Griddy: A drawing based music composition system with multi-layered structure

Abstract

This paper suggests a novel approach to drawing interfaces for music composition, which provides multilayered interface with different levels of abstraction and constraints. By reviewing previous drawing based composition systems, a common problem is discovered: insufficient support for creative exploration due to limited perspectives on compositional processes. Addressing importance of multi-layered design of composition software, three layers and corresponding interfaces are designed, for overall flow, chord map, and stylistic features respectively. The prototype application is implemented with HTML5 canvas element and Gibberish.js, providing easy accessibility on web.