Study on Perception-Action Scheme for Human-Robot Musical Interaction in Wind Instrumental Play

制度:新 ; 報告番号:甲3337号 ; 学位の種類:博士(工学) ; 授与年月日:2011/2/25 ; 早大学位記番号:新564

Mobile Application to Train Chord-playing on Keyboard Instrument

Music played by a band is mostly annotated in chord charts, unlike complete notations for classical music. Beginner keyboardists playing in a band often struggle to catch up with only chord charts as reference because a single chord can be played in multiple ways on a keyboard instrument. To improve, practice is needed. However, the problems with practice chord-playing are the lack of training material, swayed practice goals as well as the immobility of instrument. Hence, the project has the objectives to: explore the multi-touch capabilities of tablet devices for music training, develop a structured and goal-oriented virtual keyboard mobile application to achieve chord-playing training; conduct a user perception study for the developed application on potential users; and conduct a usability study on the developed application. The application is targeted at beginner keyboardists to improve their existing skills in playing basic chords single-handedly, through a two-octave keyboard interface. The application was successfully developed with 4 prototype iterations. The user perception study showed that beginner keyboardists generally accept using mobile technology to train their chord-playing skills. The usability study showed that the developed application is quite a usable application

Lisp, Jazz, Aikido -- Three Expressions of a Single Essence

The relation between Science (what we can explain) and Art (what we can't) has long been acknowledged and while every science contains an artistic part, every art form also needs a bit of science. Among all scientific disciplines, programming holds a special place for two reasons. First, the artistic part is not only undeniable but also essential. Second, and much like in a purely artistic discipline, the act of programming is driven partly by the notion of aesthetics: the pleasure we have in creating beautiful things. Even though the importance of aesthetics in the act of programming is now unquestioned, more could still be written on the subject. The field called "psychology of programming" focuses on the cognitive aspects of the activity, with the goal of improving the productivity of programmers. While many scientists have emphasized their concern for aesthetics and the impact it has on their activity, few computer scientists have actually written about their thought process while programming. What makes us like or dislike such and such language or paradigm? Why do we shape our programs the way we do? By answering these questions from the angle of aesthetics, we may be able to shed some new light on the art of programming. Starting from the assumption that aesthetics is an inherently transversal dimension, it should be possible for every programmer to find the same aesthetic driving force in every creative activity they undertake, not just programming, and in doing so, get deeper insight on why and how they do things the way they do. On the other hand, because our aesthetic sensitivities are so personal, all we can really do is relate our own experiences and share it with others, in the hope that it will inspire them to do the same. My personal life has been revolving around three major creative activities, of equal importance: programming in Lisp, playing Jazz music, and practicing Aikido. But why so many of them, why so different ones, and why these specifically? By introspecting my personal aesthetic sensitivities, I eventually realized that my tastes in the scientific, artistic, and physical domains are all motivated by the same driving forces, hence unifying Lisp, Jazz, and Aikido as three expressions of a single essence, not so different after all. Lisp, Jazz, and Aikido are governed by a limited set of rules which remain simple and unobtrusive. Conforming to them is a pleasure. Because Lisp, Jazz, and Aikido are inherently introspective disciplines, they also invite you to transgress the rules in order to find your own. Breaking the rules is fun. Finally, if Lisp, Jazz, and Aikido unify so many paradigms, styles, or techniques, it is not by mere accumulation but because they live at the meta-level and let you reinvent them. Working at the meta-level is an enlightening experience. Understand your aesthetic sensitivities and you may gain considerable insight on your own psychology of programming. Mine is perhaps common to most lispers. Perhaps also common to other programming communities, but that, is for the reader to decide..

The Southern Baptist Children\u27s Choir Curricula From 1941 Through 1985 and Influences of Major Music Education Trends Upon the Curricula.

Beginning in 1941 with the inception of the Church Music Department of the Southern Baptist Convention and continuing through 1985 with the publication of a set of curriculum texts, this study presents a history of the Southern Baptist children\u27s choir curricula by describing the background development and content of each of the curriculum books, periodicals, and supplementary materials published during these years. Following the history of the development of the curricula, influences of major music education trends upon the curricula are discussed. The history of the development of the curricula is organized by periods: the organizational years of the Southern Baptist children\u27s choir curricula, 1941 through 1956; the years of unit development 1956 through 1970; and the years of the conceptual approach, 1970 through 1985. These periods provide the overall divisions for the discussion of the influences of major music education trends upon the curricula. The primary method of research was historical. Sources for materials were readings in books on church music education and music education, unpublished theses and dissertations, unpublished Minutes of the Sunday School Boards, annuals and reports of the Southern Baptist Convention, personal and telephone interviews, personal correspondence, Southern Baptist church music documents, music education periodicals, and church music education periodicals concerning children\u27s choirs. The content of the study revealed two conclusions. First, from 1941 through 1985, Southern Baptist church music educators met the challenge to construct a church music curriculum to improve music in Southern Baptist churches by seeking outstanding personnel and applying prominent methods and materials in the field of music education. Second, major music education trends did influence the children\u27s choir curricula from 1941 through 1985. As the Church Music Department staff continues to produce excellent children\u27s choir materials, future research projects should seek to measure the curricula\u27s effectiveness in teaching music to preschoolers and children

