1. EDMEDIA 2008 An Interactive Tool for Training and Testing Musical Auditory Skills Christian Gütl (Presenter) Institute for Information Systems and Computer Media (IICM) Graz University of Technology, Austria Richard Parncutt Department of Musicology, Graz University, Austria

2. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 2 Agenda Background & Motivation Requirements Prototype Lessons Learned Future Work

3. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 3 Background & Motivation 1 Gütl WG: Technology-Enhanced Learning Skill & Competence-based Learning –Skill detection/assignment (Nussbaumer et al., 2007) Content-based: knowledge and action component Social metadata creation (Web 2.0 technologies) User behavior (attention metadata) –E-assessment (Gütl, 2007) Automatic knowledge & skill assessment and feedback provision Content-based: statistical & NLP Peer assessment –Skill-based adaptive e-learning (Nussbaumer et al., 2007b) Learning content Learning path Assessment

4. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 4 Background & Motivation 2 Parncutt WG: Systematic Musicology Musicians’ Skills (Parncutt et al., 2002) –refined auditory and cognitive skills to listen and understand music –motor skills to interact with their instruments (involving high-speed coordination and timing precision) –plan and structure their practice sessions –specific skills of improvisation, memory, intonation and expression –social skills to interact with other ensemble musicians –detailed knowledge of their specific instrument.

5. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 5 Background & Motivation 3 Parncutt WG: Systematic Musicology (ff) OMAS Project (Origins of Musical Aural Skills) –focuses on “when, how, and why musically talented children spontaneously recognize musical pitch structures, with the aim of improving (aural) music education.” (Parncutt et al., 2006) –1st Stage Questionnaire addressing musical pitch structures intervals, melodic structures, harmony, & tonality 100 respondents was sufficiently complete “Aural skills gain from early, frequent, long-term, guided, social, enjoyable, meaningful musical engagement. No evidence was found for a genetic basis.” –2nd Stage  Testing Musical Auditory Skills

6. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 6 Background & Motivation 4 Initial Objective –Tool to assess musical pitch skills recognition of tone intervals & chords (2, 3 tones) … during Planning Stage –Complement with interactive & personalized training features to practice and improve skills  interactivity increase learning (Mayo, 2007) –Multiple assessment experiences –Providing feedback to students and teachers  part of learning process (Bransford et al. 2000) –Collect real-life data  gaining insights into the development of skills  Flexible Tools applicable in various training and evaluation settings

7. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 7 Requirements 1 General Requirements –Platform & environment independency easy to use, without installation –Flexibility central configurable for diverse settings –Adaptivity training & testing exercises according to skills –Continues and immediate feedback students: formative and summative feedback teachers: summative feedback –Privacy and security keep user data secure, hide specific date from teacher, … –Extensibility easy to change or add functionality

8. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 8 Requirements 2 Domain-Specific Requirements –Recognition of pitch structure … chromatic scale, dyads & triads, harm. & melod. –Testing dyads (2 tones) all 12 chromatic intervals –Testing triads (3 tones) all 20 Tn-sets after Rahn 1979 –Recognition of familiar timbre easier sound characteristic of diverse instruments –Musically central range harmonic exercises: C3 (131 Hz) – C5 (523 Hz) melodic exercises: C4 (261 Hz) – C6 (1047 Hz) –Two training levels, adjusted to developed skills a) exercises grouped by level of difficulty b) exercises selected by presumed current skills

9. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 9 Related Work Free & commercial tools for computer-based music education (children & adult) –Development of knowledge & skills Note reading, music theory, thematic analyses, … –Focus on musical performance Practice keyboard skills, jazz improvisation, … Tool for development of tonal memory skills –Intervals, chords, pitch patterns, …. –Great number of software (local PC or Web-based) (EarTraining, ECS Media, IAST, PLANTINE, …) –Divers approaches and didactical objectives Interactive training, multimedia tutoring, assessment, …  M.A.T.T. Tool (Musical Auditory Skill Training & Test)

10. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 10 Which Technology ? Evaluated two Alternatives –Based on requirements  usage of midi sounds –Flash vs. Java Applet Flash Player + good graphical support / piano keyboard useable + Flash player for most platforms available -BUT midi interface not controllable Java Applet + midi interface available -More effort for sufficient graphical design -Java runtime environment must be installed

11. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 11 M.A.T.T. Architectural Overview

12. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 12 Registration Screen

13. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 13 Login Screen

14. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 14 Instruction

15. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 15 Assessment Screen (2 tones)

16. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 16 Assessment Screen (3 tones)

17. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 17 Test Result Screen

18. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 18 Trainings Mode (guided)

19. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 19 Trainings Mode (free style)

20. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 20 Lessons Learned … from design & development point of view Technology –Flash player: missing midi control interface –Java Runtime Environment Supports control of midi sounds Graphical presentation built from scratch –piano keyboard –presentation of notes No midi sound support for Apple computers out of the box  workaround by “MMJ component” Beginning and end of sound events: cracking sound  workaround by “fade in/out” Overall Architecture –Web-based client-server architecture supports simple usage and central configuration

21. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 21 Future Work Real-life Sample Applications –OMAS Project –Learning settings in school & universtiy –Web-tool for self-directed training & testing Studies –Usability studies –User survey in real-life operation –Skill development over time –Levels of difficulties for exercises Release as open source

22. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 22 References Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., & Cocking; R.R. (Eds.) (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Expanded Edition. Washington DC: National Academies Press. Gütl, C. (2008). Moving towards a Fully-Automatic Knowledge Assessment Tool. iJET International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, Vol 3, No 1 (2008), and http://online-journals.org/i-jet/article/view/172/240 EarTraining. Free online ear training tool. www.iwasdoingallright.com, last retrieved Dec. 15th, 2007 from http://www.iwasdoingallright.com/tools/v2_22/ear_training.aspx ECS Media. ECS Music Education Software. ECS Media, last retrieved Dec. 15th, 2007 from http://www.ecsmedia.com/products/prodmusic.shtml IAST. Interactive Applet Skill Tests. Last retrieved Dec. 15th, 2007 from http://67.117.214.227/megill/SkillTests/ Mayo, M. J. (2007). Games for science and engineering education. Communications of the ACM, Volume 50, Number 7 (2007), pp. 30-35. Nussbaumer, A., Gütl, C., and Albert, D. (2007). Supporting Technology-enhanced Learning through Semi-automatic Detection and Management of Skill and Competence Structures. ICL, Vilalch, Austria. Nussbaumer, A., Gütl, C., and Albert, D. (2007b). Towards a Web Service for Competence-based Learning and Testing. In Proceeding in ED-MEDIA 2007, Vancouver, Canada. Parncutt, R., & McPherson, G. E. (Eds., 2002). The science and psychology of music performance: Creative strategies for teaching and learning. New York: Oxford University Press. Parncutt, R., McPherson, G., Painsi, M., & Zimmer, F. (2006). Early acquisition of musical aural skills. In: Proc. Of the 9th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (Bologna, Italy, 21-26 August) PALANTINE. Aural Training and Music Theory Software. PALATINE, Lancaster University, UK, last retrieved Dec. 15th, 2007 from http://www.palatine.ac.uk/directory/index.php/Music/soft/aur/

23. © 2008 - Christian Gütl 02.06.2015 23 Questions & Contact Information Thank you for your Attention! Questions are welcome! Further Information: Christian Gütl http://www.iicm.edu/guetl cguetl@iicm.edu