, in such a way that identical pitches within the sequence have the same digital representations, different pitches have different digital representations, and the pitch of the very first note in sequence is represented as a zero; characterizing the rhythm of the musical query based on a digital representation of the duration of each note; designating the characterized melody and rhythm of the musical query as a normalized representation of the musical query; comparing the normalized representation of the musical query to musical themes resident in the database of musical themes to identify one or more themes in the database that match the musical query, wherein each of the musical themes resident in the database comprise a sequence of musical notes characterized as a normalized representation in the same manner as the musical query; and reporting the matching musical themes found in the database to the user.