Early Downhome Blues

About the Network

Titon's pitch network maps note-to-note transitions found in early downhome blues recordings. The network has specific characteristics:

Quarter-tones: The "blue third" (E quarter-flat) sits between E flat and E natural. This microtonal inflection is central to blues melody.

Sink notes: C serves as a resolution point with no outgoing paths.

Hub notes: G connects to the most destinations, making it a key pivot point in the melodic landscape.

Current Features

Interactive notation: Click notes directly on the staff to navigate. Valid next notes are shown as paths.

Pluck synth: Guitar-like sound using Karplus-Strong synthesis.

Inflecting drone: Toggle drone notes (root, 3rd, 5th, 7th) that bend to match the melody's microtonal inflections.

MIDI output: Send notes to external instruments with pitch bend for quarter-tones (requires ±2 semitone pitch bend range).

Ensemble mode: Firebase-powered rooms for collaborative playing with Scale Navigator.

Planned Development

Song form structure: Implement 12-bar blues and AAB lyric form patterns from Titon's analysis.

Contour patterns: Add melodic contour analysis (ascending, descending, level, undulating) as described in Titon's research.

Phrase generation: Create phrase-aware melody generation using Hidden Markov Models trained on contour states.

Auto-transposition: In ensemble mode, transpose the blues scale to fit the current chord context from Scale Navigator.

Sound design: Add slide guitar mode alongside the current picked guitar sound.

Statistics view: Visualize the transition matrix and network graph with D3.

Reference

Titon, Jeff Todd. Early Downhome Blues: A Musical and Cultural Analysis. 2nd ed., University of North Carolina Press, 1994.