An Experiment with Electric Guitar Signals for Exploring the Virtuosity based on the Entropy of Music

Abstract

We analyze the concept of virtuosity as a collective attribute in music and its relationship with the entropy based on an experiment that compares two sets of digital signals played by composer-performer electric guitarists. Based on an interdisciplinary approach related to the complex systems, we computed the spectrum of signals, identified statistical distributions that best describe them, and measured the Shannon entropy to establish their diversity. Findings suggested that virtuosity might be related to a range of entropy values that identify levels of diversity of the frequency components of audio signals. Despite the presence of different values of entropy in the two sets of signals, they are statistically similar. Therefore, entropy values can be interpreted as levels of virtuosity in music.