ReasonTouch Completion Blueprint
Chapter 10 — Style-Aware Progression Planning
Version: 1.0 (Blueprint Draft)
1. Purpose
The previous chapter introduced emotion as a compositional objective.
However, identical emotions can be expressed through completely different harmonic languages depending upon musical style.
For example, the emotion hopeful might be realised as:
- a I–V–vi–IV progression in Pop
- a ii–V–I with extended harmony in Jazz
- a I–IV–V hymn cadence in Gospel
- a suspended pedal point in Film music
- modal harmony in Folk music
Emotion alone is therefore insufficient.
The planning engine must also understand style.
Style-aware planning allows ReasonTouch to produce progressions that are not merely theoretically correct, but idiomatic to the musical language being explored.
2. Philosophy
The architectural audit concluded that style should never replace music theory.
Instead:
Music Theory
↓
Style Constraints
↓
Planning
↓
Generation
Theory provides the rules.
Style determines which rules are most commonly used.
For example:
A tritone substitution is theoretically valid in many contexts.
It is stylistically common in Jazz.
It is stylistically rare in Country.
The planner therefore adjusts probability rather than correctness.
3. Position within the Architecture
Style becomes another layer of planning.
User Intent
↓
Style Selection
↓
Progression Analysis
↓
Planning Strategy
↓
Style Profile
↓
Candidate Generation
↓
Evaluation
↓
Presentation
This design avoids creating separate engines for every genre.
4. Style Profiles
Each musical style should be represented as a reusable profile.
Example:
StyleProfile
Name
Preferred Functions
Cadence Preferences
Typical Chord Colours
Borrowing Frequency
Secondary Dominant Usage
Suspension Usage
Modulation Frequency
Complexity Range
Typical Phrase Length
This profile becomes another planning input.
5. Example Style Definitions
Pop
Characteristics
- simple harmony
- memorable progressions
- strong tonal centre
- repeated loops
- moderate tension
Typical progression:
I
↓
V
↓
vi
↓
IV
Rock
Characteristics
- strong dominant movement
- modal mixture
- power chord influence
- pentatonic compatibility
Common harmony:
I
↓
♭VII
↓
IV
↓
I
Jazz
Characteristics
- extended harmony
- substitutions
- ii–V chains
- altered dominants
- chromatic movement
Example:
ii
↓
V7
↓
Imaj7
Blues
Characteristics
- dominant sevenths
- twelve-bar structure
- turnaround emphasis
Typical harmony:
I7
↓
IV7
↓
V7
Folk
Characteristics
- modal colour
- open harmony
- gentle cadences
- strong tonic orientation
Film Score
Characteristics
- chromatic mediants
- pedal harmony
- modal interchange
- suspended resolution
- emotional contour
6. Style as Probability
Rather than forbidding harmonic devices, the planner adjusts their probability.
Example:
| Device | Pop | Jazz | Film |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secondary Dominant | Medium | Very High | High |
| Tritone Substitution | Low | Very High | Medium |
| Modal Borrowing | Medium | High | Very High |
| Chromatic Mediant | Low | Medium | Very High |
| Extended Dominants | Medium | Very High | High |
Thus:
Same Engine
+
Different Weights
=
Different Musical Styles
7. Interaction with Existing Planning Paths
Every planning strategy developed so far becomes style-aware.
Continue
Pop:
I
↓
V
↓
vi
Jazz:
ii
↓
V
↓
Imaj7
Film:
I
↓
♭VI
↓
IV
Same intent.
Different musical language.
Resolve
Pop resolves simply.
Jazz may resolve through substitutions.
Film may delay resolution.
Build Tension
Rock may rely upon dominant repetition.
Jazz prefers ii–V expansion.
Film often prefers chromatic ascent.
Surprise
Pop introduces subtle deviations.
Jazz encourages substitutions.
Film embraces unexpected mediants.
Emotion
Hopeful Pop
≠
Hopeful Jazz
≠
Hopeful Film
8. Candidate Generation
Candidate generation now occurs in two stages.
