ScaleDial: A Novel Tangible Device for Teaching Musical Scales & Triads

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/ReportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

The teaching of harmonic foundations in music is a common learning objective in many education systems. However, music theory is often considered as a non-interactive subject matter that requires huge efforts to understand. With this work, we contribute a novel tangible device, called ScaleDial, that makes use of the relations between geometry and music theory to provide interactive, graspable and playful learning experiences. Therefore, we introduce an innovative tangible cylinder and demonstrate how harmonic relationships can be explored through a physical set of digital manipulatives, that can be arranged and stacked on top of an interactive chromatic circle. Based on the tangible interaction and further rich visual and auditory output capabilities, ScaleDial enables a better understanding of scales, pitch constellations, triads, as well as intervals. Further, we describe the technical realization of our advanced prototype and show how we fabricate the magnetic, capacitive and mechanical sensing.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationExtended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Place of PublicationNew York
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM), New York
Pages1–4
ISBN (print)978-1-4503-5971-9
Publication statusPublished - 2019
Peer-reviewedYes

Conference

TitleCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2019
Abbreviated titleCHI 2019
Conference number
Duration4 - 9 May 2019
Location
CityGlasgow
CountryUnited Kingdom

External IDs

Scopus 85067301335
ORCID /0000-0003-1467-7031/work/142253347
ORCID /0000-0002-2176-876X/work/151435396

Keywords

Keywords

  • tangible, music education, triads, physical computing, digital manipulatives, scales, intervals, TUI, keys