Harmony and Technology Enhanced Learning

New technologies offer rich opportunities to support education in harmony. In this chapter we consider theoretical perspectives and underlying principles behind technologies for learning and teaching harmony. Such perspectives help in matching existing and future technologies to educational purposes, and to inspire the creative re-appropriation of technologies

The effects of computer-assisted keyboard technology and MIDI accompaniments on group piano students' performance accuracy and attitudes.

Recommendations from the results include using CAI such as the Guide Mode to help group piano students improve in pitch accuracy during the early stages of learning new repertoire. After students feel comfortable with the pitches, practicing with MIDI accompaniments but without the Guide Mode may assist in the development of rhythmic continuity. However, teachers should not assume that the technology is an automatic way of improving piano performance. More time to practice with the technology outside of the classroom setting may be needed to observe any longer term effects on students' performance.Perceptions of MIDI accompaniments and the Guide Mode's effectiveness in helping students improve performance accuracy were generally positive. In open-ended responses, a majority of the participants from the Guide Mode group expressed that practicing with the Guide Mode was the most helpful part of the practice sessions. Students also reported that they made greater improvement when they practiced hands separately. Some subjects also stated that the use of MIDI accompaniments helped keep their rhythm steady. Other subjects believed that the use of technology had no effect on their performance.This study investigated the effects of musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) accompaniment and computer-assisted instruction (CAI) technology on group piano students' performance accuracy and attitudes. Subjects ( N = 29) in this quasi-experimental design were non-keyboard music major college students in four intact third semester piano classes. Two of the classes were assigned to a group that practiced with the Guide Mode on Yamaha Clavinova keyboards and MIDI accompaniment, while the other two classes were assigned to a group that practiced without the Guide Mode but with MIDI accompaniment.The researcher compared the posttest scores to the pretest scores within subjects for significant differences in performance accuracy due to the treatment. Differences in pretest and posttest scores were also compared between the Guide Mode group and the MIDI-only group. Four outliers were identified as possibly skewing the data. When the outliers were removed, the group that practiced with the Guide Mode (n = 19) demonstrated significantly better improvement in total pitch errors in comparison to the control group (n = 10), p < .05. No significant difference in rhythmic errors emerged between groups. Within groups, participants made significant improvement in overall accuracy from pretests to posttests.Subjects' performances of two piano compositions were first recorded as pretests. Afterwards each class practiced the same two compositions with their respective treatment for two weeks in class. Subjects then recorded the two compositions as posttests. Three judges evaluated the pretest and posttest recordings for accuracy in pitch and rhythm. A Likert-type questionnaire investigated subjects' attitudes toward practicing with the Guide Mode and MIDI accompaniment

RoboJam: A Musical Mixture Density Network for Collaborative Touchscreen Interaction

RoboJam is a machine-learning system for generating music that assists users of a touchscreen music app by performing responses to their short improvisations. This system uses a recurrent artificial neural network to generate sequences of touchscreen interactions and absolute timings, rather than high-level musical notes. To accomplish this, RoboJam's network uses a mixture density layer to predict appropriate touch interaction locations in space and time. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of RoboJam's network and how it has been integrated into a touchscreen music app. A preliminary evaluation analyses the system in terms of training, musical generation and user interaction

Interactive Software for Guitar Learning

In this paper we present software designed to help address problems encountered by beginning guItarists, using interactive software to find effective solutions to enhance the learning process. Software can be utilised to improve a player's ability tdhear mistakes in theIr performance, as well as to create a fun and entertaining learning environment 'to motivate the player to practice. A software prototype ~~s been developed, which served as a basIs for usabllzty testmg, to highlight the usefulness of vari~us methods of feedback and provide a way forward in developing valuable software for guitar tuition

A review of the evidence on the use of ICT in the Early Years Foundation Stage

This report reviewed existing evidence on the potential of technology to support the development of educational policy and practice in the context of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Reference is made to the use of ICT by young children from aged birth to five years and its potential impacts, positive and negative on their cognitive, social, emotional educational, visual and physical development

Playing in a virtual bedroom: youth leisure in the Facebook generation

The rapidly changing uses of online social networking sites (SNS) have led to moral panics, most notably framed in terms of 'stranger danger'. However, the risks to young people from access to un-mediated content available via SNS, and most particularly to user-generated content is not generally seen as being dangerous. However, adults would not generally consider many of the activities engaged in via SNS as safe were they conducted in the real world. This paper explores the ways in which young people use SNS to mediate complex issues of social identity in a virtual environment

Sydney Conservatorium of Music handbook

1998 handbook for the Sydney Conservatorium of Musi