Guitar Machine I

Guitar Machine, a fretting augmentation device, was used with novice users in the context of learning. The tested system offloads fretting actions on the guitar.

The use of the fretting augmentation was found to make three major impacts on the course of learning: 1) decomposing a task and helping focus on one part of the task, 2) demonstrating how a successfully accomplished musical piece sounds, and 3) making the task more engaging and motivating experiments. Much like sidewheels for a bicycle, automating parts of fretting eased the users into focusing on more musical aspects of the given task. A majority of the users immediately started focusing on rhythm when they engaged with the robotic device, where only three out of eighteen participants were able to identify rhythm as needed to be practiced before engaging with the fretting augmentation. Additionally, being enabled by the robot, the users showed a strong tendency to engage in unguided explorations such as trying a new strumming technique or playing songs that were not part of the given task.

S. Leigh, and P. Maes. Guitar Machine: Robotic Fretting Augmentation for Hybrid Human-Machine Guitar Play, NIME 2018.