Key-Finding with Interval Profiles

Comparing pitch class distributions with predefined key profiles has become the preferred method for key-finding in tonal music, since it was first proposed by Krumhansl and Schmuckler in 1990 [6]. When determining keys using this strategy, information about the temporal order of the notes is not taken into account, although this might contribute additional information relevant for key-finding. An obvious extension of the pitch class profiles is to look at distributions of intervals – calculate scale degree transition profiles. This idea has not been given much attention in previous research. We conduct a data driven experiment where pitch class profiles and interval profiles are learned from key-annotated music and evaluated on a key-finding task.