Analysis of Vowels in Sung Queries for a Music Information Retrieval System

A method for analyzing and categorizing the vowels of a sung query is described and analyzed. This query system uses a combination of spectral analysis and parametric clustering techniques to divide a single query into different vowel regions. The method is applied separately to each query, so no training or repeated measures are necessary. The vowel regions are then transformed into strings and string search methods are used to compare the results from various songs. We apply this method to a small pilot study consisting of 40 sung queries from each of 7 songs. Approximately 60% of the queries are correctly identified with their corresponding song, using only the vowel stream as the identifier.