A Supporting Method for Creative Music Performance
--- Proposal of Musical Instrument with Fixed Mapping of Note-Functions ---
Many people cannot help but give up to play music because of
difficulty of a musical theory or a manipulation of a musical
instrument. The authors aim to develop a musical instrument with which
anyone can enjoy creating of music with the support of a computer. In
this paper, we propose a concept called the "fixed mapping of
note-functions". With an ordinary musical instrument, a specific pitch
is always mapped on a specific position of the instrument; this is a
"fixed mapping of pitch" instrument. However, a note has other
attributes. A note-function, i.e., the emotional effect of a note
depending on the temporal musical situation, is one of them. The
mapping of a specific note-function on a specific position is the
basis of the "fixed mapping of note-functions" concept. In order to
determine the note-function, a theoretical analysis is usually
necessary. Using the proposed method, however, it becomes possible to
directly extract notes with the required functions without any
theoretical considerations and to exhibit creativity by combining the
notes. In this paper, we show a prototype of an instrument for
improvisational jazz, provide several subjective experimental results
and dsicuss the possibilities of the method.