SwaraNotebook
A mobile friendly Hindustani music notation editor
I reached out to about 20 musicians and got feedback from 3 of them. Each of them asked for 3 different features to be added.
One requested an iPhone app ( swaranotebook is currently web-only). The second requested support for ornamental Swaras, and the third requested multi language support.
I'd need more data points (or requests from other users) before adding these features.
I released 3 open source libraries that are used in Swaranotebook(https://studio-kalavati.github.io).
-
Sargam-spec (https://github.com/Studio-kalavati/sargam-spec): A JSON friendly specification to share Raga music notations. Swaranotebook uses this format to store compositions.
-
Bhatkhande notation viewer: A Clojurescript project that can display compositions notated with Sargam-spec
-
Chaturpandit: Tooling to display Sargam spec in a notation canvas.
-
2
Very cool. I've been thinking about turning the code for one of my projects into an open source library, but I felt like it would be too much work. Did it take you much extra time to turn your code into libraries? Or did you initially build them as independent libraries?
-
2
I didnt initially build it that way. However i soon realised that if i wanted users to collaborate ( e.g for data on new languages), part of it would have to be open source.
It is more work initially, hopefully it could pay off if user contributions come in.
I'd like to add that it is important to consider what is open source and what isn't. In my case, part of it is open source, and this part enables users to avoid vendor lock-in in case I dont feel like running the project at some point.
-
The base open source project, Sargam-spec , adds support for multiple languages. Currently, English and Devanagari (Hindi) are supported.
Users can write the composition in any language, and once shared, the reader can choose to change the viewing language.
This was the third rewrite of the MVP which enabled properly formatted notations according to different beats.
The app is built using a single page Clojurescript stack, and the Canvas frontend uses the Quil project.
I also released two open source libraries. The first enables other developers to specify notations( and import or export composition s) in a standard spec . The second enabled users to view compositions in an open source tool so that there is no data lock in.
During my music practice sessions, I realised that there are no tools to write Sargam notations, similar to western music notation systems such as Noteflight, Soundslice, Sibelius and others.
The challenge in building a system requires excellent multiple language support, since Raga music in written in South Asian languages.
Comment