Technology enhanced learning of performance

Abstract

Technology pervades musical practice. It has driven the development of the instruments musicians play. It has ushered in an explosion of online music making, sharing, and collaboration (see Lisboa et al., this part, for a discussion of innovations in distance learning and performance). It dictates the ways musicians make their living, how they reach their audiences, and how their performances are consumed. It has fostered entire genres of musical expression and new multimodal experiences. However, despite this technological revolution, the way in which musicians learn to perform continues largely the same as it did centuries ago. Students still turn to expert teachers in one-to-one lessons for personalized assessment and guidance in a masterapprentice model that has proved highly resilient to change, interspersed with countless hours spent alone in practice (Creech & Gaunt, 2012; Gaunt, 2017). Over the decades, some digital tools have slowly made their way into common use in the practice room and teaching studio—metronomes, tuners, audio and video recording devices, digital scores—although the pace of innovation has not necessarily been characteristic of the technological explosion that has been seen in other areas of musical practice. This may be about to change. This chapter provides a window into the recent work that musicians, scientists, designers, and engineers are doing to build the next generation of technologies for music learning. While it does not attempt to summarize the full array of technologies available or in development (this would go well beyond the scope of one chapter and would quickly become outdated), it highlights the tools and techniques, from state-of-the-art measurement sensors to the latest in artificial intelligence, that are being brought to bear on the challenges of music learning and what they mean for musicians. Finally, it gives an optimistic glimpse at what musicians might expect to see in the coming decades, and how they can prepare themselves and their students to be technologically literate and adventurous in pushing the boundaries of their practice.