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In terms of melodies I think trainning off lead-sheets is far better than raw midi. The reason being is when humans generate melodies they can anticipate impli

In terms of melodies I think trainning off lead-sheets is far better than raw midi. The reason being is when humans generate melodies they can anticipate implied harmonic structure. i.e.Chords. You folks might be interested in a leadsheet dataset i'm creating for the purpose of generating melodies: https://github.com/shiehn/chord-melody-dataset https://github.com/shiehn/chord-melody-dataset

p1esk 9y ago
Lead sheets are only suitable for songs though. This work focuses on more complex/polyphonic music.
- stevehiehn 9y ago
  Ah ok, I really just made an assumption that the goal is to generate convincing harmonic music. In this case after spending a couple years fighting with that problem I've been reaching a conclusion that the chords and melody are absolutely by far the most difficult & 'human' aspect where as counter-point/polyphony are actually very mechanical & really just support the chord/melody structure. Recently I've been having very good results by first generating chords/melody with RNN's then having subsequent processes generate supporting harmonies.
  - p1esk 9y ago
    Can you show us some of those good results?
    - stevehiehn 9y ago
      These are results from starting with just a chord progression & stacking ontop of it: http://signalsandsorcery.com http://signalsandsorcery.com About 5 months ago I decided to pivot & start with a melody & chords. I have not yet stood up the system that starts with chords & melody. So the answer is not yet.
      - p1esk 9y ago
        I wonder how great composers go about creating a novel melody? Like Mozart or Beatles.
        stevehiehn 9y ago
        Ya, good question. I doubt there is a single method. I suspect pre 20th century single note melodies were often sung and then following the strict rules of counterpoint harmonies were added. Its seems like pop music is often a chord progression first and then a melody added second.

p1esk 9y ago

Lead sheets are only suitable for songs though. This work focuses on more complex/polyphonic music.

stevehiehn 9y ago
Ah ok, I really just made an assumption that the goal is to generate convincing harmonic music. In this case after spending a couple years fighting with that problem I've been reaching a conclusion that the chords and melody are absolutely by far the most difficult & 'human' aspect where as counter-point/polyphony are actually very mechanical & really just support the chord/melody structure. Recently I've been having very good results by first generating chords/melody with RNN's then having subsequent processes generate supporting harmonies.
- p1esk 9y ago
  Can you show us some of those good results?
  - stevehiehn 9y ago
    These are results from starting with just a chord progression & stacking ontop of it: http://signalsandsorcery.com http://signalsandsorcery.com About 5 months ago I decided to pivot & start with a melody & chords. I have not yet stood up the system that starts with chords & melody. So the answer is not yet.
    - p1esk 9y ago
      I wonder how great composers go about creating a novel melody? Like Mozart or Beatles.
      - stevehiehn 9y ago
        Ya, good question. I doubt there is a single method. I suspect pre 20th century single note melodies were often sung and then following the strict rules of counterpoint harmonies were added. Its seems like pop music is often a chord progression first and then a melody added second.