During my exploration of digitalisation in theatre, I noticed that I was not making progress and had difficulties in developing concrete solutions. In our other project „Projection Mapping“, where we create stage visualisations, our group places great emphasis on real-time visualisation and audio reactivity. Therefore, my thoughts often revolved around sound, music, audio, and real-time feedback. This made me aware of an issue in my everyday life that, while not directly related to theatre, is still artistically relevant.
At the beginning of the semester, I decided to join a choir and start singing again. I quickly realised that little remained of my past choral experience and my voice was equally rusty. During rehearsals, I had great difficulty hearing myself to determine if I was hitting the notes and the rhythm, especially in four-part singing. It is enormously difficult to hit the correct note precisely after a long break. I often wished to receive direct feedback during rehearsal to understand if my self-perception matched the actual singing and to adjust the pitch immediately.
I have developed a small prototype of how I envision such assistance. Initially, it was important to determine which aspects make up singing and where direct feedback is useful:
- Pitch
- Beat rhythm
- Melodic rhythm
- Volume
- Emphasis, pronunciation
For the prototype, I focused on feedback regarding pitch and melodic rhythm.
Idea
My idea is based on a small device that provides direct feedback through vibration about correct and incorrect intonation. If sung too high or too low, it gives corresponding vibration feedback. An extension of this tool could also relay the rhythm of the piece through vibration feedback.
Concept
The tool consists of a small microphone and a vibration motor. This device can be clipped near the mouth on one’s clothing, capturing the individual’s singing and vibrating if sung incorrectly.
Another type of silent feedback could be sending a small light signal. With this approach, it would be possible to connect a small type of clip with the microphone that can be attached to the music score. This too would signal errors by lighting up if the singing is too high or too low.
Since analysing mistakes after rehearsal is also crucial, an AR app would be a possible implementation to display errors directly on the music score. If the score is also available digitally, this could be directly entered in the app. This allows for preparation for the next rehearsal.
