Colm Delaney 

My project aimed to develop a harmoniser audio application for violinists to aid with intonation and creativity during practice and investigate its effectiveness with a usability test. A harmoniser adds extra notes or chords in harmony with what a musician plays, turning a solo singer into a choir or a solo violinist into a quartet. The app was developed using the audio programming frameworks Csound and Cabbage and includes functional harmony rules developed throughout the history of Western music theory. Most harmonisers output chords at random, which may or may not adhere to best practices for writing chord progressions. This harmoniser ensures sequences of chords “flow” by implementing rules revolving around the dominant to tonic harmonic relationship. Users can choose from a major, natural minor or harmonic minor scale, which all offer different emotional tones. There are 3 harmonic modes that offer various chord types including simple triads, open-voiced intervals, and more “jazzy” 7th chords.