feedBack/docs/NOTE_FAILURE_PLAN.md

Note Failure Feedback — Implementation Plan

Depends on: docs/NOTE_FAILURE_SPEC.md (read that first)

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Phase 0: Detection Plugin Foundation

Goal: Working note detection plugin streaming detected notes via WebSocket.

This phase was previously tracked in a separate NOTE_DETECTION_PLUGIN_PLAN document (in the slopsmith-plugin-notedetect repository). The relevant scope is summarized here to avoid relying on an internal git-only reference:

• Plugin skeleton: slopsmith-plugin-notedetect/ with plugin.json, routes.py, screen.js
• Port TonalRecall YIN detection (aubio + sounddevice) to routes.py
• WebSocket at /api/plugins/note_detect/stream streaming { note, freq, confidence, time }
• Device selection UI in screen.html
• requirements.txt: aubio, sounddevice, numpy

Exit criterion: With plugin active and guitar plugged in, playing a note causes a JSON event to appear in the browser console.

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Phase 1: Note Matching Core

Goal: Client-side matching of detected notes to chart notes. No rendering yet — console logging only.

Files:

• screen.js in the notedetect plugin

Tasks:

• Implement expectedFreq(string, fret, tuningOffsets, capo, stringCount, arrangementName) using base open-string frequencies, semitone offsets from highway.getSongInfo().tuning, and semitone math (2^(semitones/12)) rather than assuming 6-string standard tuning; use highway.getStringCount() as the authoritative string count because tuning may be padded to length 6 for RS XML sources even for bass/extended-range arrangements; include highway.getSongInfo().capo as additional semitones if the intent is expected sounding pitch; pass highway.getSongInfo().arrangement as arrangementName to disambiguate 5-string bass vs 5-string guitar (matching the spec's getBaseTuning helper)
• Implement NoteJudgmentTracker class with:
  • addDetection(detected) — correlate with nearest unmatched chart note
  • update(currentTime) — expire pending notes whose match window has passed
  • getJudgmentsInRange(tStart, tEnd) — return judgments in time range
  • reset() — clear all state
• Connect to detection WebSocket, feed events into tracker
• Initialize tracker with highway.getNotes() and highway.getChords() on song ready
• Console.log each judgment as it resolves (HIT/MISSED/EARLY/LATE/SHARP/FLAT)
• Re-initialize tracker on song:ready (fires on every new song and on every arrangement switch — no need to hook highway.reconnect or other internals); do not use song:loaded — note/chord arrays are still empty at that point (data arrives incrementally and only completes at song:ready)

Exit criterion: Playing along with a song, console shows correct HIT/MISSED judgments with timing and pitch error values.

Estimated scope: ~200 lines JS

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Phase 2: Hit/Miss Highway Overlay

Goal: Visual feedback on the highway — green glow for hits, red X for misses.

Files:

• screen.js in the notedetect plugin (draw hook)

Tasks:

• Register highway.addDrawHook() that reads judgments from the tracker
• Hit rendering: Green glow ring behind notes at the now-line, fading over hitGlowDuration seconds. Use highway.project() and highway.fretX() for positioning. Additive blend via ctx.globalCompositeOperation = 'lighter'.
• Miss rendering: Red ✕ marker at the note's string/fret position, drawn in the "past" region below the now-line. Do not rely on highway.project(negative_offset) for long-lived placement — the current renderer returns null for offsets more than ~50ms into the past. Instead, anchor at the now-line (highway.project(0)) and map elapsed time since the miss to a linear below-now-line Y position (configurable pixels/second), fading the marker after missMarkerDuration seconds.
• String pulse: Brief red tint on the missed note's string (200ms fade on the string line segment near the now-line).
• Handle lefty mode: use highway.fillTextUnmirrored() for text markers.
• Cleanup: highway.removeDrawHook() on plugin destroy.

Exit criterion: Playing a song, you see green flashes on hit notes and red X markers scrolling past on missed notes.

Estimated scope: ~150 lines JS

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Phase 3: Diagnostic Labels (Timing + Pitch)

Goal: Show why a note was missed — too early, too late, sharp, flat.

Files:

• screen.js in the notedetect plugin

Tasks:

• Extend draw hook to render timing indicators:
  • EARLY: orange ↑ + "-XXms" label above the miss marker
  • LATE: orange ↓ + "+XXms" label below the miss marker
  • Only shown when timing error exceeds timingThresholdMs
• Extend draw hook to render pitch indicators:
  • SHARP: blue ♯ + "+XX¢" label
  • FLAT: blue ♭ + "-XX¢" label
  • Only shown when pitch error exceeds pitchThresholdCents
• Compound states: stack timing label on top, pitch label below
• Add settings UI in plugin settings panel for threshold configuration
• Ensure labels don't overlap — offset vertically when multiple notes miss at close timestamps

Exit criterion: Playing intentionally early/late or bending sharp/flat shows the correct diagnostic labels.

