Key Determination Of Acoustic Musical Signals

This paper presents a novel rule-based approach for determining the key of acoustic musical signals. Knowledge of the key will enable us to derive from music knowledge the pitch class elements that a piece of music uses. Our technique is a combination of Chroma based frequency analysis and music knowledge of rhythm structure and chord change patterns followed by rule-based inference. Experimental results illustrate that 90% accuracy is achieved for key determination and we have given an explanation for the cases that have generated an incorrect key. Steps for further development are also outlined.