what1tune - Musical Addresses

Over the years, we’ve seen countless ways to navigate our world using various geohashing solutions. These systems - such as the popular what3words (which assigns three random words to every 3-meter square), or Google’s Plus Codes - aim to provide a simplified, human-readable way to identify precise locations where traditional street addresses fall short, such as in remote parks, disaster zones, or developing urban areas.

My what1tune map is a new geohashing concept that gives every location on Earth its own unique 20-note melody. Unlike traditional addresses, which rely on arbitrary street names or complex numbers, a what1Tune address is composed using a four-note vocabulary arranged in a unique sequence. It’s a way to 'hear' where you are on the map. All you have to do is remember a simple melodic sequence, and you will never get lost again.

Instead of assigning locations a random or purely numerical code, What1Tune uses a musical geohash that preserves spatial relationships in the structure of the melody itself. The Earth is recursively divided into a grid, and each subdivision is encoded as a small musical motif. Because each step of the grid refinement is represented in order, the beginning of every tune describes a broad geographic region, while the later notes capture increasingly precise detail. This means that two locations that are close together on the map will share the same early motifs and only diverge in the final notes, creating recognisably similar melodies. In contrast, locations that are far apart will differ much earlier in their sequence, resulting in melodies that feel entirely distinct.

My geohash system is not yet complete. I have yet to implement the what1tune whistling protocol. In the future, I hope to add digital signal processing so that users can whistle a tune into a microphone to discover the encoded location directly on the what1tune map.