The Piano Tutor project developed an interactive, intelligent, multimedia tutor for beginning piano students. When we began working with Roger Dannenberg, one of the research projects that caught our attention was the quantified and demonstrated efficacy of using adaptive, automated tutoring for piano.

We are happy to post this so that it can inspire ideas for your music classroom.

Dannenberg, Sanchez, Joseph, Saul, Joseph, and Capell, "An Expert System for Teaching Piano to Novices," in 1990 International Computer Music Conference, International Computer Music Association (September 1990), pp. 20-23.

An early, short report on the Piano Tutor.

Dannenberg, "Combining Intelligence, Media and Interaction in the Piano Tutor," in Multimedia: Uses, Misuses and Usability of a Revolutionary User Interface, 1992 Symposium Proceedings, Metropolitan Chapter of the Human Factors Society, pp. 15-18, 1992.

The "multimedia" aspects of the Piano Tutor in this paper written for a symposium. The chapter in Multimedia Interface Design covers roughly the same ideas:

Dannenberg and Joseph. "Human-Computer Interaction in the Piano Tutor." In Blattner and Dannenberg, eds., Multimedia Interface Design, ACM Press, pp. 65-78, 1992. (Also published in Chinese, 1994.)

Dannenberg, Sanchez, Joseph, Capell, Joseph, Saul, “A Computer-Based Multi-Media Tutor for Beginning Piano Students,” Interface - Journal of New Music Research, 19(2-3), 1990, pp. 155-173.

ABSTRACT: A fairly early but detailed report on the Piano Tutor. Most of the article was implemented as described, so it is a good architectural description.

The Piano Tutor provides computer-based instruction to beginning piano students. Intended as a supplement to traditional instruction, the Piano Tutor helps students by correcting mistakes before they become ingrained through practice and by teaching new material as soon as the student is ready. The Piano Tutor combines an expert system with state-of-the-art music recognition software and multimedia output devices to provide a stimulating learning environment that tailors instruction to the student's needs.

Dannenberg, Sanchez, Joseph, Joseph, Saul, and Capell, "Results from the Piano Tutor Project," in Proceedings of the Fourth Biennial Arts and Technology Symposium, Connecticut College, (March 1993), pp. 143-150.

Written after the project was completed, it is a short paper about what learnings and includes the results from the pilot study.

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