Harmony Note Generation Using Scale Degree Mapping

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional electronic musical apparatuses struggle to generate well-balanced harmony notes that are in harmony with input notes without requiring users to input appropriate chord information, and often result in harmony notes falling outside the musical piece's scale, leading to disharmony.

Innovation Solution

An electronic musical apparatus that generates scale notes corresponding to the tonality of a musical piece, allowing for well-balanced harmony notes by designating or supplying tonality and degree information, with judgment and determination mechanisms to ensure harmony notes are within the scale, even when the input note is not a scale note, and handling both major and minor seventh notes as scale notes.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If harmony notes are generated by adding/subtracting semitones corresponding to musical intervals from input notes, then the harmony note can be determined systematically, but the harmony note may fall outside the scale of the key, resulting in disharmony

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesystematic harmony note determinationVSAvoidharmony note within scale
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent changes the parameter selection by switching from fixed interval-based pitch calculation to scale-degree-based note selection. The system retrieves degree information indicating the scale degree of the harmony note relative to the input note, then selects the actual note based on its position in the predetermined scale, ensuring the harmony note always remains within the scale while maintaining proper interval relationships.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

2Reliability

If conventional voice processing apparatus converts input voice to harmony voice using chord information, then well-balanced harmony voice is obtained, but users must input appropriate chord information which increases operational complexity

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveharmony voice balanceVSAvoidchord information input requirement
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs self-service by automatically determining harmony notes based on the input note and predetermined scale relationships. The degree information and scale data work together to automatically select appropriate harmony notes without requiring external chord information input from the user, making the system self-sufficient while maintaining harmony quality.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

3Measurement precision

If users are required to understand and input chord information for each note, then accurate harmony generation is achieved, but the complexity of operation increases and accessibility decreases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveharmony accuracyVSAvoidoperational complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary action by pre-storing degree information for each scale degree and maintaining a predetermined scale structure before harmony note generation. This pre-organized data structure allows the system to quickly and accurately determine harmony notes through simple lookup and calculation, eliminating the need for complex real-time chord analysis while maintaining accuracy.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP2387030B1Electronic musical apparatus for generating a harmony note
Publication Date: 2017.08.02 YAMAHA CORP
  • EP2387030B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2387030B1 patent drawingFigure 2(a)~2(c)
  • EP2387030B1 patent drawingFigure 3A

AI summary

Tone pitch information is extracted from the received input note information. A scale is determined on the basis of retrieved tonality information. A reference scale note is determined on the basis of the extracted tone pitch information and the determined scale. A tone pitch of a harmony note is determined by counting scale notes which form the determined scale from the determined reference scale note until reaching a scale note designated by the retrieved degree information.