#romanichords — Public Fediverse posts

If you’re curious about the methods behind the #RomaniChords project, the full recording of my talk from the Ninth Biennial International Conference on Analytical Approaches to World Musics (#AAWM 2026) is now available.

The presentation discusses my methodological approach, from data acquisition and (finger-)motion capture to annotation and (audio)visualisation, and is followed by an engaging Q&A =>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkAnmf695gA

#Ethnomusicology #Musicology #MusicOfRoma #RomaniMusic #Roma

The previous month, I also reconnected with fellow ethnomusicologist–filmmakers at the conference "New Perspectives in Audiovisual Ethnomusicology: Between Archives and New Technologies" in Cagliari. I revisited an older project there – the database=> https://visual.ethnomusicology.net

Seeing so many exciting initiatives reminded me how much I miss making ethnomusicological films. The #RomaniChords project keeps me busy now, but I hope to return to it someday.

#HopaLide #VisualEthnomusicology

🧵10/11

For those who understand #Slovak, I had the pleasure of talking with Romano fórum about my long-term research among Romani musical communities in Slovakia – specifically about my film #HopaLide, my project on #RomaniChords, the myth of Romani #MusicalBlood, and – last but not least – why Roma should have a stronger voice in researching their own culture.

Read the full interview here 👉
https://romanoforum.dennikn.sk/etnomuzikolog-peter-nuska-romovia-nemaju-hudbu-v-krvi-ale-ich-akordy-su-fenomenalne/

#RomaniStudies #RomaniMusic #Ethnomusicology #VisualEthnomusicology

In Sofia, I presented my project #RomaniChords for the #GLS aka #GypsyLoreSociety, this time from an anthropological and Romani-studies perspective. Here’s the link for the video => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lihBLvy256U

By the way, I appreciated the organiser’s idea to distribute refillable bottles with the conference’s branding. It didn’t fully replace the one-off bottles (and likely increased the participation fee), but it was a nice gesture.

#GreenAcadeMiles #GreenMSCA

🧵20/30

#ESEM conference was – quite as usual – amazing. They have a long tradition and belong to my favourite ones since they have no parallel sessions, long coffee breaks and even longer lunch breaks.

I presented an introduction to my #RomaniChords project that I only started (=>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtRa3Ezdq8I)

By the way, plenty of participants arrived by train at this conference too, especially those from Austria, which is well-connected with Croatia.

#GreenAcadeMiles #GreenMSCA #RomChords

🧵9/30

For those speaking #Czech =>

Malý medajlonek o romských akordech (aka #RomaniChords) v reportáži Českého rozhlasu =>

https://radiozurnal.rozhlas.cz/etnomuzikolog-petr-nuska-se-uz-dvanact-let-venuje-vyzkumu-hudebnosti-romu-na-9466027

#MSCA #RomChords #RomaniMusic #RomaniStudies #Ethnomusicology

I’ve recently started my #MSCA project for my postdoctoral research on #RomaniChords. One of the primary goals of this fantastic funding scheme is that junior scholars can decide how they spend some of their research allowances.

Having this privileged position, I decided to try my best to implement my MSCA project as #GreenMSCA (i.e. as green as possible) – especially regarding sustainable academic travelling.

#GreenAcadeMiles

🧵8/17

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of talking to #PhD students at the #SlovakAcademyOfSciences about #MSCA fellowships.

I only started with my fellowship on #RomaniChords in September last year, but so far, I can only recommend this experience to everyone!

The call for 2025 #MSCAPF is out. If you are a researcher with PhD (or close to finishing one) in the early stage of your career, look no further =>

https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/calls/msca-postdoctoral-fellowships-2025

#HorizonEU #HorizontEurope

Last, but not least, I wish to thank @EUCommission for funding my #MSCA project, allowing interdisciplinary research projects (such as this one) to thrive and even try out some unconventional methods for progressing in research.

