1. A method of retrieving a musical element from a stored library comprising a plurality of musical elements, the method comprising: receiving an indication of a query musical element comprising a plurality of query percussive events; generating a rhythmic signature for the query musical element, wherein the rhythmic signature of the query musical element comprises a time stamped series of durations of the plurality of query percussive events; searching the library to identify a candidate musical element having a rhythmic signature that is similar to the rhythmic signature of the query musical element, the rhythmic signature of each musical element of the plurality of musical elements in the library comprising a series of time stamped durations of each of a plurality of percussive events that comprise the library musical element, wherein searching comprises determining, for each musical element of the library of musical elements, a closeness of a rhythmic signature of the library musical element to the rhythmic signature of the query musical element using dynamic time warping; and retrieving the candidate musical element from the library.