Stage One
Generate harmonically valid ideas.
↓
Stage Two
Filter according to style profile.
This greatly simplifies implementation.
9. Evaluation Criteria
Candidate evaluation gains several additional metrics.
Style Authenticity
Would musicians recognise this as belonging to the selected style?
Harmonic Validity
Does the progression remain theoretically sound?
Emotional Compatibility
Does it still achieve the requested emotional objective?
Musical Variety
Does it avoid clichés where appropriate?
Performance Practicality
Would performers naturally play this progression within the chosen style?
10. Educational Benefits
ReasonTouch should explain stylistic decisions.
Examples:
Uses a ii–V–I cadence typical of Jazz harmony.
Introduces a borrowed ♭VII chord common in Rock.
Employs modal interchange frequently found in Film scoring.
Chooses open harmonic movement associated with Folk music.
These explanations transform stylistic imitation into education.
11. Future Style Library
The architecture should support an expanding catalogue of style profiles.
Examples include:
- Classical
- Romantic
- Baroque
- Jazz
- Bebop
- Fusion
- Blues
- Gospel
- Country
- Bluegrass
- Folk
- Celtic
- Pop
- Rock
- Metal
- Progressive Rock
- Funk
- Soul
- R&B
- EDM
- Ambient
- Cinematic
- Video Game
- Latin
- Flamenco
- Bossa Nova
- Reggae
Each profile simply supplies different planning preferences.
No new planning engine is required.
12. User Interaction
Style may be selected in several ways.
Explicit
The user chooses:
Jazz
Workspace Default
Each workspace may remember a preferred style.
Automatic Detection
Future versions may infer style from the existing progression.
Example:
ii
↓
V
↓
Imaj7
likely indicates Jazz.
13. Reusing Existing Infrastructure
The Style Planner requires remarkably little additional infrastructure.
Existing components include:
- ProgressionAnalysis
- HarmonicFunction
- Pairing Engine
- Planning Strategies
- Candidate Evaluation
- Confidence Scores
- GeneratedProgression
Only the StyleProfile database and weighting layer are new.
14. Implementation Roadmap
Development should proceed incrementally.
Phase 1
Pop
Rock
Jazz
Phase 2
Blues
Folk
Country
Phase 3
Film
Ambient
Cinematic
Phase 4
Latin
Gospel
R&B
Phase 5
Automatic style detection.
Phase 6
Adaptive user-defined style profiles.
15. Success Criteria
The Style-Aware Planner is complete when it:
- influences every planning pathway
- avoids duplicating planning logic
- generates idiomatic harmonic language
- explains stylistic decisions
- remains theory-driven
- allows new styles to be added through data rather than code changes
16. Architectural Significance
Style-aware planning represents one of the most important architectural milestones identified during the audit.
Rather than creating separate “Jazz Mode”, “Rock Mode”, or “Film Mode” generators, the system instead develops a single intelligent planning engine whose behaviour is shaped by reusable style profiles.
This dramatically reduces maintenance while increasing musical flexibility.
It also ensures that future planning strategies automatically inherit style awareness without requiring new implementations.
17. Looking Ahead
At this stage, ReasonTouch understands:
- harmonic structure
- cadence
- continuation
- resolution
- tension
- surprise
- emotional intent
- musical style
The next evolutionary step is to recognise context.
A progression does not exist in isolation.
Its role depends upon where it appears within the larger composition.
The planning engine must therefore understand concepts such as:
- verse
- chorus
- bridge
- intro
- outro
- pre-chorus
- middle eight
This introduces section-aware composition planning, allowing identical harmonic ideas to be interpreted differently according to their structural purpose.
Next Chapter
Chapter 11 — Section-Aware Composition Planning
The next chapter defines how musical form becomes another planning input, enabling ReasonTouch to generate progressions that support the architecture of complete songs rather than isolated chord sequences.
End of Chapter 10