Melodic Query Input for Music Information Retrieval Systems

This chapter discusses key issues of building and using a system designed to search and query a music collection through the input of the actual or perceived melody of a song. It presents a detailed survey and discussion of studies, algorithms, and systems created to approach this problem, including new contributions by the author. Emphasis is placed on examining the abilities and likely errors of those with little or no formal musical training to remember and reproduce melodic phrases, as these must be taken into account for any music information retrieval system intended for use by the general public. The chapter includes an extensive discussion on human humming as an intuitive input method for the musically untrained person and an examination of several music information retrieval systems designed for this type of input query.