#RomaniChords

🧵20/20

I wish to thank warmly all Hackathon participants for their valuable insights and intellectual inputs, namely Martin Gális, Jan Hajič, Šimon Libřický, Tomáš Klapka, Jonatán Müller, Adam Pospíšil, German Angel Puerto, Ondřej Skovajsa and Ieva Weaver.

It was a genuine pleasure to work with you all!

#RomaniChords

🧵18/20

Overall, in about 27 hours, we tackled various research problems and challenges.

Some we managed to solve, others we just named (which is equally important for future work).

And yes, there may be another #Hackathon for data analysis as soon as the data is collected (perhaps in late 2027).

If you are interested, just keep an eye on the #RomaniChords hashtag or sign up for e-mail updates on the project’s website (=> http://romanichords.eu/)

#RomaniChords

🧵17/20

For guitar-based data, we needed to tackle mainly the abundant short notes – data noise occurring likely as a result of imperfect onboard #midi processing.

We managed to fix this with Midi transform functions in #LogicPro.

Accordion was already giving us usable data, so we only worked on separating the midi channels for trebles and basis.

(Kudos to Šimon Libřický, our Logic Pro Expert!)

#RomaniChords

🧵16/20

Our #Hackathon continued the next day.

We reconvened to review yesterday’s pilot data, polish it, and get it ready for analysis.

#RomaniChords

🧵15/20

And, of course, what would a workshop on Romani music be *without* Romani music?

We wrapped up the first evening in the “Za školou” café, where our dear guests prepared a set of Romani songs for us. The concert was opened to the public, and the venue was soon filled with a crowd of dancing people.

That brilliant concert transitioned into a fantastic jam session that lasted until the morning hours…

#RomaniChords

🧵14/20

Since the finger movement data were rather “nice to have” than those “must have,” we decided to give up this challenge and focus exclusively on the sonic data part.

In the evening, we welcomed three Romani artists, thanks to whom we were able to record some firsthand sonic data on accompanying harmonies. The session was accompanied by an insightful conversation with the musicians, allowing us to engage with the sociocultural layers of the phenomenon.

#RomaniChords

🧵13/20

We would probably fix this if we:

* Set up several controllers from different angles to overcome its blind spots (although setting this up properly would require a great deal of additional programming work).

* Combine the controller with more accurate tracking tools, such as motion-tracking gloves (although we could quickly make playing very uncomfortable for the musicians).

Any #AR and/or #VR specialist here to give us their thoughts?

#RomaniChords

🧵12/20

We experienced similar issues with the accordion.

Especially for positions when fingers were close to each other or those where the thumb was hidden under the palm, the hand slipped away from the camera’s attention very quickly.

Also, the estimated fingers’ positions were often inconsistent with the actual positions. The distance between the keyboard keys seemed too small for the camera to determine correctly which key the finger was located.

#RomaniChords

🧵11/20

However, we have not been quite successful in these ambitions.

It turns out that the left hand on the guitar fingerboard is no longer recognised by the controller, very likely because the guitar fretboard goes in the way of the camera’s frame.

In other words, we didn’t find a sweet spot where the controller could cover the fretboard while properly recognising the hand and, thus, tracking the movement of all fingers as needed.

#RomaniChords

🧵10/20

Another challenge of our Hackathon was the attempt to track #FingerMovement automatically and synchronise it with the sonic data.

We wanted to test the current state of the art using the #Ultraleap Leap Motion Controller 2 for finger tracking.

And since neither accordion nor guitar stays relatively stable while being played, we also planned to track the movement of instruments with #ARTags (aka #AprilTags).

#RomaniChords

🧵9/20

Then, we moved to an exploration of the musical instruments with #MIDI output.

This option seemed to be a great compromise between [relatively] clean sonic data output while keeping the fragile layers of ethnographic context [relatively] intact.

Since the RomChords project focuses primarily on harmonic accompaniments for guitar and accordion, we worked with a #Roland FR-1x #MidiAccordion and a #Jamstik #MidiGuitar.

#RomaniChords

🧵8/20

However, neither this method had a satisfactory data output that would suit the #RomChords project’s purposes. Even the state-of-the-art polyphonic detection algorithms (such as the one developed by Celemony Melodyne) produce a lot of noise, and cleaning the data to a standard usable for the project would be enormously laborious.

