Flexible Score Following: the Piano Music Companion and Beyond

In our talk we will present a piano music companion that is able to follow and understand (at least to some extent) a live piano performance. Within a few seconds the system is able to identify the piece that is being played, and the position within the piece. It then tracks the performance over time via a robust score following algorithm. Furthermore, the system continuously re-evaluates its current position hypotheses within a database of scores and is capable of detecting arbitrary ‘jumps’ by the performer. The system can be of use in multiple ways, e.g. for piano rehearsal, for live visualisation of music, and for automatic page turning. At the conference, we will demonstrate this system live on stage. If possible, we would also like to encourage (hobby-)pianists in the audience to try the companion themselves. Additionally, we will give an outlook on our efforts to extend this approach to classical music in general, including heavily polyphonic orchestral music.