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IHSS

Digital Lives Seminar (with Lunch): Guitar Tablature Generation with AI

When: Thursday, October 10, 2024, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Where: Senior Common Room, 4th Floor, ArtsTwo Building, 335 Mile End Road, London E1 4FQ

Pedro Pereira Sarmento from the Centre for Digital Music (C4DM) at QMUL will be present his cutting-edge research on Music and AI. He will share the insights from his work on AI-driven music composition, with a special focus on replicating the styles of iconic electric guitar players and rock/metal bands.

About the Talk

Within the field of symbolic music generation with AI, most works focus on MIDI representations, but less attention has been paid to guitar-focused symbolic music using digital tablatures. Due to its nature, digital tablatures are often used to notate compositions in the style of rock, and particularly metal. This presentation will showcase the findings concerning the generation of multi-instrument compositions in tablature format with AI, focusing on mimicking the style of iconic electric guitar players and bands from the rock/metal genre. Finally, Pedro will demonstrate how to use the generative AI tablature tools as an assistant composer within a metal band.

About the Presenter

Pedro Sarmento (b. 1991) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Digital Music (C4DM), Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). He obtained his PhD from QMUL in 2024 under the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Artificial Intelligence and Music (AIM). His research focuses on symbolic music generation with AI, namely the exploration of techniques for the creation of music that is represented in a digital tablature format. He holds an Integrated MSc degree in Electrical Engineering from Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP), a degree in Classical Guitar from the Conversatory of Music of Porto, and a MSc degree in Multimedia and Interactive Sound from FEUP. He has an ongoing collaboration with Orquestra de Jazz de Matosinhos (OJM) where he leads sessions that foster an approach to STEM via musical concepts for young students. He volunteers for an online music magazine, writing album reviews and conducting interviews with artists from the heavy metal scene, and is part of HEL9000, a AI-driven metal band. More info at Pedro Sarmento's website.

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