Violin Augmentation Techniques for Learning Assistance

PhDLearning violin is a challenging task requiring execution of pitch tasks with the left hand using a strong aural feedback loop for correctly adjusting pitch, concurrent with the right hand moving a bow precisely with correct pressure across strings. Real-time technological assistance can help a student gain feedback and understanding helpful for learning and maintaining motivation. This thesis presents real-time low-cost low-latency violin augmentations that can be used to assist learning the violin along with other real-time performance tasks. To capture bow performance, we demonstrate a new means of bow tracking by measuring bow hair de ection from the bow hair being pressed against the string. Using near- eld optical sensors placed along the bow we are able to estimate bow position and pressure through linear regression from training samples. For left hand pitch tracking, we introduce low cost means for tracking nger position and illustrate the combination of sensed results with audio processing to achieve high accuracy low-latency pitch tracking. We subsequently verify our new tracking methods' e ectiveness and usefulness demonstrating low-latency note onset detection and control of real-time performance visuals. To help tackle the challenge of intonation, we used our pitch estimation to develop low latency pitch correction. Using expert performers, we veri ed that fully correcting pitch is not only disconcerting but breaks a violinist's learned pitch feedback loop resulting in worse asplayed performance. However, partial pitch correction, though also linked to worse as-played performance, did not lead to a signi cantly negative experience con rming its potential for use to temporarily reduce barriers to success. Subsequently, in a study with beginners, we veri ed that when the pitch feedback loop is underdeveloped, automatic pitch correction did not signi cantly hinder performance, but o ered an enjoyable low-pitch error experience and that providing an automatic target guide pitch was helpful in correcting performed pitch error

