Okay, so I heard about this a while back. Microsoft released this piece of software where you basically sing into a microphone and the program guesses what key you’re singing in and what chords would match your vocals, and then auto-composes an accompaniment. What first struck me about it was how horrible the advertisement was. Just atrocious.
I mean, I understand how it works. Basically, when you sing a melody, you’re already singing in a key. Now, how does the program figure out what key you’re singing in? Well, inherently every melody implies a key based on the notes you hit. If you are singing in the key of C major, then it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be singing an F#. So if you sing the following notes in succession: C, D, G, E, microsoft songsmith will probably predict that you’re singing around a C major chord (C major is comprised of C, E, and G).
This is nothing new. Bach composed many solo works for Violin where it’s very obvious what the chord changes are. That’s kinda his style and granted, he does it a little more obviously than your typical pop tune… but here, you can listen to one here performed by Vanessa Mae to see what I’m talking about. You ear automatically puts together the implied chords from the melody that’s being played.
So people have been playing with Songsmith and have been taking the vocal tracks of songs, putting them through songsmith, and then seeing what comes out. Often times it doesn’t really work. What I find interesting is that songsmith won’t match the same chords for different verses. The one I’ve chosen to share is “Just What I Needed” by the Cars. I like it because it actually kinda could pass for a song, albeit a really, really bad one.. well, at least the first verse (’cause it ends on the I chord!). What’s interesting is that it doesn’t line up the same chords during the 2nd verse. Take a listen:
Much more to hear here.
