Haptic Guidance Benefits Musical Motor Learning

This paper presents the results of a pilot experiment looking at the effect of haptic guidance on musical training. A percussion performance task was used where subjects learned to play short rhythmic sequences on a device capable of recording drumstick movements with a high degree of spatiotemporal accuracy. Subjects learned to perform the sequences under three primary training paradigms: listening to the rhythm (audio), being guided through the motions involved in the rhythm's performance (haptic), and being guided through the required motions while listening to the resulting sound (audio+haptic). Performance was assessed in terms of both timing and loudness (velocity) accuracy using several different metrics. Results indicate that haptic guidance can significantly benefit recall of both note timing and velocity. When subject performance was compared in terms of note velocity recall, the addition of haptic guidance to audio-based training produced a 17% reduction in final error when compared to audio training alone. When performance was evaluated in terms of liming recall, the combination of audio and haptic guidance led to an 18% reduction in early-stage error.