Research of the automatic scoring system by taking sounds down in musical notations for traditional folk instruments(Tsugaru shamisen)

Hachinohe Institute of Technology in Japan is uniquely situated within the amalgam of Tsugaru and Nambu´s traditional arts. Local traditional arts people and the city´s traditional music preservation society have strongly wanted a technology to accurately score traditional music, especially Tsugaru Shamisen and Nambu Shamisen. This music will be preserved as scores, which avoids relying solely on the oral transmission of this music to the young performers. At this time, we have experimentally produced an “Electric Shamisen” equipped with a pick-up microphone attached to each string and automatic scoring equipment, which automatically records scores from the sound source. This research has established the basic technology to analyze and process the sound source, score processing; and score recording. We intend to further develop automatic scoring of other traditional musical instruments and vocal music.