A Tristimulus Analysis-Based Approach for Tonic-Note Selection and Voice Range Determination for Music Singers

Abstract

In this work, we consider the problem of tonic note selection and voice range determination for Indian music singers. A tonic note is a reference note of a singer that decides the pitches of the other notes used by the singer. The ratios of various notes to the tonic note are fixed by the scale used by the singer. A novel graphical method for tonic note selection is proposed. In this method, tristimulus diagrams are used to represent notes in the Aroh and Avroh. The notes are represented by a point in the tristimulus diagram. The locations of the notes in the tristimulus diagram represent their perceptual attributes. The tristimulus diagram is divided into grey and white areas. The notes going in the grey area are designated as perceptually inferior and accordingly, a tonic note is suggested such that all the notes remain in the white region of the tristimulus diagrams. As compared to state-of-the-art, the proposed method is more convenient to use.