Computer-aided Timing Training System for Musicians

Traditionally, musicians make use of a metronome for timing training. A typical metronome, whether hardware or software emulation, will provide the musician with a regular, metrical click to use as a temporal guide. The musician will synchronise his or her actions to the metronome click, thereby producing music that is in time. With regular usage, a musician’s sense of time will gradually improve. To investigate potential benefits offered by computer-assisted instruction, an Alternate Timing Training System was designed and a prototype software implementation developed. The system employed alternative training methods and exercises beyond those offered by a standard metronome. An experiment was conducted with a sample of musicians that attempted to measure and compare improvements in timing accuracy using a standard metronome and the Alternate Timing Training System. The software was also made available for public download and evaluated by a number of musicians who subsequently completed an online survey. A number of limitations were identified in the experiment, including too short a training period, too small a sample size and subjects that already had a highly developed sense of time. Whilst the results of the experiment were inconclusive, analysis of survey results indicated a significant preference for the Alternate Timing Training System over a standard metronome as an effective means of timing training