I want to build a song recommendation engine based on the difficulty of singing a song. I am unable to find any prior research or method of evaluation for a song. Help much appreciated.
I'd suggest asking someone who sings professionally, teaches singing, or sells song sheet music. Ask about the difference between teaching or learning beginning versus advanced songs. And differences in singing across different genres of music.
In order to recognize the difficulties of songs, you must have the mechanisms that allow you to do so. This is either through experience practice or through theoretical study of musical sciences
Regards,
Mahdi
hello you have to research to neuropsychology of music about sing , language and music and the physiology of voice .
Of course, I did an article on gestalt theory of musical instrument speech. But I gotta do it at voice level
Just saying, primary sources, if you have access, are better than secondary sources.
I checked with both the music educators and vocal teachers here at Berklee. There currently isn't a standard rubric for the difficulty level in performing a given song. You would have to develop one and it would be best to do so with a music educator who specializes in vocal pedagogy. The criteria you'd want to check include: is the melody primarily stepwise (easy to sing) or does it include leaps (more difficult)? Are the leaps between chord tones or between unstable scale degrees? Is the melody primarily diatonic or does it include chromatic notes? Is the rhythm of the melody primarily on the main beats of the meter or is it syncopated? Are the phrases symmetrical or not? There are other criteria, but this is a start. Good luck!
I absolutely agree with Matthew J Nicholl submission. It will be very useful.
I add to Matthew's suggestions, the question of the starting note: tonic or something else? (How easy is it to pitch the starting note?) Whether it begins at the start of the bar, or on an anacrusis, and whether there's an introduction by an accompanying instrument that helps the singer know when to come in.
Also think about the predictability of the whole song. The easiest strophic songs may have one basic phrase repeated for the second line of text, and possibly again later. Or the shape of the opening phrase is repeated in a sequential manner but on a different pitch, or slightly varied/developed.
These factors all affect the memorability of the song and how easy it is to learn.
My guess is that perfect pitch or the lack thereof would somehow figure into the equation.
One important consideration is that the song needs to be in the best key for the singer's range. That is variable and as long as the tune is in the best key for the singer there is no added difficulty. However, there are two other related criteria that are important that I should have mentioned: the range of the melody (most are around a 12th in span, anything more is higher difficulty)and the tessatura (the range where most of the melody is centered).
Thank you Mathew for using the crescendo approach to the question.
Yes, there are many criteria to be considered in the process of evaluating or measuring how difficult it will be to sing a song. I haven't seen one as well.
In addition to all that Mathew has highlighted, there should be a consideration for modulation, especially for this century. I'm thinking you are trying to create a rubric for evaluating or measuring how difficult to sing a song for assessment. That will be awesome! Thanks, and Good luck!
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