Proficiency-aware systems

In an increasingly digital world, technological developments such as data-driven algorithms and context-aware applications create opportunities for novel human-computer interaction (HCI). We argue that these systems have the latent potential to stimulate users and encourage personal growth. However, users increasingly rely on the intelligence of interactive systems. Thus, it remains a challenge to design for proficiency awareness, essentially demanding increased user attention whilst preserving user engagement. Designing and implementing systems that allow users to become aware of their own proficiency and encourage them to recognize learning benefits is the primary goal of this research. In this thesis, we introduce the concept of proficiency-aware systems as one solution. In our definition, proficiency-aware systems use estimates of the user's proficiency to tailor the interaction in a domain and facilitate a reflective understanding for this proficiency. We envision that proficiency-aware systems leverage collected data for learning benefit. Here, we see self-reflection as a key for users to become aware of necessary efforts to advance their proficiency. A key challenge for proficiency-aware systems is the fact that users often have a different self-perception of their proficiency. The benefits of personal growth and advancing one's repertoire might not necessarily be apparent to users, alienating them, and possibly leading to abandoning the system. To tackle this challenge, this work does not rely on learning strategies but rather focuses on the capabilities of interactive systems to provide users with the necessary means to reflect on their proficiency, such as showing calculated text difficulty to a newspaper editor or visualizing muscle activity to a passionate sportsperson. We first elaborate on how proficiency can be detected and quantified in the context of interactive systems using physiological sensing technologies. Through developing interaction scenarios, we demonstrate the feasibility of gaze- and electromyography-based proficiency-aware systems by utilizing machine learning algorithms that can estimate users' proficiency levels for stationary vision-dominant tasks (reading, information intake) and dynamic manual tasks (playing instruments, fitness exercises). Secondly, we show how to facilitate proficiency awareness for users, including design challenges on when and how to communicate proficiency. We complement this second part by highlighting the necessity of toolkits for sensing modalities to enable the implementation of proficiency-aware systems for a wide audience. In this thesis, we contribute a definition of proficiency-aware systems, which we illustrate by designing and implementing interactive systems. We derive technical requirements for real-time, objective proficiency assessment and identify design qualities of communicating proficiency through user reflection. We summarize our findings in a set of design and engineering guidelines for proficiency awareness in interactive systems, highlighting that proficiency feedback makes performance interpretable for the user.In einer zunehmend digitalen Welt schaffen technologische Entwicklungen - wie datengesteuerte Algorithmen und kontextabhängige Anwendungen - neuartige Interaktionsmöglichkeiten mit digitalen Geräten. Jedoch verlassen sich Nutzer oftmals auf die Intelligenz dieser Systeme, ohne dabei selbst auf eine persönliche Weiterentwicklung hinzuwirken. Wird ein solches Vorgehen angestrebt, verlangt dies seitens der Anwender eine erhöhte Aufmerksamkeit. Es ist daher herausfordernd, ein entsprechendes Design für Kompetenzbewusstsein (Proficiency Awareness) zu etablieren. Das primäre Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, eine Methodik für das Design und die Implementierung von interaktiven Systemen aufzustellen, die Nutzer dabei unterstützen über ihre eigene Kompetenz zu reflektieren, um dadurch Lerneffekte implizit wahrnehmen können. Diese Arbeit stellt ein Konzept für fähigkeitsbewusste Systeme (proficiency-aware systems) vor, welche die Fähigkeiten von Nutzern abschätzen, die Interaktion entsprechend anpassen sowie das Bewusstsein der Nutzer über deren Fähigkeiten fördern. Hierzu sollten die Systeme gesammelte Daten von Nutzern einsetzen, um Lerneffekte sichtbar zu machen. Die Möglichkeit der Anwender zur Selbstreflexion ist hierbei als entscheidend anzusehen, um als Motivation zur Verbesserung der eigenen Fähigkeiten zu dienen. Eine zentrale Herausforderung solcher Systeme ist die Tatsache, dass Nutzer - im Vergleich zur Abschätzung des Systems - oft eine divergierende Selbstwahrnehmung ihrer Kompetenz haben. Im ersten Moment sind daher die Vorteile einer persönlichen Weiterentwicklung nicht unbedingt ersichtlich. Daher baut diese Forschungsarbeit nicht darauf auf, Nutzer über vorgegebene Lernstrategien zu unterrichten, sondern sie bedient sich der Möglichkeiten interaktiver Systeme, die Anwendern die notwendigen Hilfsmittel zur Verfügung stellen, damit diese selbst über ihre Fähigkeiten reflektieren können. Einem Zeitungseditor könnte beispielsweise die aktuelle Textschwierigkeit angezeigt werden, während einem passionierten Sportler dessen Muskelaktivität veranschaulicht wird. Zunächst wird herausgearbeitet, wie sich die Fähigkeiten der Nutzer mittels physiologischer Sensortechnologien erkennen und quantifizieren lassen. Die Evaluation von Interaktionsszenarien demonstriert die Umsetzbarkeit fähigkeitsbewusster Systeme, basierend auf der Analyse von Blickbewegungen und Muskelaktivität. Hierbei kommen Algorithmen des maschinellen Lernens zum Einsatz, die das Leistungsniveau der Anwender für verschiedene Tätigkeiten berechnen. Im Besonderen analysieren wir stationäre Aktivitäten, die hauptsächlich den Sehsinn ansprechen (Lesen, Aufnahme von Informationen), sowie dynamische Betätigungen, die die Motorik der Nutzer fordern (Spielen von Instrumenten, Fitnessübungen). Der zweite Teil zeigt auf, wie Systeme das Bewusstsein der Anwender für deren eigene Fähigkeiten fördern können, einschließlich der Designherausforderungen , wann und wie das System erkannte Fähigkeiten kommunizieren sollte. Abschließend wird die Notwendigkeit von Toolkits für Sensortechnologien hervorgehoben, um die Implementierung derartiger Systeme für ein breites Publikum zu ermöglichen. Die Forschungsarbeit beinhaltet eine Definition für fähigkeitsbewusste Systeme und veranschaulicht dieses Konzept durch den Entwurf und die Implementierung interaktiver Systeme. Ferner werden technische Anforderungen objektiver Echtzeitabschätzung von Nutzerfähigkeiten erforscht und Designqualitäten für die Kommunikation dieser Abschätzungen mittels Selbstreflexion identifiziert. Zusammengefasst sind die Erkenntnisse in einer Reihe von Design- und Entwicklungsrichtlinien für derartige Systeme. Insbesondere die Kommunikation, der vom System erkannten Kompetenz, hilft Anwendern, die eigene Leistung zu interpretieren

Healthy Piano Technique and the Prevention of Professional Injuries: An Exploration of the Schmidt-Shklovskaya-Minsker Method and its Implementation in Piano Pedagogy

This research focuses on the teaching method developed by two piano pedagogues whose work with pianists' professional injuries is widely known and appreciated in Russia. Anna Schmidt-Shklovskaya based her system on the views and practice of Ivan Kryzhanovsky, a musician and medical doctor who studied piano-related injuries. Her student Galina Minsker brought a new perspective to the Schmidt-Shklovskaya method by studying the theory of multi-levelled motor control, as authored by Russian neuroscientist Nicholai Bernstein, and applying it to her practical work with piano students. A variety of ideas that were dominant in piano pedagogy throughout the 300-year history of the instrument are also examined with a particular emphasis on healthy piano technique in the context of the mind-body-instrument relationship. An application of "The Schmidt-Shklovskaya-Minsker Method" to general piano pedagogy is described, and the benefits of the method for students' musical and technical development are explored

In Touch with the Wild: Exploring Real-time Feedback for Learning to Play the Violin

