Novel Sensing Technology and Networks for Music Learning and Education

Dear Colleagues,

Learning how to play a musical instrument is a long process that requests several hours of training guided by experienced instructors. Several repetitions of simple exercises are required to learn how to interact with the instrument in a natural, fluid, and smooth way. Such a long process is necessary to bring the sensory motor control to a professional level.

Smart interfaces embedded into everyday objects or directly worn by the users are becoming increasingly relevant to augment, train, or simply assess sensorimotor functions in several application scenarios, even in music. While there are several examples of the application of smart interfaces and software to mimic a musical instrument and increase the possibilities of training, few devices are available for functional assessment of musicians to provide them with additional feedbacks on the quality of their gestures and on how they interact with the real instrument.

Nowadays, several technologies may be used to address this issue: the arsenal of available ammunitions ranges from smart instrumented objects to wearable networks of sensors. These sensing technologies make possible recording interactions with instruments as well as monitoring physiological and biomechanical signals on-field, with improved capability to quantify behaviors at a more fine-grained space-time scale.

This Special Issue of Sensors aims to collect current developments in the design, characterization, and validation of novel sensing technologies and networks for the assessment of instrumental music learning.

Original studies and review papers from human-centered technology, bioengineering, music education, systematic musicology, artificial intelligence and IoT, neuroscience, and other related fields will be considered.

Dr. Fabrizio Taffoni
Prof. Dr. Domenico Formica
Dr. Nicola Di Stefano
Prof. Dr. Marc Leman
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.