A GENETIC ALGORITHM FOR THE AUTOMATIC GENERATION OF PLAYABLE GUITAR TABLATURE

Abstract

This paper describes a method for mapping a sequence of notes to a set of guitar fretboard positions (tablature).The method uses a Genetic Algorithm (GA) to find playable tablature through the use of a fitness function that assesses the playability of a given set of fretboard positions.Tests of the algorithm on a variety of compositions demonstrate an excellent ability of the GA to discover easily playable tablature that maintains a high degree of consistency with published tablatures transcribed by humans.The algorithm was also found to generally outperform commercial software designed for the same purpose.We conclude that the GA can reliably produce good tablature for any piece of guitar music.