AMIGO: An Assistive Musical Instrument to Engage, Create and Learn Music

We present AMIGO, a real-time computer music system that assists novice users in the composition process through guided musical improvisation. The system consists of 1) a computational analysis-generation algorithm, which not only formalizes musical principles from examples, but also guides the user in selecting note sequences; 2) a MIDI keyboard controller with an integrated LED stripe, which provides visual feedback to the user; and 3) a real-time music notation, which displays the generated output. Ultimately, AMIGO allows the intuitive creation of new musical structures and the acquisition of Western music formalisms, such as musical notation.