Musical Information (Mus 253/CS 275A) Assignment 1

Design Guidelines:

1. Can be a practical system or an unpractical system.
2. Can be a graphical notation system for performers to read, or can be a digital representation of standard music notation, or a digital/graphical representation of a specialized repertory of music, (like the Japanese musical scores shown in class).
3. Take about three hours to do this assignment.

What to Turn in:

1. Submit a one-page written description of the musical notation system.
2. Describe the scope and purpose that a full-scale implementation of your system would have. In other words, what types of music would it be useful for, and what types of music would your system be impractical.
3. Give an example encoding of music in your system. If the system encodes standard western musical notation, then use this example melody:
4. Demonstrate your system to the class (3-5 minutes) on the day that the assignment is due.

Ideas for the Creatively Challenged:

1. Design a graphical notation system for music which does not need to use accidentals (such as sharps and flats).
2. Design a system which can be used to type in music data quickly on a computer keyboard.
3. Design a system which would be easy to perform by reading the digital data directly.
4. Design a graphical system which uses color.