Recent technological developments are having a significant impact on musical instruments and singing voice
learning. A proof is the number of successful software applications that are being used by aspiring musicians
in their regular practice. These practicing apps offer many useful functionalities to support learning, including
performance assessment technologies that analyze the sound produced by the student while playing, identifying
performance errors and giving useful feedback. However, ...
Recent technological developments are having a significant impact on musical instruments and singing voice
learning. A proof is the number of successful software applications that are being used by aspiring musicians
in their regular practice. These practicing apps offer many useful functionalities to support learning, including
performance assessment technologies that analyze the sound produced by the student while playing, identifying
performance errors and giving useful feedback. However, despite the advancements in these sound analysis
technologies, they are still not reliable and effective enough to support the strict requirements of a professional
music education context. In this article we first introduce the topic and context, reviewing some of the work
done in the practice of music assessment, then going over the current state of the art in performance assessment
technologies, and presenting, as a proof of concept, a complete assessment system that we have developed for
supporting guitar exercises. We conclude by identifying the challenges that should be addressed in order to
further advance these assessment technologies and their useful integration into professional learning contexts.
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