NIME 2014 (New Interfaces for Musical Expression)

Andante: Walking Figures on the Piano Keyboard to Visualize Musical Motion
Xiao Xiao, Basheer Tome, Hiroshi Ishii
MIT Media Lab

Short Paper

We present Andante, a representation of music as animated characters walking along the piano keyboard that appear to play the physical keys with each step. Based on a view of music pedagogy that emphasizes expressive, full-body communication early in the learning process, Andante promotes an understanding of the music rooted in the body, taking advantage of walking as one of the most fundamental human rhythms. We describe three example visualizations on a preliminary prototype as well as applications extending our examples for practice feedback, improvisation and com- position. Through our project, we reflect on some high level considerations for the NIME community.