Filling in the spaces

hi everyone,

i haven't yet read the sticky "new ideas" thread in this forum, but even if my suggestion, or a similar one, is already there, why not start realizing it.

my idea is as follows. we have a string of 20-30 slots. each slot is either a note, a pause, or a question mark. like this:

C ? . ? E . B . ? . . . . . . C# D . G# . ? C# . ? . . . . ? .

? ? B C G F . A D# ? ? . . ? . ? . ? D# A# ? ? ? ? D B . ? A# .

G C . ? . D ? ? . . . ? ? . . . ? ? . . ? D# ? ? . ? ? . D# .

? ? ? A# . ? ? . F# C# . A# ? G . ? . ? ? G# G# ? ? B ? ? C# . F ?

. G ? . ? G ? G# . ? G# ? ? ? C# G ? E . . E ? ? ? . C# ? ? ? D

A . . . ? . A D F# . G# ? . . C# . C ? A# E G . ? ? B B . F ? .

i've just written a script to generate the above randomly, i haven't even listened to them.

probability of each (of 12) note's occurence was 1/44, probability of "." and "?" was 16/44.

for some or all of the above sequences, please try the following rules:

1) "." stands for a no-note even (pause)
2) don't change the existing notes/pauses. you are allowed to change no more than 1 note/pause if you really need to, but you better don't
3) all notes and pauses have same duration
4) replace each "?" with a note or a "."
5) you may add any (small) number of "?" to the end of the sequence (or to the front, but never inside) before you start. this is because you may choose any time signature, and for example, if you choose 7/8, you would like to extend a sequence so it's length is divisible by 7, and that it sounds more or less complete.
6) your result should sound nice and pleasant, or at least interesting. that's what it's all about here
7) you don't need to arrange anything and complete the piece if you don't feel like doing that. the puzzle is only about the short single-voice melody, so it should take you at most half an hour, and we can have numerous games like this, each never lasting for years.

let me know if you like the idea. some may come up with particular, not-random puzzles that they have a neat solution for in mind

here, i came home from work and had a couple of minutes to create two sample midi's - of sequence number 2 and number 4 from the above six.

the files are called gfp#2 and gfp#4, gfp standing for "gap filling puzzle".

there's a drum-sample tick at each gap that you have to substitute with some note.

you are also allowed to transpose any note one or two octaves above or below.