Modelling Melodic Memory and the Perception of Musical Similarity

One of the ways music listeners often find their music is by searching for songs or pieces that sound like one another. The aim of our project is to understand the different ways in which people view different pieces of music as similar and to build a computer program which is capable of making the same judgements. That programme can then be used to help people find the music they want in shops, libraries and so on.Perhaps the most important outcome of the project, which underlies all the above, is a better understanding of one aspect of how the human mind works. Thus, the project aims to help us understand ourselves.