I have written a practical way to turn a page of music into played music. I have listed the hurdles involved and solutions. I hope soon to make this program available on TES.

THIS PROGRAM PLAYS OLD MCDONALD. IT SHOWS THE PITCH RANGE OF THE SONG. IT GIVES YOU 11 INSTRUMENTS TO CHOOSE FROM. IT SHOWS HOW MUCH YOU CAN RAISE OR LOWER THE PITCH OF THE SONG AND STILL BE PLAYED BY THE INSTRUMENT YOU PICK. IT PLAYS THE SONG AND PERMITS REPEATS. THIS PROGRAM DEMONSTRATES MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND THE RANGES THEY CAN PLAY IN.

WRITING A MUSIC SCANNING PROGRAM: A while back, I laboriously had my computer play music I got by finding the notes on sheet music. It would be nice to have a computer do this automatically. What it would have to do: The computer would have to find which note is written and how many beats it has. A COMPLETELY AUTOMATIC SCAN: The computer can scan an image and report changes of color for each dot it is made of. In this way, the computer can see. I tried this and started having problems. The computer can scan up and down and when it hits a big object it can report. An continuous object can be collected. Different notes have different numbers of dots so it is possble to tell which note it is. There are a few big problems with this. Pictures of scores can be of different sizes and qualities. A blurry image messes this up. Sloppy score lines messes this up. While I had some success and it was cool seeting the red scan line go across, it was not usable with new scores although I looked for solutions. A COMPUTER ASSISTED SCAN: Parts of the scan which are alsost impossible are easy with some help by the human user. You can tell it the first score line andthe last score line, where the notes are and what beat they have. THE MANUAL SCAN TASK: When I wrote down notes for the computer to play, I followed these steps: 1. I wrote down the note name, using the FACE EGBDF line names. 2. I then wrote the number of the piano key, using 37 as middle C. The simple songs I was dealing, amazingly used the same twelve note range. 3. I then put a number signifying the time each note would be held. This list of numbers was put into the program, where it could be read to play the song. THE COMPUTER SCAN TASK: 1. The computer must know where the staff line and spaces are. 2. The computer must know where the notes are on the staff. 3. The computer must know how long to hold the notes. THE HUMAN COMPUTER PARTNERSHIP: You must let the computer know where the staff lines are. You can click with the mouse the top line and then the bottom line,; then the computer can figure out were the lines and spaces are. You then point with the mouse at a note Andthe computer says which note it is. The computer shows the note aND WHEN IT IS CORRECT, YOU ACCEPT IT WITH A CLICK. The time is mostlt quarter notes, so if you move to the next note without a choice, it is a quarter note. You can specify other choices with leter presses. Each new line must be told to the computer. When done you save the data for playback. The Page of the score can be enlarged a nd moved right to help; a bigger score works better.

HERE ARE 12 INSTRUMENTS TO PICK FROM PLAYING FAMILIAR SONGS.

MUSIC PLAYED WITH RECORDED ALTO SAX NOTES.

TWELVE INSTRUMENTS TO CHOOSE FROM. MUSIC WILL PLAY WITH INDIVIDUAL RECORDED NOTES.

MUSIC PLAYED WITH RECORDED GUITAR NOTES. FANTASTIC!

A real nice program using recorded flute notes. Many songs and utilities to choose.

MUSIC PLAYED WITH SAMPLED TROMBONE NOTES. Sampled notes are prerecorded notes, so this is music as played by a trombone. Many selections and features.

MUSIC PLAYED WITH RECORDED TRUMPET NOTES!

RAGTIME MUSIC

MUSIC PLAYED WITH SAMPLED VIOLIN NOTES WHAT VIOLIN SAMPLED NOTES ARE: Violin sampled notes are notes recorded from an actual violin. What is done here is, I downloaded the notes. I trimed them into monoaural 1 second files. I found the notes of songs. Then when playing a song, I play the appropriate files. This is superior to other methods of recreating a violin because it is an actual violin playing.

WHAT IS RAGTIME? An infectious type of music Not many things can surprise, but I was recently surprised by finding a “new” type of music - Ragtime. While writing piano music for my computer. I decided to look for a program to write music notation. I found MUSESCORE4 which does the job. They also have a libraby of music scores that can play. Some of it has graciously been made public domane. There I found a collection of Ragtime pieces arranged by year. It was hugely unknown to me. In 1897, Scott Joplin wrote down a piano piece in Ragtime. He needed extra study to do so. It was a big hit in the USA and the world. In the following thirty years, similar pieces were written and sold mostly as sheet music and piano rolls. This was obviously an age of piano music. People had pianos, played pianos, listened to them, danced to them. Ragtime music seeks piano novelty within its two handed happy framework. It is American Music and as such has a newness, freshness, freedom. It is optimistic. It died out in the late 1920's. People had enough? Classical music also ended. Ragtime has had revivals. Two of Scott Joplins "rags" were made popular in the 70's. However it did not extend to the others in the inventors. There are probably hundreds, if not thousands of them. Finding these is similar to the discovery of dinosaurs - there was a whole lost world. Ragtime music is nice background music sounding, like music from a Western Saloon. It is surprisingly complicated. What I have done: I made a player to make the music available. I am not a sophisticated music player user but I made a player that seems useful to me. It can play in the background of talk shows using one computer; this is why I made it partial screen with adjustable volume. There are eleven Ragtime players on TES with twenty tunes each, including the rags arranged in years as put there by CEANTHIC in a set. I hope you like this music; it was very popular once upon a time. Paul Skittone

RAGTIME MUSIC

RAGTIME MUSIC

RAGTIME MUSIC

RAGTIME MUSIC

RAGTIME MUSIC

RAGTIME MUSIC

RAGTIME 7