Computer Assissted Learning

As a pianist since a young age, I still fall into the trap of attempting to play piano pieces still in the learning stage at a speed that I am not yet capable of reaching without making numerous mistakes. Doing this too often is detrimental to the learning process as it causes bad habits and frustration. Often when we learn a piece of music we are desperate to play it up to speed as soon as possible. This is potentially a very long term goal (depending on the technical difficulty of the piece) and without breaking it down into small achievements, it can be quite daunting for the impatient player. The student’s most common response when faced with a new piece to learn is to try very early on to play it too fast, as being able to play music at full speed with both hands is, in the eyes of the student, the only measure of success. Attempting to render the piece at a performance level too early in the learning process will likely result in students practicing in mistakes which can take weeks to rectify, greatly extending the learning period of the piece as well as slowing down their overall progress. Of course, the student will also be unable to reach their only goal so early and each attempt will instill a feeling of failure. The students that break a piece down into smaller, realistically attainable goals by employing good practicing strategies will be motivated by their success, whereas the rest will be constantly demotivated by their failure to achieve the almost impossible (Davidson and Sloboda 1996, p.174). I believe the reason that most piano students are guilty of practicing in the impatient way lies in the fact that many students lack the discipline and objectiveness to construct appropriate smaller scale goals themselves. Identifying the main difficulties of a piece and playing each of these sections perfectly at a tempo milestone, in just the left hand is a lot more attainable and beneficial.

Teachers are easily capable of doing this on the students behalf however, only a small fraction of the time spent learning the piano is with a teacher. Repeating small sections over and over in hand at a very slow tempo isn’t particularly ‘fun’ It is difficult to feel your progress in the same way it is impossible the notice the growth of a tree if one is constantly observing it. Even though this kind of practice will ultimately mean a student will learn the music quicker, many students lack the faith and the discipline to see it through. It has been suggested that parental support during the early years of a child’s study of their chosen instrument is key to helping them develop the will and the confidence to overcome the many challenges learning an instrument can pose (Davidson and Sloboda 1996, p.184) and children with career oriented parents, no matter how delightful the teacher, maybe in need of an extra source of drive. This report details my attempt at constructing small scale goals specifically for the user and objectively measure and reward progress increasing the potential of students’ perception of success (and therefore eagerness to progress further) during daily practice.

Davidson and Sloboda (1996, p.176) note that when opportunities for musical training are easily made available to a population, a large fraction of that population become highly accomplished musicians. Naturally, a computer program by itself, no matter how highly accessible, is unlikely to create a generation of highly accomplished musicians, but it could be argued that, as video games are so widely available, including piano education games on the video game store shelves may pique enough interest in customers encouraging them to learn the piano with the aid of the video game and a teacher.

Lessons with piano teachers are very important. They provide direction and inspiration to students. But they are limited in that, for practical and financial reasons, they usually spend an hour a week with a pupil. The vast majority of a students progress, therefore, must come from their time spent alone at the piano. Indeed, high achieving musical students typically spend twice as much time practicing methodically (playing too fast, repeating mistakes are examples of non-methodical practice) than others (Davidson and Sloboda 1996, p.183). Motivating to increase time spent practicing by creating attainable goals is one tool however, there are many more to be found in video games.

With the necessary technology becoming more widely available (computers, MIDI keyboards), computer assisted practice is set to change the way children learn the instrument. The well known video game "Rock Band" has introduced game modes that actually benifit a beginner piano student and hopefully, the idea of learning through games will attract a broader to learn new and useful skills.