A Web Platform to Foster and Assess Tonal Harmony Awareness

This paper investigates the use of computer-based technologies applied to early learning of tonal music harmony, a topic often considered too abstract and difficult for young students or amateurs. A web-based platform is described, aimed at fostering and assessing harmonic awareness in children by leveraging on chord perception, gestural interaction and gamification techniques. The application guides young learners through 3 experiences towards the discovery of important features of tonal harmony, where they can listen to melodies or chunks of well-known music pieces and associate chords to them. Users' actions during the experiences are recorded and analyzed. An early experimentation with 45 school teachers was conducted with the goal of assessing the usability of the application, the level of acceptance by teachers, and prototypical behaviors during the experiences. The results provide guidelines on how to evaluate user performances, as well as useful indications for further development of the platform.