Development of a vibrotactile metronome to assist in conducting contemporary classical music

Abstract

Contemporary classical music conductors are often required to perform music that requires a click track for accurate tempo following. Auditory click tracks can be obtrusive as they block an ear and interfere with the conductor’s perception of the music being performed. We propose a device and framework that uses the tactile sense to provide a similar functionality.We outline the unique requirements such a system would require gathered from interviews with an expert conductor. A series of prototypes were developed and presented to the conductor in order to design a device to meet these requirements. A test conducted to verify the current system’s timing performance showed a mean error of 0.54% compared to the audio click track.