CSME 2024 Abstracts


Area 1 - Computer Supported Music Education

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 7
Title:

Fostering Piano Keyboard Proficiency Through Interactive Minigames on a MIDI Controller

Authors:

Andrea Tarondo, Susanna Brambilla and Luca A. Ludovico

Abstract: This article presents a digital platform comprising eleven minigames aimed at deepening the use of a musical keyboard by young learners. Specifically, the platform requires the use of a MIDI controller, and some games aim to familiarize users with typical controls found on digital pianos, such as wheels and sliders. The platform is freely available from an online repository. An initial experimentation involving nine users was conducted, where two questionnaires were administered: the first before the gaming activity for user profiling purposes, and the second after the gaming activity to evaluate the experience. The tests carried out reveal positive results concerning satisfaction, engagement, and skill improvement, simultaneously indicating a low level of tension and annoyance.
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Paper Nr: 9
Title:

Troubadour: Inverse Dictation Games for Ear Training

Authors:

Klara Žnideršič, Matija Podbreznik, Žiga Klun, Peter Šavli, Matija Marolt and Matevž Pesek

Abstract: This study evaluates the integration of inverse melodic and rhythmic dictation exercises into the gamified e-learning Troubadour platform. The platform offers gamified and personalised applications for different types of ear and music theory training. The platform was developed as a complementary tool to support music theory classes with automated ear-training exercises with automatic generation and evaluation. To further extend its usability, we present two ear-training apps, which invert the standard ear-training techniques of listening and writing down the solution. The inverse melodic and rhythmic dictation exercises now offer voice or instrument user input as a user response to the written melodic or rhythmic prompt. In this paper, we gathered user feedback using UEQ and Meega+ questionnaires, which showed positive results, particularly in terms of novelty, perspicuity, and efficiency. Notably, gamification elements such as achievement badges and leaderboards have been integrated in line with other exercises on the platform and contributed to a dynamic and engaging learning experience. These results highlight the potential of inversion games in music education and emphasise the importance of gamified platforms in enhancing the overall learning experience.
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Paper Nr: 10
Title:

A Quantitative Survey of Digital Competencies of Music Teachers in the European Union

Authors:

Cárthach Ó. Nuanáin, Esther V. Lozano, Kadri Steinbach, Yvan Corbat, Themuri Sulamanidze, Raquel López and Maria O’Connor

Abstract: In this paper we offer a quantitative survey of the digital skills of music teachers practising in the European Union. As part of the Erasmus+ Digital Skills for Music Teachers (DISK) project, one of the work packages is to see how well they are integrated into the everyday teaching of music teachers of all specialisations, from junior level to conservatoire. To examine this we conducted an online survey that first quizzed teachers on their experiences through a combination of quantitative Likert scale ratings and open-ended feedback. We present the results and initial analysis of 221 teachers’ responses and conclude with a discussion of the next steps based on this data.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 6
Title:

Techville’s Chronicles: A Music Pedagogy Project to Foster Children’s AI Literacy Through Co-Creativity and Multimedia Storytelling

Authors:

Emilia Parada-Cabaleiro

Abstract: The rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our daily lives has raised an always increasing attention for the need of developing AI literacy. In the realm of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), successful initiatives aiming to develop children’s AI literacy can be found in the literature. However, despite STEAM-based methods offer a great potential for music education too, the integration of the (A)rts in STEM education is mostly biased—the arts are used as a tool to support STEM subjects but not the other way around. With this background, the question how AI literacy might be promoted in the music classroom through audiovisual co-creativity and digital storytelling is explored in a music-pedagogy workshop with nine children (7 male, 2 female) aged 10 to 12. This work is a proof of concept that illustrates how generative tools might be used to support child-AI co-creative interactions and by this acquiring not only digital skills and knowledge but musical ones, too; thus, fostering an integrative development of artistic and technical competences.
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Area 2 - Information Technologies Supporting Learning

Nr: 215
Title:

The Impact of UX/UI on Piano-Assisted Learning in Extended Reality

Authors:

Marina Maciá and David Rizo

Abstract: Nowadays, we have the ease of access to music teaching through multiple formats, from traditional classes to novel Extended Reality (XR) applications [1]. Multiple factors have impact on the final performance in the teaching effectiveness of all computer supported piano teaching, from the accuracy of the different technologies that can be used for detecting the pressed keys, hands posture [10], pedaling [9], or fingering among others, based on audio recognition [7], artificial vision [8]. A usually underestimated dimension is that of the user interface design (UI). To the best of our knowledge, there is no study that investigates in depth the influence of UI on music learning tools, just some aspects such as the evaluation of the feedback [5], and specifically, how the intrinsically error prone recognition algorithms may confuse the piano student. Our emerging project researches the influence of the design of the user interface in the context of music education assisted in Extended Reality (XR) environments. To evaluate the effectiveness and satisfaction of the piano learning experience from a musical perspective [6], previous approaches will be extended [1] by adapting specific metrics for gamification of educational content [11], and other music tasks adapted to evaluation purposes [4]. In addition, criteria from the field of UX/UI design, with a particular focus on XR[2]. All of this will be accomplished by applying the principles of semiotics in the design [3]. REFERENCES [1] Banquiero, M., Valdeolivas, G., Trincado, S., García, N., and Juan, M.-C. Passthrough mixed reality with Oculus Quest 2: A case study on learning piano. IEEE MultiMedia 30, 2 (April 2023) [2] Becker, A., and Freitas, C. M. D. S. Evaluation of XR applications: A tertiary review. ACM Comput. Surv. (nov 2023). [3] Islam, M. N., and Bouwman, H. Towards user–intuitive web interface sign design and evaluation: A semiotic framework. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 86 (2016). [4] Jeong, D., Kwon, T., Kim, Y., and Nam, J. Graph neural network for music score data and modeling expressive piano performance. In Proceedings of the 36th ICML (Jun 2019). [5] Jiang, Y. Expert and novice evaluations of piano performances: Criteria for computer-aided feedback. (ISMIR) 2023 Hybrid Conference (2023). [6] Kaleli, Y. The effect of computer-assisted instruction on piano education: An experimental study with pre-service music teachers. International Journal of Technology in Education and Science 4 (Jun 2020) [7] Kong, Q., Li, B., Song, X., Wan, Y., and Wang, Y. High-resolution piano transcription with pedals by regressing onset and offset times. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing (2021). [8] Lee, J., Doosti, B., Gu, Y., Cartledge, D., Crandall, D., and Raphael, C. Observing pianist accuracy and form with computer vision. In 2019 IEEE WACV (2019). [9] Liang, B., Fazekas, G., Mcpherson, A., and Sandler, M. B. Piano pedaller: a measurement system for classification and visualisation of piano pedalling techniques. In NIME (2017). [10] Liu, R., Wu, E., Liao, C.-C., Nishioka, H., Furuya, S., and Koike, H. Pianohandsync: An alignment-based hand pose discrepancy visualization system for piano learning. 2023 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (New York, 2023) [11] Micheloni, E., Tramarin, M., Rodà, A., and Chiaravalli, F. Playing to play: a piano-based user interface for music education video-games. Multimedia Tools Appl (may 2019).