I started writing a book on melody back in 2008, I think it was. Maybe even a bit before then. But then I got sidetracked programming melody generators, namely my Android app and my online version. I learned quite a lot from these endeavors, so I’m glad I spent time with them before continuing my book; it made for fantastic research. I still plan on creating a desktop version of the melody generator, but there’s a lot of interface programming to learn. I really hate interface programming!

In the meantime, I’m returning to writing that book on melody. I’m starting it from scratch, though I have plenty of notes to work from that I made while programming the melody generators, so I have almost all the content I need. It’s just a matter of sorting it out and presenting it in an easy-to-follow way.

For now, I aim on having it done by the Fourth of July, and then releasing it as soon as I can after that. It will most likely be a self-published ebook, though I’m not yet sure how I’ll sell it. I’ll worry about that later.

And now I better turn off my computer… big storm above…


11 Comments

LanthonyS · May 29, 2013 at 11:48 AM

It would be great if you could at least update the web version to match the Android one’s features and algorithms!

S P Hannifin · May 29, 2013 at 2:04 PM

I’d rather not use the same algorithms, as the Android version’s algorithm takes much more computing power, and I don’t want to get in trouble with my web hosting service for potentially straining their resources. (I’m on a shared server.) I’d certainly like to up the features at some point though.

LanthonyS · May 31, 2013 at 11:02 AM

Hmmm… Or make it downloadable or something… the web’s one seems to be inferior based on my experimentation and your videos… and I was hoping to revive my orchestrations, much like the Free Daily Melody 😀

S P Hannifin · May 31, 2013 at 9:54 PM

Yes, I’d like to do a downloadable desktop version that would allow a user to rewrite specific parts of a melody, or preset the chords and rhythms, etc., as well as use and create “styles” (as with the auto-generated “sea chanteys” experiment I did a while back). But it would require a good user interface to use efficiently, which will take a fair amount of work for me to program; I just don’t have much experience with interface programming.

S P Hannifin · May 31, 2013 at 10:00 PM

There are a lot of variables that go into the “style” of the melodies created, so if I find an efficient way for the user to have control over those variables, it should be possible to get the web version’s algorithm to output melodies similar to, if not better than, the Android version’s output.

LanthonyS · June 1, 2013 at 9:37 AM

Oh, for my purposes I could do with a makeshift interface 🙂

LanthonyS · June 1, 2013 at 9:38 AM

The styles are indeed a very interesting direction, but that kind of thing requires, I think, that one have a particular purpose in mind for the melody, which I don’t.

S P Hannifin · June 4, 2013 at 11:29 AM

I can certainly try making a small downloadable version with a very crude interface with the Android version’s algorithm… or maybe a choice between using the Android and online version’s algorithms… might make a good way to advertise the book.

LanthonyS · June 13, 2013 at 11:51 PM

It took me many tries to get ones that satisfied me enough (with minor tweaking) to make these orchestrations:

http://tinyurl.com/generated-1
http://tinyurl.com/generated-2

S P Hannifin · June 14, 2013 at 2:04 AM

Not bad! I especially enjoy that second one; it has a very warm and calm yet wondrous feel to it. Very nice. (Sorry it takes so many tries!)

LanthonyS · June 19, 2013 at 11:11 PM

Yeah, I’m quite attached to the second one after working it out on piano as well. 🙂 Thanks for indirectly generating them!

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