Computers and Music

Saturday, December 31, 2005

New Years Eve gig and Song Tapper

It's New Years Eve and tonight I will be performing with my band at La Terrazza restaurant in Vancouver. We are performing from 8pm to 11pm during dinner. It is a black tie event and tickets are $125 per person. The theme is James Bond, "From Russia With Love".

To change the subject, you may have heard of my Song Tapper website, where you can search for a song by tapping the rhythm of its lyrics. Yes, it really works! I've added a video to the site to help people understand the concept. It recently got mentioned on Digg.com and is currently making the rounds in the Blogosphere. This was my biggest project this year, and I'm glad that people are finally starting to use it. I've also created a Google Module for it so you can add the Song Tapper to your Google Personalized home page.

Regarding the Song Tapper, Andrew Hitchcock writes:

Oh my god that is awesome. I had this dance song stuck in my head, but I couldn't remember the lyrics exactly. I knew the beat of the lyrics and the sounds, so on a whim I tried this. I didn't expect much but the song turned out to be #4 on the list! That's incredible. It turns out it was in my iTunes shopping cart, so I might have to go ahead and buy it. Thanks!
– Andrew Hitchcock

Scott Wills writes:

My wife always tells me off for tapping whenever I'm listening to music in the car. But now I can tap away to my heart's content with the Song Tapper. Tap a tune using your space bar and the application will attempt to identify it for you.

I was surprised at how well this works with really common tunes (try some Christmas carols to get your started...) but for songs that Song Tapper is unable to identify, you are given the opportunity to add your recording and song/artist name to their database. As the database grows, it will only be a matter of time until this application will be able to identify the majority of music. Could prove to be a great way to identify tracks you do not know the title of.

Dan Grossman writes:

In the event that you need a 15-minute escape from family–or if you have to distract a wailing child–you may want to check out The Song Tapper. Pretty cool and funny, especially if you’re watching someone else give it a try.

¶ 3:35 AM

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Jazz pianist Ted Rosenthal has put together a very detailed and comprehensive web page on "How Jazz Pianists Practice" (click here to read). He also posted an interview between himself and Keith Jarrett, and an article about how to incorporate Mozart idioms into jazz playing. More about Ted Rosenthal on his web site.

¶ 2:32 AM