BAND: A mobile-based collaboration system for composing and playing music

摘要

In recent years collaborative platforms offering support for learning and working have received considerable attention. One particular aspect often targeted by collaborative systems is teaching and learning. Both leaning and E-learning platforms are becoming widespread. Some collaborative systems have been developed for music teaching and learning. In this paper we describe BAND, a support system for composing and playing music through collaboration. The system has been developed for Android-based hardware, that is every participant uses an Android device (tablet or similar) to interact with other participants. The system can be used in two main scenarios: one targeted to teach music composition and another one targeted to the execution of music. In both scenarios there is a coordinator of the session (the teacher for music composition and the conductor for music execution) and several participants. The coordinator and the participant collaborate exploiting the facilities that BAND offers. In the music composition scenario BAND allows the development of a distributed composition under the guidance of the teacher, while in the music execution scenario BAND allows musician to rehearse under the guidance of the conductor. We have implemented BAND by using the Android platform and thus can be deployed on all Android devices, although some of the features, like score viewing, require a large enough display. We performed a preliminary evaluation with a sample of musicians by gathering positive feedback about the easiness of the tool when using and interacting with it, as well as interesting insights about possible improvements.