Skip to main content

The Objective Ear: Assessing the Progress of a Music Task

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Educational Technology ((LNET))

Abstract

Music educators assess the progress made by their students between lessons. This assessment process is error prone, relying on skills and memory. An objective ear is a tool that takes as input a pair of performances of a piece of music and returns an accurate and reliable assessment of the progress between the performances. The tool evaluates performances using domain knowledge to generate a vector of metrics. The vectors for a pair of performances are subtracted from each other and the differences are used as input to a machine-learning classifier which maps the differences to an assessment. The implementation demonstrates that an objective ear tool is a feasible and practical solution to the problem of assessment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   199.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   199.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Chordia, Parag, Avinash Sastry and Sertan Senturk. “Predictive Tabla Modelling Using Variablelength Markov and Hidden Markov Models.” Journal of New Music Research, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 105–118, 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Darrow, Alice-Ann. “Examining the validity of self-report: middle-level singers’ ability to predict and assess their sight-singing skills.” International Journal of Music Education, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 21–29, 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Dixon, Simon. “Automatic Extraction of Tempo and Beat from Expressive Performances.” Journal of New Music Research, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 39–58, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Eibe, Frank, Mark A. Hall, and Ian H. Witten. The WEKA Workbench. Online Appendix for “Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques”, Morgan Kaufmann, Fourth Edition, 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Gingras, Bruno and Stephen McAdams. “Improved Score-performance Matching Using Both Structure and Temporal Information from MIDI Recordings.” Journal of New Music Research, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 43–57, 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Groulx, Timothy. “The Influence of Tonal and Atonal Contexts on Error Detection Accuracy.” Journal of Research in Music Education, vol. 61, no. 2, pp. 233–243, 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Grout, Donald J. A History of Western Music. 6th ed. W. W. Norton & Company Inc., New York, NY. 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Guerin, Robert. MIDI Power!. 2nd ed. Cengage Learning. Boston, MA. 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Hamanaka, Masatoshi, Keiji Hirata, and Satoshi Tojo. “Implementing ‘A Generative Theory of Tonal Music’.” Journal of New Music Research, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 249–277, 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Pearce, Marcus and Geraint Wiggins. “Improved Methods for Statistical Modelling of Monophonic Music.” Journal of New Music Research, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 367–385, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Raphael, Christopher and Joshua Stoddard. “Functional Harmonic Analysis Using Probabilistic Models.” Computer Music Journal, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 45–52, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Siemens, George. “Learning Analytics: The Emergence of a Discipline.” American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 57, no. 10, pp. 1380–1400, 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Stambaugh, Laura. “Differences in Error Detection Skills by Band and Choral Preservice Teachers.” Journal of Music Teacher Education, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 25–36, 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Widmer, Gerhard. “Machine Discoveries: A Few Simple, Robust Local Expression Principles.” Journal of New Music Research, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 37–50, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joel Burrows .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Burrows, J., Kumar, V. (2018). The Objective Ear: Assessing the Progress of a Music Task. In: Chang, M., et al. Challenges and Solutions in Smart Learning. Lecture Notes in Educational Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8743-1_15

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8743-1_15

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-8742-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-8743-1

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics