Representation of Jazz Piano Knowledge Using a Deductive Object-Oriented Approach

This paper presents a method for representing jazz piano knowledge that is based on the deductive object-oriented (DOO) approach. One of the motivations behind this research is the desire to clarify which elements of musical knowledge can be handled by our current knowledge processing (KP) techniques and which problems should be challenged in order to develop more practical KP techniques. The paper demonstrates how naturally and rationally the DOO framework can capture musical entities, concepts and relations. Also reported are the preliminary results of an experimental system. 1 Introduction A fundamental problem in designing an intelligent musical system is the construction of a framework that can properly represent and manipulate musical knowledge. Since music is one manifestation of human knowledge activity and is not a special target of knowledge processing (KP), it is supposed that general-purpose KP schemes that have been investigated to date are applicable to building intelligent musical systems. This research[3][4] aims at formalizing some part of musical knowledge, using computer science and articial intelligence terminologies as much as possible. It will lead to clarifying which elements of musical knowledge can be handled by our current KP techniques and which problems need to be challenged in order to develop more practical KP techniques. The author thinks that a deductive object-oriented (DOO) approach[6][8] is noteworthy among KP techniques, since this approach provides desirable properties: expandability, exibility, robust-ness and a theoretical basis. Through examining musical knowledge representation based on the DOO framework, we hope to develop a programming language for musical KP. To facilitate design of the language, this paper discusses by what primitives and operations musical knowledge should be represented. Next, an experimental system is built to show the advantages of this approach. Last, the perspectives and problems are described. 2 Representing Musical Knowledge Musical concepts and entities are linked to each other by various relations in our minds. This network can be viewed as a knowledge structure, which has evolved through knowledge activities such as learning and practice. The DOO framework,in comparison , provides universal methods for representing real-world entities, in which the key notions are object, relation and deductive rule. This section exhibits how naturally and rationally the DOO framework can represent musical entities, concepts and relations. This research focuses not on the physical aspects of music, but rather on musical KP based on symbolic manipulation; thus, we assume that a note is atomic. The following examples …