An Electronic Bagpipe Chanter for Automatic Recognition of Highland Piping Ornamentation

Duncan Menzies, and Andrew McPherson

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

The Highland piping tradition requires the performer to learn and accurately reproduce a diverse array of ornaments, which can be a daunting prospect to the novice piper. This paper presents a system which analyses a player's technique using sensor data obtained from an electronic bagpipe chanter interface. Automatic recognition of a broad range of piping embellishments allows real-time visual feedback to be generated, enabling the learner to ensure that they are practicing each movement correctly. The electronic chanter employs a robust and responsive infrared (IR) sensing strategy, and uses audio samples from acoustic recordings to produce a high quality bagpipe sound. Moreover, the continuous nature of the IR sensors offers the controller a considerable degree of flexibility, indicating sig-nificant potential for the inclusion of extended and novel techniques for musical expression in the future.

Citation:

Duncan Menzies, and Andrew McPherson. 2012. An Electronic Bagpipe Chanter for Automatic Recognition of Highland Piping Ornamentation. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1180537

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{Menzies2012,
 abstract = {The Highland piping tradition requires the performer to learn and accurately reproduce a diverse array of ornaments, which can be a daunting prospect to the novice piper. This paper presents a system which analyses a player's technique using sensor data obtained from an electronic bagpipe chanter interface. Automatic recognition of a broad range of piping embellishments allows real-time visual feedback to be generated, enabling the learner to ensure that they are practicing each movement correctly.
The electronic chanter employs a robust and responsive infrared (IR) sensing strategy, and uses audio samples from acoustic recordings to produce a high quality bagpipe sound. Moreover, the continuous nature of the IR sensors offers the controller a considerable degree of flexibility, indicating sig-nificant potential for the inclusion of extended and novel techniques for musical expression in the future.},
 address = {Ann Arbor, Michigan},
 author = {Duncan Menzies and Andrew McPherson},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1180537},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 keywords = {Great Highland Bagpipe, continuous infrared sensors, ornament recognition, practice tool, SuperCollider, OSC.},
 publisher = {University of Michigan},
 title = {An Electronic Bagpipe Chanter for Automatic Recognition of Highland Piping Ornamentation},
 url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2012/nime2012_200.pdf},
 year = {2012}
}