Learning and teaching conducting through musical and non-musical skills: an evaluation of orchestral conducting teaching methods

The current state of conducting as an academic and professional pursuit shows a plethora of conventional traditions and techniques that are accepted without question, but a dearth of ideas and approaches that will develop the skills essential to producing an effective conductor. This profile is especially apparent in the field‘s literature. This monograph will compile a list of these titles and annotate each one, in order to determine the common threads that run between them. This information will be distilled into categories, identifying levels of approach and target audience. Evaluation of these data may lead to a discovery that many of them are derivative of the others rather than being products of original thinking. This research will support or reject the notion that the methods used for teaching orchestral conducting are complete and sufficient

Implication of an Objectivist-Constructivist Blended Approach on Students’ Achievement and Satisfaction in University-Level Beginner String Technique Classes

Teaching music generally implicates multidimensional process whereby an assortment of approaches should be incorporated in order to provide the right and proper ambience for teaching and learning process. The need to explore and further understand the complexity in teaching beginner string technique class instigates the study which explore the implication of an objectivist-constructivist blended approach for teaching beginners string technique class. This paper explores the impact of blended-approach teaching on students’ achievement and satisfaction in Malaysian university-level beginner string technique classes. Using a quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group post-test only design, students (N = 40) from two local public universities were assigned to one of two treatment condition: experimental group, where students were presented with blended approach instructional material, and control group, where students were presented with conventional instructional material. Students completed the course of 14 weeks. The implementation results revealed that the proposed blended approach contributes to meaningful and efficient learning

MusicianMaker An App for Teaching Musicality to Beginners

The purpose of this paper is to support and defend my senior capstone project, which takes the form of an educational app for iPad called MusicianMaker. The paper is split into two main sections: a rationale for the necessity of the app, and a justification for the educational benefits it provides. Over the course of my undergraduate career I have studied available resources for music education and found a disappointing majority that make no attempt to teach musicality. Teachers and scholars debate that music learning is either absolute or relativistic, but regardless of their opinion I have found no pedagogy that focuses on musicality and self-expression in beginner instrumental music. Instead, technical proficiency is the frequent concern for musicians and their teachers. MusicianMaker was conceived as a fun way to fill the gap in a young musician’s education through the use of technology; the app allows young students who have not attained technical proficiency to work on their musicianship by giving them control over a character’s musical decisions. I chose to use recordings from the public domain that represent 20th-century American cities in order to teach players the history of performance traditions in this nation in addition to the musical skills they display so clearly. I defend my music selections through in-depth research on each composition that explains its historical and musical significance. Finally, I address possible uses for MusicianMaker in a variety of settings in hopes of inspiring other music teachers like myself to use the app or at least to see the importance of teaching musicality to their beginner students

Pedagogical relationships: A master-apprentice model in music teaching

The thesis entitled Pedagogical Relationships: A master-apprentice model in music teaching is a pedagogical and phenomenological inquiry into the lived experience of the master-apprentice model of piano teaching in a private studio. It surveys the history of the instrument, its literature, its pedagogy and the importance of genealogy in this mentor-protégé relationship. Using narratives, interviews, audio-visual links, illustrations, musical score illustrations and literary references, the thesis illuminates authentic lived experiences of both teacher and student

Mobile Application to Train Chord-playing on Keyboard Instrument

Music played by a band is mostly annotated in chord charts, unlike complete notations for classical music. Beginner keyboardists playing in a band often struggle to catch up with only chord charts as reference because a single chord can be played in multiple ways on a keyboard instrument. To improve, practice is needed. However, the problems with practice chord-playing are the lack of training material, swayed practice goals as well as the immobility of instrument. Hence, the project has the objectives to: explore the multi-touch capabilities of tablet devices for music training, develop a structured and goal-oriented virtual keyboard mobile application to achieve chord-playing training; conduct a user perception study for the developed application on potential users; and conduct a usability study on the developed application. The application is targeted at beginner keyboardists to improve their existing skills in playing basic chords single-handedly, through a two-octave keyboard interface. The application was successfully developed with 4 prototype iterations. The user perception study showed that beginner keyboardists generally accept using mobile technology to train their chord-playing skills. The usability study showed that the developed application is quite a usable application