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A Web Platform to Foster and Assess Tonal Harmony Awareness

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Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2019)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1220))

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Abstract

This paper investigates the use of computer-based technologies applied to early learning of tonal music harmony, a topic often considered too abstract and difficult for young students or amateurs. A web-based platform is described, aimed at fostering and assessing harmonic awareness in children by leveraging on chord perception, gestural interaction and gamification techniques. The application guides young learners through 3 experiences towards the discovery of important features of tonal harmony, where they can listen to melodies or chunks of well-known music pieces and associate chords to them. Users’ actions during the experiences are recorded and analyzed. An early experimentation with 45 school teachers was conducted with the goal of assessing the usability of the application, the level of acceptance by teachers, and prototypical behaviors during the experiences. The results provide guidelines on how to evaluate user performances, as well as useful indications for further development of the platform.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://apps.apple.com/us/app/garageband/id408709785.

  2. 2.

    https://songify.en.uptodown.com.

  3. 3.

    https://www.moogmusic.com/products/animoog.

  4. 4.

    https://www.spotify.com.

  5. 5.

    https://www.pandora.com.

  6. 6.

    http://www.iheartradio.ca.

  7. 7.

    https://www.joytunes.com.

  8. 8.

    https://yousician.com.

  9. 9.

    https://www.uberchord.com.

  10. 10.

    https://www.pgmusic.com.

  11. 11.

    https://chordify.net.

  12. 12.

    https://www.smartmusic.com.

  13. 13.

    https://tonara.com.

  14. 14.

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/mysong-automatic-accompaniment-vocal-melodies.

  15. 15.

    Dynamic time warping is an algorithm for measuring similarity between two temporal sequences [28].

  16. 16.

    https://mdecks.com/mapharmony.phtml.

  17. 17.

    http://didacta18.lim.di.unimi.it/eng/.

  18. 18.

    http://fieradidacta.indire.it/, the most important Italian fair focusing on education, vocational training and relation among school and work.

  19. 19.

    http://didacta18.lim.di.unimi.it/results/index.html.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. LIM – Laboratorio di Informatica Musicale, Dipartimento di Informatica “Giovanni Degli Antoni”, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Giovanni Celoria 18, Milan, Italy

    Federico Avanzini, Adriano Baratè & Luca A. Ludovico

  2. Conservatorio di Musica “Luca Marenzio”, Piazza Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli 1, Brescia, Italy

    Marcella Mandanici

Authors
  1. Federico Avanzini
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  2. Adriano Baratè
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  3. Luca A. Ludovico
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  4. Marcella Mandanici
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luca A. Ludovico .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    H. Chad Lane

  2. Anderson Academic Commons, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Susan Zvacek

  3. School of Engineering, University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, UK

    James Uhomoibhi

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Avanzini, F., Baratè, A., Ludovico, L.A., Mandanici, M. (2020). A Web Platform to Foster and Assess Tonal Harmony Awareness. In: Lane, H.C., Zvacek, S., Uhomoibhi, J. (eds) Computer Supported Education. CSEDU 2019. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1220. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58459-7_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58459-7_19

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