laklak wrote:Y'all are WAY to smart for me. I just find the root chord and drop a standard blues scale on it. Need about 5 patterns up the whole neck. Works in bars for most stuff, and they're usually too drunk to get the subtleties anyway. FREE BIRD!!!!

I'm finding it not so easy to teach my computer to stick to standard patterns, maybe it needs to get out to the bars more.

Thing about bars is there's usually beer involved, and it's easier to let muscle memory take over by the last set. Doesn't take a lot of thought to add a couple of notes to a pentatonic pattern. Last set is generally when Free Bird comes out, or maybe One Way Out. These Southern boys just love 'em some Lynyrd and Allmans.

laklak wrote:Thing about bars is there's usually beer involved, and it's easier to let muscle memory take over by the last set. Doesn't take a lot of thought to add a couple of notes to a pentatonic pattern. Last set is generally when Free Bird comes out, or maybe One Way Out. These Southern boys just love 'em some Lynyrd and Allmans.

Even a Mid-Atlantic/Northern boy like me can like Eat a Peach.

So I tucked this scale run making technology into lickmaker and added a composer operation "runs" which allows various kinds of runs to be inserted between two licks. (or just wherever)

Here's what that looks like in my composer syntax:

bsdic['bs_12b_0']=[ ['plick','e_1bar_Maj_bs'], ['match_n','bs_12b_0',0], ['alt','bs_12b_0',0], ['match_n','bs_12b_0',2,'rentropy'],
['plick','sour_2bar_min_bs'],
['runs','min_b_scale',[-1,-1]],['posit','bs_12b_0',1 ,14],
['chordit','bs_12b_0',0,7,'7','scratch'],['chordit','bs_12b_0',1,5,'7'],
['plick','e_2bar_turns']
]


This is the new command: ['runs','min_b_scale',[-1,-1]]

"runs" is the opcode to insert a scale. Then you specify the type of scale, minor blues in this case. (hmmm. it assumes the root of the scale, I'll have to add a way to modify that). the [-1,-1]) tells the composer that the scale should start with a note in the scale specified as close as possible to the last note of the previous lick to as near as possible to the first note of the next lick. (Of course for this to work the next lick has to be already selected, so to make this all work composition is now a two pass operation. First pass find the licks you can then second pass fill in with bars like this 'runs' command.

There are some other details, you can just specify the starting or ending note(s) of the scale. It doesn't have to be a scale, it could be a chord form so you can add arpeggios this way.

I talked mostly about the AI for figuring out how to play the notes on a guitar fretboard but there is some selection of what rhythm patters and notes to play based on starting and ending notes- the choices lickmaker makes is pretty limited at this point but it's easy to add patterns. Also, scale patterns could just be added that are more than simple scale sequences.

Here's what the score around a couple of the synthesized scales looks like:






And you can hear how this changes the fist song that I made with lickmaker here.

Have you checked out J Evans Pritchard? He will be of immense help.

hackenslash wrote:Have you checked out J Evans Pritchard? He will be of immense help.

Did you have his work on witchcraft or his work on poetry in mind?

Poetry.

hackenslash wrote:Poetry.

I'll have to check into that. As the weather turns a bit colder I'll be getting back into this. And the guitar build thread too.

I did spend some time leaning about J Evans Pritchard work on witches this summer while reading Tanya Luhrmann's book on witchcraft but that's a whole different thread in another part of the forum.