Real-time feedback has great potential for enhancing learning complex motor-skills by enabling people to correct their mistakes as they go. Multimodal real-time cues could provide reinforcement to inform players whether they are making the correct or incorrect movements at a given time. However, little is known about how best to communicate information in real-time so that people can readily perceive and apply it to improving their movement while learning complex motor-skills. This thesis addresses this gap in knowledge by investigating how real-time feedback can enhance learning to play the violin. It explores how haptic and visual feedback are perceived, understood and acted upon in real-time when engaged in the primary task of playing the violin. Prototypes were built with sensors to measure movement and either vibrations on the body or visual signals as feedback. Three in-the-wild user studies were conducted: one comparing visual and vibrotactile feedback for individual practice; one investigating shared feedback at a musical summer school; and one examining real-time feedback as part of a programme of learning at a high school. In-the-wild studies investigate users interacting with technology in a naturalistic setting, with all the demands that this entails. The findings show real-time feedback is effective at improving violin technique and can support learning in other ways such as encouraging mutual support between learners. The positive learning outcomes, however, need to be understood with respect to the complex interplay between the technology, demands of the setting and characteristics of individual learners. A conceptual framework is provided that outlines these interdependent factors. The findings are discussed regarding their applicability to learning other physical skills and the challenges and insights of using an in-the-wild methodology. The contribution of this thesis is to demonstrate empirically and theoretically how real-time vibrotactile and visual feedback can enhance learning a complex motor-skill

Coordinating mind and movement : exploring parallels between the F.M. Alexander technique and ‘the new approach to violin playing'

Thesis (MMus (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2004.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study is to explore parallels between ‘The New Approach to violin playing’, which was developed by the Hungarian violinist Kató Havas, and the Alexander Technique, a method known for promoting kinaesthetic awareness and mind-body coordination. The specific objectives of the study are to identify the parallels between the two methods, and to obtain a deeper understanding of the New Approach, by using the Alexander Technique as a construct through which to examine the method. The study aims to illuminate some of the reasons for the reported efficacy of the New Approach, and to point the way towards achieving unity of mind and body in an expressive violin technique. Although the Alexander Technique is widely used and applied by musicians in order to improve their performance, problems are sometimes encountered in applying the Technique to the finer aspects of instrumental technique. A method of violin tuition that incorporates principles and procedures similar to those found in the Alexander Technique could bridge this gap and prove to be a very powerful tool in coordinating mind and movement in violin playing. It is the purpose of this study to show that ‘The New Approach to violin playing’ is such a method, and as such deserves to be more widely known. The research was conducted within a qualitative paradigm, using a multimethodological approach. An extensive comparative literature study of the two methods was combined with practical experience gained through regular Alexander lessons, and participation in New Approach lessons with Kató Havas and her personal representative, Gloria Bakhshayesh. The New Approach, like the Alexander Technique, is essentially a search for awareness, especially in the relationship between the player and the instrument. The particular value of the New Approach lies in the fact that Havas combines her expert knowledge of violin technique with an intuitive understanding of the conditions necessary for the optimal psychophysical functioning of the violinist. Through organising these principles into a systematised method, Havas makes the acquisition of an expressive technique more accessible to all.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie is om ooreenkomste te ondersoek tussen ‘The New Approach to violin playing’ van die Hongaarse violiste, Kató Havas, en die Alexander-tegniek, ’n metode bekend daarvoor om kinestetiese bewustheid en geestelik-liggaamlike koordinasie te verhoog. Die spesifieke doel van die studie is om ooreenkomste tussen bogenoemde werkwyses te identifiseer, en om ’n beter begrip van die ‘New Approach’ te vekry, deur die Alexander-tegniek as ’n raamwerk te gebruik waardeur die metode bestudeer word. Die studie poog om sekere motiverings vir die effektiwiteit van die ‘New Approach’ uit te lig, en om die weg te wys na die verwesenliking van geestelik-fisieke eenheid in ’n ekspressiewe viooltegniek. Alhoewel die Alexander-tegniek dikwels deur uitvoerende musici gebruik word om hul spelvermoë te verbeter, word probleme soms ondervind in die toepassing van die tegniek op die fyner aspekte van instrumentale spel. ’n Metode van vioolonderrig wat beginsels en prosesse soortgelyk aan díé van die Alexander-tegniek insluit, sou hierdie probleem kon oorkom en as kragtige middel kon dien vir die koördinasie van denke en ligaamlike beweging in vioolspel. Hierdie studie poog om te illustreer dat die ‘New Approach’ hierdie kwaliteite het, en as sulks meer blootstelling aan vioolonderwysers verdien. In hierdie ondersoek is gebruik gemaak van ’n multi-metodologiese benadering binne ’n kwalitatiewe navorsingsparadigma. ’n Vergelykende literatuurstudie van die Alexander-tegniek en ‘The New Approach to violin playing’ is gekombineer met praktiese ervaring wat vekry is deur middel van gereelde Alexander lesse, asook deelname aan ‘New Approach’ lesse met Kató Havas en haar persoonlike verteenwoordiger, Gloria Bakhshayesh. Die ‘New Approach’ – net soos die Alexander-tegniek – is in wese ’n soeke na bewustheid, veral in die interaksie tussen die violis en die instrument. Die besondere waarde van die ‘New Approach’ is dat Havas haar gesaghebbende kennis van viooltegniek gekombineer het met ’n intuïtiewe begrip vir die optimale psigofisiese funksionering van die violis. Deur hierdie beginsels in ’n sistematiese metode te orden, skep Havas die moontlikheid om ’n ekspressiewe viooltegniek aan almal beskikbaar te stel

