Patent ID: 7919706

Claim:
A method of retrieving at least one entry from a music database, wherein each of said entries is associated with a sequence of pitches and beat durations, said method comprising: receiving a digitized representation of an input melody; identifying breakpoints in said melody in order to define notes therein, each of said notes being delineated by adjacent breakpoints; assigning a confidence level to each note or each breakpoint; determining a pitch and beat duration for each note of said melody; determining a score for each of said entries based on a search which minimizes cost of matching the pitches and beat durations of said melody and said entry, wherein said search considers at least one deletion or insertion error in a selected note of said melody and, in this event, penalizes the cost of matching based on the confidence level of the selected note or a breakpoint associated therewith; and presenting said at least one entry to a user based on its score.