MeloGen

Melogen is a tool to inspire pop music melody composition via an application of genetic algorithms for informed melody generation

Written by: Albert Ki (5/1/2020)

For academic use only.

Because a MIDI/MusixXML reader application is recommended to open/view music score file formats, MuseScore is highly recommended (free). Link to Musescore.

Instructions to run the program:

1. Ensure meloGen.py, myMarkovChain.py, and init.py are in the same directory.

2. Run following code:

python meloGen.py

3. Then, simply enter the appropriate key in response to the input prompts.

Output:

The program will write the simplified chord-version of the original score file, the pre-GA melody score file, and the post-GA melody score file to your current directory.

If you wish to see/hear the resulting output, please make sure that you have MuseScore downloaded, and respond accordingly when the prompt asks if you would like to view the results.

If MuseScore prompts you with an error message stating the file is corrupted, click ignore. This is the result of an insignificant issue from the output program.

Input:

Various example input files have been provided in the input_mxl folder.

• If you wish to test additional files downloaded online (ex. midiworld.com), you should ensure that the file does not contain any auxiliary or percussion instruments, or a melody line-the reason being that melody parts are sometimes "transposing instruments" that are in a different key and can negatively affect the generation.
  • If they do exist, please delete the part/instrument in the application (information on MuseScore.com on how to delete instruments from a music score), and then export the file as a .mxl (Compressed musicxml) file.