(Although it is possible that in a few years, progress in #DeepLearning will make this method much more effective and efficient).

#RomaniChords

🧵7/20

Another method we considered was the #PolyphonicDetection.

This method focuses on identifying and extracting individual notes from musical textures by analysing frequency components, onset times, and timbral features using techniques such as spectral decomposition, pitch tracking, and machine learning-based transcription methods.

#RomaniChords

🧵6/20

Nevertheless, we found the use of ACR for the #RomChords project to be limited.

ACR is a classification task that analyses audio signals to compare and categorise harmonic content into *predefined* chord labels.

While this method estimates very well the common progressions in functional harmony, it doesn’t quite know how to handle less common chords and voicings (such as the “dimenzovaný” chord” mentioned above) as they are not usually found in the *predefined* labels.

#RomaniChords

🧵5/20

Then, we discussed and tried out various contemporary music information retrieval methods with a special focus on accompanying #harmonies (aka #chords).

The first method to come up was “Automatic chord recognition” (#ACR), a method that scientists have worked on for over 25 years.

A nice summary of this ongoing research (with the most significant challenges identified) can be found in this 5-year-old article => https://archives.ismir.net/ismir2019/paper/000004.pdf

#RomaniChords

🧵4/20

The discussion helped to identify the biggest challenges for the Hackathon:

On the one hand, the project aims to collect the data on an ambitious scale, which requires a pragmatic data-driven approach (a “musical laboratory”). But on the other, the phenomenon of Romani chords is embedded in peculiar layers of sociocultural reality, the uncovering of which requires a sensitive ethnographic approach.

This dilemma became the central theme for our methodological thoughts.

#RomaniChords

🧵3/20

The Hackathon brought together 10 scientists of different backgrounds – from linguists to music scholars and computer scientists.

To warm up intellectually,* we began with a general discussion of the phenomenon of Romani chords.

–––
*
Do you want to warm up with us to digest this thread easier? Watch the bit of the project’s video abstract from 7:17–7:58 and then try to answer the question: “Why does the dimenzovaný chord matter?”

=>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEXkI2br3cc&t=437s

#RomaniChords

🧵2/20

On 13–14th of February 2025, I organised a #Hackathon on #RomaniChords that explored various methodological avenues for my #MSCA project’s data acquisition.

Here’s a short thread summarising what we dealt with and achieved during these days.

CCying everyone interested in #Ethnomusicology, #Musicology, #ComputationalMusicology, #MusicScience, #RomaniStudies, #RomaniMusic and alike.

Let’s jump right into it!

[Note: See alt text for more info about the pictures attached to this thread]

🧵1/20

Interested in #Ethnomusicology, #Musicology, #MusicScience, #MusicTheory or #ComputationalMusicology ?

Join us for a #Hackathon to design tools for capturing unique #RomaniChords !

📅 13–14/02/2025 | 📍 Prague

🔍 Focus:
* Acquiring sonic data from #accordion & #guitar
* Automating finger-tracking
* Integrating sonic, movement and ethnographic data into a single workflow

Help to shape the future of ethnomusicological data collection!

🚀 Get more info and register here: https://romanichords.eu/hackathon/

...and one last photo follow-up from the #GypsyLoreSociety conference in Sofia – this is our #RomaniStudies dream team at the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, where my #MSCA PF project on #RomaniChords is based...

... it's a genuine pleasure to be part of this team!

#GLS2024 #SlovakAcademyOfSciences

... and of course, meetings of #GypsyLoreSociety are also brilliant opportunities for joint singing and dancing!

The musicians accompanying the event's opening party were brilliant! Plus, it was fascinating to see some similarities with my observations from Slovakia (perhaps #RomaniChords are not just a #Slovak phenomenon after all).

... you can refer to the video at the beginning of the thread [time: 08:41] to hear what happened!

[Photos by Plamena Stoyanova]

#RomChords #Ethnomusicology