Idea for Software Developers

[Tim Berens]

For any ambitious software developers out there, here is an idea and business

plan for a product that would be helpful and attractive to musicians of all

skill levels and instruments.  I want this product for my own practicing, so I’m

releasing the idea into the wind, hoping somebody will write it.  Please forward

it to anybody who might be interested.

Create a website or application that generates sight reading material on the fly

based on input from the user.  

A dialog box would allow the user to input the following:

Complexity level (1 – 100)
Key signature
Time Signature
Number of bars
Tempo
Style
Range (upper, mid, lower)
Instrument 
Number of voices (depending on instrument)
Maximum number of notes per chord (depending on instrument)
Special task emphasis, such as rhythms, pitches, accidentals, time signature

changes, thirds, chord symbols, etc.
Randomizing seed (a string of characters to use for randomizing)

Upon accepting the user’s input, which will default to reasonable values, the

program generates the pitches necessary for the exercise.

For example, it could be a complexity level 10 for guitar, in the key of C,

tempo 4/4 with one voice.   The program would then create a random exercise that

sits in an easy position on the guitar in the key of C.  

A variety of algorithms exist for the random creation of music.   Band in a Box

has been generating solos for years.   Randomly creating beautiful music is

tricky.   Randomly creating useful sight reading exercises is less tricky.  

After the pitches are created by the pitch generation functions, the software

generates a file in either Scorch format or LilyPond format.   Scorch is a

proprietary format created by Sibelius for exchanging scores.   Any user with

Scorch installed on their machine can then read the file.   LilyPond is a public

domain music typesetting format from the GNU project.  

Using either of these will greatly reduce the overall complexity of this project

– it will be necessary only to create the user interface and the pitch

generation portions of the software, and then let either Scorch or LilyPond do

the heavy lifting of typesetting the music for human eyes.

Miscellaneous helpful features:

Allow the user to store parameter sets that generate particularly helpful

exercises.  
Generate MIDI so the user can play along with the MIDI as it is played back on

the user’s machine.  (Scorch will do this automatically)
Generate a harmonic accompaniment to make the exercise sound more musical.

Create exercises geared for the difficulties associated with particular 
instruments


Website Business Plan

Create a website that provides this service free of change and then sell

advertising on the website.  A website like this would attract musicians of all

ages, skill levels and instruments, which would make it very attractive to music

gear retailers, sheet music retailers, Amazon, and a variety of other companies

that sell to musicians.  

Create communities on the website – various instrument and music style

communities of people who can exchange information and files with each other. 
 
Set up an archive of particularly good randomly generated exercises with a

rating system among the community users.  Connect to Facebook, and other social

networking websites.

The website model has a variety of advantages:  support costs are kept low

because the software is located in one central location, and the users will pay

nothing for it, thus lowering expectations for support.

An option:   a premium version of the web software that people pay a small

monthly membership fee to access.

Application Business Plan

License the software in a similar way to Band in a Box, Sibelius and other music

software.   License through schools, universities, high schools, junior high

schools.  Get into the marching band world – there are far more marching band

students than any other type of musician in the world right now.

A combination of the two plans would likely work as well.