Multiple Musical Skills Framework for Robotic Musicianship

Abstract Why are musical robots distinguishable from humans? What makes them sound less ‘musical’ or ‘human’? The many variables and high complexity of music make it difficult to answer this question. This paper sets out to formalise the many tasks and skills a musical robot has to carry out, and lists areas of unsolved problems that require new research. A potential overall robot information structural flow is provided on how separately created modules can work together to create a coherent musical robot. This was accompanied by a method for grading the ability of musical robots to evaluate their performance. This study attempted to depict how robotic musicians might perform in the future.