Estimated scope: ~100 lines JS, ~30 lines settings HTML

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Phase 4: Loop Iteration Tracking

Goal: Track performance across loop iterations, show summary on each wrap.

Files:

• screen.js in the notedetect plugin

Tasks:

• Detect loop wrap: currentTime < previousTime - 0.5 in the frame update
• On wrap: snapshot { hits, misses, total, percentage } to loopHistory[]
• Reset judgments for notes in [loopA, loopB] range (keep tracker alive for notes outside the loop)
• Render loop summary overlay (top-center, semi-transparent background):

  Loop N  |  X/Y notes (Z%)  |  Best: W%
  

  Displayed for 1.5s, then fades.
• Track bestIteration across all iterations for "Best" display
• Emit loop:complete event via window.slopsmith.emit() so other plugins (practice journal) can record the data
• Reset loop history when loop boundaries change or loop is cleared

Exit criterion: Looping a 4-bar phrase, you see iteration count and accuracy flash briefly at each loop wrap. Best score persists across iterations.

Estimated scope: ~120 lines JS

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Phase 5: Section Grading

Goal: Grade each song section (intro, verse, chorus, solo) and surface weak spots.

Files:

• screen.js in the notedetect plugin

Tasks:

• Use highway.getSections() to identify section boundaries
• Track hits/misses per section as notes are judged
• At section boundaries (when currentTime crosses a section end), briefly flash the section grade:
  • A: 90%+, B: 75%+, C: 60%+, D: 40%+, F: below 40%
  • Color: green (A/B), yellow (C), red (D/F)
• After song completes (or at any point via a hotkey), show a section summary panel listing all sections with grades
• Highlight lowest-scoring section with a "Loop this section" button that sets A-B points to that section's boundaries
• Emit note:sectionGrade event for other plugins

Exit criterion: Playing through a song, section grades flash at each transition. Lowest section is highlighted for targeted practice.

Estimated scope: ~150 lines JS, ~40 lines HTML

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Phase 6: Polish + Settings

Goal: Configurable thresholds, visual polish, performance.

Tasks:

• Full settings panel in plugin settings HTML:
  • Match window slider (100-500ms)
  • Pitch tolerance slider (20-100 cents)
  • Toggle timing/pitch labels
  • Toggle loop summary
  • Miss marker duration slider
• Performance: ensure draw hook stays under 1ms per frame
  • Pre-compute judgment positions, don't recalculate in draw loop
  • Binary search over judgments by time (same pattern as drawNotes)
• Smooth animations: glow/fade using eased alpha, not linear
• Color-blind accessible palette option (use shapes not just colors)
• Persist settings in plugin-local storage (e.g. localStorage prefixed with plugin id) — do not use /api/settings for this; the current server only persists a fixed set of known keys and will silently discard notedetect_feedback

Estimated scope: ~100 lines JS, ~60 lines HTML

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Dependency Graph

Phase 0 (detection plugin)
    ↓
Phase 1 (matching core)
    ↓
Phase 2 (hit/miss overlay)  ← Minimum viable feature
    ↓
Phase 3 (diagnostic labels)
    ↓
Phase 4 (loop tracking)     ← Core practice value
    ↓
Phase 5 (section grading)
    ↓
Phase 6 (polish)

Phases 3-5 are independent of each other and can be done in any order after Phase 2. Phase 6 should be last.

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Risk / Open Questions

1. Latency budget: Detection → WebSocket → matching → render adds latency. If total pipeline > 100ms, the match window needs to compensate with asymmetric tolerance (more lenient for "late" detections). Measure in Phase 1.

2. Chord matching granularity: Current plan matches chord notes individually. Should a chord be "missed" if 4/6 notes hit? Propose: grade chords as percentage, treat as HIT if ≥50% of notes matched. Revisit after Phase 2 testing.

3. Tempo-scaled thresholds: At 200 BPM, a 200ms match window covers almost an entire beat. Should thresholds scale with tempo? Propose: don't over-engineer this initially. Fixed thresholds work for most tempos. Revisit if users report issues at extreme tempos.

4. Detection plugin availability: Everything in Phases 1-6 degrades gracefully if the detection WebSocket isn't connected — the draw hook simply has no judgments to render, and the highway looks exactly as it does today.