Sight-reading is the act of performing a piece of music at first sight. This can be a difficult task to master, because it requires extensive knowledge of music theory, practice, quick thinking, and most importantly, a wide variety of musical material. A musician can only effectively sight-read with a new piece of music. This not only requires many resources, but also musical pieces that are challenging while also within a player's abilities.
This thesis presents PiaNote, a sight-reading web application for pianists that algorithmically generates music based on human performance. PiaNote's goal is to alleviate some of the hassles pianists face when sight-reading. PiaNote presents musicians with algorithmically generated pieces, ensuring that a musician never sees the same piece of music twice. PiaNote also monitors player performances in order to intelligently present music that is challenging, but within the player's abilities. As a result, PiaNote offers a sight-reading experience that is tailored to the player.
On a broader level, this thesis explores different methods in effectively creating a sight-reading application. We evaluate PiaNote with a user study involving novice piano players. The players actively practice with PiaNote over three fifteen-minute sessions. At the end of the study, users are asked to determine whether PiaNote is an effective practice tool that improves both their confidence in sight-reading and their sight-reading abilities. Results suggest that PiaNote does improve user's sight-reading confidence and abilities, but further research must be conducted to clearly validate PiaNote's effectiveness. We conclude that PiaNote has potential to become an effective sight-reading application with slight improvements and further research.
","abstract_html":"<p>Sight-reading is the act of performing a piece of music at first sight. This can be a difficult task to master, because it requires extensive knowledge of music theory, practice, quick thinking, and most importantly, a wide variety of musical material. A musician can only effectively sight-read with a new piece of music. This not only requires many resources, but also musical pieces that are challenging while also within a player's abilities.</p> <p>This thesis presents PiaNote, a sight-reading web application for pianists that algorithmically generates music based on human performance. PiaNote's goal is to alleviate some of the hassles pianists face when sight-reading. PiaNote presents musicians with algorithmically generated pieces, ensuring that a musician never sees the same piece of music twice. PiaNote also monitors player performances in order to intelligently present music that is challenging, but within the player's abilities. As a result, PiaNote offers a sight-reading experience that is tailored to the player.</p> <p>On a broader level, this thesis explores different methods in effectively creating a sight-reading application. We evaluate PiaNote with a user study involving novice piano players. The players actively practice with PiaNote over three fifteen-minute sessions. At the end of the study, users are asked to determine whether PiaNote is an effective practice tool that improves both their confidence in sight-reading and their sight-reading abilities. Results suggest that PiaNote does improve user's sight-reading confidence and abilities, but further research must be conducted to clearly validate PiaNote's effectiveness. We conclude that PiaNote has potential to become an effective sight-reading application with slight improvements and further research.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Schulz, Drew"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"MS in Computer Science","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"Computer Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["John Clements"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-06-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2016-06-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:31:49Z","subjects":["music","piano","algorithm","edit-distance","sight-reading","AI","Music Education"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["10.15368/theses.2016.53"],"render_values":[{"text":"10.15368/theses.2016.53","href":"https://doi.org/10.15368/theses.2016.53","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/1579","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["John Clements"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Schulz, Drew"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2016-06-09T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Computer Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["MS in Computer Science"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["music","piano","algorithm","edit-distance","sight-reading","AI","Music Education"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/1579","10.15368/theses.2016.53"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Sight-reading is the act of performing a piece of music at first sight. This can be a difficult task to master, because it requires extensive knowledge of music theory, practice, quick thinking, and most importantly, a wide variety of musical material. A musician can only effectively sight-read with a new piece of music. This not only requires many resources, but also musical pieces that are challenging while also within a player's abilities.
This thesis presents PiaNote, a sight-reading web application for pianists that algorithmically generates music based on human performance. PiaNote's goal is to alleviate some of the hassles pianists face when sight-reading. PiaNote presents musicians with algorithmically generated pieces, ensuring that a musician never sees the same piece of music twice. PiaNote also monitors player performances in order to intelligently present music that is challenging, but within the player's abilities. As a result, PiaNote offers a sight-reading experience that is tailored to the player.
On a broader level, this thesis explores different methods in effectively creating a sight-reading application. We evaluate PiaNote with a user study involving novice piano players. The players actively practice with PiaNote over three fifteen-minute sessions. At the end of the study, users are asked to determine whether PiaNote is an effective practice tool that improves both their confidence in sight-reading and their sight-reading abilities. Results suggest that PiaNote does improve user's sight-reading confidence and abilities, but further research must be conducted to clearly validate PiaNote's effectiveness. We conclude that PiaNote has potential to become an effective sight-reading application with slight improvements and further research.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["PiaNote: A Sight-Reading Program That Algorithmically Generates Music Based on Human Performance"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["John Clements"],"dc:creator":["Schulz, Drew"],"dc:date.available":["2016-06-09T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Sight-reading is the act of performing a piece of music at first sight. This can be a difficult task to master, because it requires extensive knowledge of music theory, practice, quick thinking, and most importantly, a wide variety of musical material. A musician can only effectively sight-read with a new piece of music. This not only requires many resources, but also musical pieces that are challenging while also within a player's abilities.
This thesis presents PiaNote, a sight-reading web application for pianists that algorithmically generates music based on human performance. PiaNote's goal is to alleviate some of the hassles pianists face when sight-reading. PiaNote presents musicians with algorithmically generated pieces, ensuring that a musician never sees the same piece of music twice. PiaNote also monitors player performances in order to intelligently present music that is challenging, but within the player's abilities. As a result, PiaNote offers a sight-reading experience that is tailored to the player.
On a broader level, this thesis explores different methods in effectively creating a sight-reading application. We evaluate PiaNote with a user study involving novice piano players. The players actively practice with PiaNote over three fifteen-minute sessions. At the end of the study, users are asked to determine whether PiaNote is an effective practice tool that improves both their confidence in sight-reading and their sight-reading abilities. Results suggest that PiaNote does improve user's sight-reading confidence and abilities, but further research must be conducted to clearly validate PiaNote's effectiveness. We conclude that PiaNote has potential to become an effective sight-reading application with slight improvements and further research.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/1579","10.15368/theses.2016.53"],"dc:subject":["music","piano","algorithm","edit-distance","sight-reading","AI","Music Education"],"dc:title":["PiaNote: A Sight-Reading Program That Algorithmically Generates Music Based on Human Performance"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Computer Science"],"thesis:degree_name":["MS in Computer Science"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:31:49Z"}