Why machine musician ?

I'll first try giving my thoughts on this question before getting into explaining my work (This in fact is one question which many of my friends keep asking me everyday). This is my thought :

Over the years at high school, at my undergrad univ, at work and here at Georgia Tech, I have met so many people who have at some point of time learned 2-3 years of some kind of formal music - but never continued with that for different reasons. Taking music from these 2-3 years learning level to a concert performance level is definitely not easy. I feel that taking one's music to the next level needs collaboration - this is the time one needs to actually "jam" and practice with friends or fellow musicians. Not everyone gets the right people to do this. And here comes the need for a "machine musician" - A software application with which you can jam together, practice and produce good music. This application can listen to you, respond to you and even correct the mistakes in your music !

Machine Musician

My research with Dr.Parag Chordia is about using MIR(Music Information Retrieval) techniques to train the computer to listen and emulate a human musician. The research started with trying to make the computer listen and comprehend the different strokes(about 13 of them) of the mridangam, the primary South Indian Drum. It was a semester long effort and in the subsequent posts, I'll post the results and the explanation of that.

I am currently working on a live performance piece out of this to be presented at the Listening Machines concert here at Georgia Tech. It would be a 7-8 minutes piece in the traditional "tani avarthanam" or "jugal bandhi" style.