"Integrated Arts" Pedagogy and Philosophy

This dissertation proposes and discusses the pedagogy and philosophy behind an original method titled IAM (Integrated Arts Method), which is an alternate experiential, integrated, conducive, and student-centered music and arts pedagogical method that can facilitate effective teaching for effective learning. Three key philosophical principles and a number of general techniques and attitudes are suggested as contributing factors to observed success of IAM. These generalized contributing factors, the IAM pedagogy and philosophy, are comparable with existing related pedagogical methods, which offer indirect explanation and support for the success of IAM. In turn, these pedagogical principles and attitudes allow generalization of IAMs advantages to other subject areas. IAM pedagogy contributes to the field of education generally, and arts education specifically, with original music and interdisciplinary programs, materials, compositions, and procedures, which represent practical and effective tools for both educators and students success. The three key principles of IAM pedagogy suggest that learning can be effective if it is: 1) physical experience based, 2) with synthesis of related subjects, and 3) taught in a positive and stimulating atmosphere. Accurate facilitation of these key principles involves techniques, aspects, and pedagogical attitudes which this dissertation specifies and explains. IAM pedagogy is embodied through a set of general principles, specific attitudes, and practical tools for achieving required emotional, mental, physiological, and psychological functioning of both learner and teacher for their mutual effectiveness. Results of real world IAM programs in subject areas of music and arts suggest that the pedagogy of IAM contributes to effective, enjoyable, and memorable education. Explanation and support of this contribution stem from scientific, educational, sociological, philosophical, neuroscience, cognition, and music and arts literature. Hence the research conducted in this dissertation has been from real world practice toward grounded theory. IAM programs have been conducted 7 times with success (in 2007-2009 public school based extracurricular settings), with the aid of original pedagogical programs and materials developed for these programs. These specific programs and their parameters and materials will be offered in the dissertation as concrete sample pedagogical solutions to practical application of the proposed principles in music and integrated arts education

An analysis of group' instrumental teaching: principles, procedures and curriculum implications

Although mine was the hand wielding the pen, so many people have\ud been actively involved in the study that it represents something of a\ud group effort. Some, who have invested much time and interest, deserve\ud special mention and it will not - I trust - seem invidious to name them.\ud They are: Kenneth van Barthold, Christine Brown, Peter Cruznp,\ud Yvonne &ioch, Victor Fox, Jean Horsfall, Julia Lee, Kenneth McAllister,\ud Sheila Nelson, Graham Owen, Phyllis Palmer, Jane Pamment, Robert Plowright\ud and Robert Spencer, all of whom shared their experience in interview and\ud on whose knowledge and advice the text has continually drawn. Their\ud erudition has challenged me and I should make clear that any mistakes are\ud mine and not theirs.\ud I should like also to express my thanks to the following persons:\ud teachers and students who participated in the case studies; Peter Fowler,\ud Inspector of Schools (Music) and Anthony Veal, Instrumental Co-ordinator,\ud Metropolitan Borough of Solihull; Richard Worth, Music Adviser and\ud Keith Watts, Head of Brass,Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell;\ud Marjolaine de Beus, Jean-Michel Damase, Pierre Thibaud and students of\ud the Paris Conservatoire; Richard Bassett, Chairman of the Music\ud Department, Paul Nossiter and pupils of the American School in London;\ud and others too numerous to mention who either in discussion or by\ud correspondence have given freely their advice. To all these people I am\ud indebted.\ud Last but not least, I should like to record my gratitude to\ud Professor Keith Swanwick who nurtured the study from conception to\ud submission. His analytical mind and sensitive criticism helped to shape\ud and fashion the conceptual framework but more than that his breadth of\ud vision proved a constant source of stimulation

Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Workshop of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group

This is the Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Workshop of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG). This was the first PPIG to be held physically since 2019, following the two online-only PPIGs in 2020 and 2021, both during the Covid pandemic. It was also the first PPIG conference to be designed specifically for hybrid attendance. Reflecting the theme, it was hosted by Music Computing Lab at the Open University in Milton Keynes