# Harmonic Reasoning in Large Language Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.05521 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.05521/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Audio-language model reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning.
- Builds on 5 of its 6 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 9 Sep 2024.

## Placed in

- LLM reasoning / [Audio-language model reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/lr/audio-language-model-reasoning/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Towards Reasoning in Large Language Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.10403/) (2022)
- [Reasoning with Language Model Prompting: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.09597/) (2022)
- [ChatMusician: Understanding and Generating Music Intrinsically with LLM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.16153/) (2024)
- [Puzzle Solving using Reasoning of Large Language Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.11291/) (2024)
- [SongComposer: A Large Language Model for Lyric and Melody Generation in Song Composition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.17645/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Large Language Models (LLMs) are becoming very popular and are used for many different purposes, including creative tasks in the arts. However, these models sometimes have trouble with specific reasoning tasks, especially those that involve logical thinking and counting. This paper looks at how well LLMs understand and reason when dealing with musical tasks like figuring out notes from intervals and identifying chords and scales. We tested GPT-3.5 and GPT-4o to see how they handle these tasks. Our results show that while LLMs do well with note intervals, they struggle with more complicated tasks like recognizing chords and scales. This points out clear limits in current LLM abilities and shows where we need to make them better, which could help improve how they think and work in both artistic and other complex areas. We also provide an automatically generated benchmark data set for the described tasks.