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.