Idea

Inspired by our struggles of learning to play scales on the piano, we created Scale Skills, an adaptive learning device specifically for people who are just starting to learn how to play the piano.

Scale Skills is a 2-octave adaptive piano keyboard that teaches you how to play piano scales. Scale Skills get increasingly more difficult, initially asking the user to play simple scales like C major and later moving onto more complex scales like E major which use a variety of black keys. By learning and practicing with colored LEDs that correspond to each finger, and black-keys that rise and fall when needed, users will eventually be able to play the proper sequence of keys without any guidance.

Rotoscopes

Keyboard

Details

Actuators

To execute the black linear actuation motion, we decided on using micro servo motors. This decision was based on their compact size yet powerful torque strength. Black keys are able to rise and fall depending on if the scale being played includes a particular black key. We also created custom fins for our motors and custom black keys with flaps that allow for fin contact.

Implementation

Our piano case is custom built and laser cut, made up of a beautiful
combination of transparent acrylic and ash wood materials.

Our piano keys are custom modified and 3D printed to interact
seemlessly with our motors.

RGB LEDs are hand soldered and programmed to correspond with
specific fingers to help users learn piano scale fingering.

All circuitry was hand-wired and placed in the back case of our keyboard.
We used one Arudino Mega and multiple breadboards for our project.

Arduino code was custom written to accomodate for multiple scales.
The code can be found further down.

Implementation Challenges

Implementation was the most time consuming part of the process and took lots of trial and error.
Some challenges we ran into during the process included:

Scaling for 24 keys was particularly challenging and taught us about clean circuitry.

Figuring out the torque necessary to raise and lower black keys was particularly challenging, and we added additional weights to black keys to help aid this.

Foam pressure sensors each registered slightly differently and had to be calibrated individually to sense the range in which a user is pressing on a key.

Implementing sound feedback for keys based on pressure sensors was challenging, so we decided to leave this feature for next steps.

We also originally wanted to create an LED manicure glove to help with learning piano scale fingerings, but because of time constraints, have decidede to leave this feature for next steps as well.

User Studies

We conducted 3 user studies in total with a mixture people from different skill levels, from beginner to advanced piano players. Our user study consisted of 3 sections, shown on the left.

PHASE 1: We started by asking users to play three piano scales (C, D, and E Major) without any keyboard assistance and based on their current knowledge of piano scales. We quantitatively measured proficiency through the amount of time it took for them to play each scale as well as the number of mistakes they made on each scale.

PHASE 2: We then introduced our keyboard's adaptive assistance tools to our users, including black key and LED fingering assistance. Each participant was allowed to practice with our tools for a few minutes.

PHASE 3: Finally, we removed all assistance tools and assessed their new skill levels on the same scales, again measuring proficiency through the amount of time it took for them to play each scale as well as the number of mistakes they made on each scale.

Three example scales we asked user study participants to play.

User Study Results

Our results show that no matter your skill level, using our adaptive keyboard will improve your piano scale skills. For beginners, both accuracy and speed improve, for seasoned piano players, speed improves.

A chart of our data for two of our three participants is shown on the right.

Scale Skills

Idea

Rotoscopes

Keyboard

Details

Sensors

Actuators

Implementation

Implementation Challenges

User Studies

User Study Results

Video & 3D Visualization

Video

3D Visualization

Milestones

Milestone #1

Milestone #2

Milestone #3

Milestone #4

Milestone #5

Milestone #6

Presentations & Files

About Us

Amy Liu

Senior, MIT

Samira Okudo

Senior, MIT