I've had an idea for a very simple application for the last year or so. It just requires a microphone and reasonable speakers hooked up to a laptop. I think that the OLPC laptop is supposed to have a microphone or microphone jack. Don't know that I'll have time to work on the software, but here's the basic idea, free to anyone who wants to play with it:

Application to Reflect your Voice

When learning to sing, or practising, many people cannot properly "hear" the sounds they are producing, whether the tone or the pacing. These same people, however, are quite capable of recognising problems in heard music played to them. I propose an application that records short segments of audio and then reflects the audio back to the user.

The idea is that tonality will be largely "taught" in very short segments (say up to 15s), with rapid review allowing the sense memory of singing the segment to be altered and re-attempted. Repetition will be built in so that the user can work on a single segment until it sounds right, then move to the next few bars. Think of this as the rough equivalent of having a voice coach listening to you and correcting you time and again.

Pacing and breathing are "taught" with relatively longer segments, likely with visual feedback across a score (if available) showing the "official" timing target (keeping in mind that we want people creating new music (who may not know how to read music) to be able to use the package).

This would just be a tool, not a music program in and of itself, but I can't help but think it would be a useful tool for many vocal music students.

Elaborations: