Unified algorithm for melodic music similarity and retrieval in query by humming

Abstract

Query by humming (QBH) is an active research area since a decade with limited commercial success. Challenges include partial imperfect queries from users, query representation and matching, fast, and accurate generation of results. Our work focus is on query presentation and matching algorithms to reduce the effective computational time and improve accuracy. We have proposed a unified algorithm for measuring melodic music similarity in QBH. It involves two different approaches for similarity measurement. They are novel mode normalized frequency algorithm using edit distance and n-gram precomputed inverted index method. This proposed algorithm is based on the study of melody representation in the form of note string and user query variations. Queries from four non-singers with no formal training of singing are used for initial testing. The preliminary results with 60 queries for 50 songs database are encouraging for the further research.