Rhythm Reading Exercises with PWGL

This paper presents rhythm reading, one of the elementary ear training exercises, as a pedagogical software application of PWGL. We use different kinds of stochastic and mathematical models to generate a rhythmic database. The database is divided into several categories, including, binary or ternary, euclidian, afro-cuban, corpus-based, and contemporary. Our musical constraints systems is used to define a rule set, which, in turn, can be used to automatically generate graded rhythm reading exercises. The user is then presented with a musical score, and he or she can perform a reading with any percussive instrument or voice and a microphone connected to a computer. Our novel signal processing system is utilized to analyze the reading. Finally, visual feedback and statistics are displayed directly as a part of the exercise. In this paper we present our rhythm reading application, and discuss the details of its implementation.