School of Science and Technology 科技學院
Computing Programmes 電腦學系
| Programme | Bachelor of Science with Honours in Computing |
| Supervisor | Dr. Vanessa Ng |
| Areas | Mobile Learning of Musical Instruments |
| Year of Completion | 2015 |
It is difficult for flute beginners to learn and practice flutes by themselves without any guidance from the instructors. Flute beginners often suffer from rhythmic errors as they may play a note longer or shorter than its correct duration. Sometimes, the rhythms written in the music sheets are too complicated for them to comprehend. Most flute beginners also do not know how to build a solid foundation in playing flutes. They may lose their interests when they keep performing unsatisfactorily. This project is to develop a mobile e-learning application for flute learners to train their rhythmic skills and help them learn flute fundamentals so that they can play a new song in a better way with fewer mistakes.
This application focuses on helping users to learn rhythmic skills and sight reading. The rhythms that the learners have played will be recorded, recognized and analyzed. Comments and improvement tips will be provided to the learners according to the weaknesses found. Relevant results of sight reading exercises will be used to find out the errors that the individual learner have made so as to improve his/her performance. Apart from rhythm skill and sight-reading skills, the application also provides some flute fundamentals e-learning materials, tuner, metronome and flute fingering chart for learning flutes.
The application is developed for Android devices with touch screen, microphone and speaker. The techniques used in the platform include Android (Java), HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQLite. Score Reader with Practicing Helper, Sight Reading Training System, Metronome, Tuner, and Flute Fingering Chart are developed by using Java, which provides faster computation to process Audio data. Flute Fundamentals e-learning System is developed by HTML, CSS and JavaScript which is easier to update content and can present multimedia of e-learning materials in a better way. Flute Fundamentals e-learning System is integrated to the application by Android WebView. The system architecture is shown below:
Score Reader with Practicing Helper allows users to practise playing a music sheet by providing the corresponding MusicXML file. It aims to help users familiarize with the music and figure out any errors made when playing the song. Users should provide MusicXML to the system in order to render the music scores, generate score playback, and analyze the recording for users' performance.
The practicing helper validates the correctness of the song played by users through recording. The performance of learners is recorded by Audio Recorder and analyzed by Voice to Note Converter. Information is then processed by Note Track Analyzer and Performance Reviewer. The results are then presented to the users in a music sheet which have the original notes shown on the upper row while the notes recognized are shown on the lower row. It enables users to compare notes that they played easily so that rhythmic errors and pitch errors can be identified.
Learners can build a solid flute foundation through reading articles and following instructions of video tutorials provided in which E-learning materials will cover the followings:
The Flute Fundamentals e-Learning System is built with web pages. HTML, CSS, JS are good to present articles and multimedia. It is also easy to update contents of HTML so web based presentation is adopted.
The tuner will produce the sound of the selected pitch. Tuning is done aurally by playing the pitch on flute and adjusting the float so that it matches the one produced by the tuner. The theory of this mode of tuning uses interference beats to measure the accuracy of tuning. If the two pitches are closer to the harmonic, beating will occur at lower frequency. Therefore, flute player should adjust the flute until the beating is not audible.
Flute learners often forget the fingering of some keys of flute, especially for those high pitch notes. Flute Fingering Chart enables user to look up the fingering. Flute Fingering Chart shows the fingering with the corresponding note in staff. Users swipe up and down to change the note and obtain the corresponding fingering.
Questionnaires were given to users who have tried the application to evaluate the effectiveness of the application. The evaluation is based on the following areas:
1. Effectiveness of learning a piece of score with the application. This evaluates if the Score Reader with Practicing Helper can select the difficult part out and help them to get past the obstacle. Also, the accuracy of comments and advice given to users should also be evaluated.
2. Improvement in sight reading after using the application. This evaluates if the Sight Reading Helper can help can train their sight reading skills.
3. Effectiveness of the flute fundamentals materials. This evaluates the completeness and effectiveness of the training materials provided.
4. User acceptance of the user interface. This evaluates the ease of use of the application.
There are total 12 questionnaires collected and 10 of them are flute learners. Their age is in the range of 18-25.
The purpose of developing a new mobile application called FluteKit is to help flute learners learn flute efficiently. Through practicing and learning from e-learning materials, they can have a solid foundation which helps them reading music score and build up self-learning ability. FluteKit provides an all-in-one platform which provides practicing tools, self-learning materials and assistive tools which are suitable to be used in different situations.
As FluteKit is an Android application, users can install it to their smartphones and access them anytime and anywhere. It is a more comprehensive mobile music e-learning application when compared to existing applications on Google Play. Score reader with practicing helper help users practice a song. It can help users to figure out and correct errors made when playing the song. Performance of users is presented to users by rendering it on music score and giving comments. Sight reading training system train users' sight reading skills by practicing and help users figure out and correct errors made when playing the song. Flute fundamental e-learning system help users build up fundamental skills. It provides articles and video tutorials. Assistive tools including tuner and metronome help users to play songs more accurately in rhythm and pitch.
Copyright Cheng Cheuk Hei and Vanessa Ng 2015
