Digital Music Learning Resources - From Research to Educational Practice

This book offers an overview of the complex world of digital materials for music education and of their possible use in the everyday practice of music teachers. It presents a multidimensional taxonomy of digital materials for music education. Through the taxonomy it is possible to derive a clear framework of the whole field and to perform analysis of the state of art. The book shows the use of this flexible and powerful knowledge tool for reviewing the digital materials in the various domains and dimentions. 

The book provides researchers and designers with an overview of what has already been designed, proposed and tested in the field. It also offers music teachers a wider perspective of the possibilities connected to current technologies in the field of music education, and it suggests possible interrelationships between research and music education practices.

Marcella Mandanici is a music composer, researcher and full professor of Music Education at the Music Conservatory of Brescia (Italy). She has authored many vocal and theatrical works and between 1986 and 1993 has served as the artistic director of 'Nuovi Spazi Sonori,' an Italian association for promoting and advancing contemporary music. Mandanici's academic background includes a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Music Technology from the Conservatory of Como, which she obtained in 2012. Later, in 2016, she earned a Ph.D. in Information Engineering from the University of Padova. Her diverse educational background reflects her interdisciplinary approach to research and teaching. As a researcher, Mandanici focuses on applications for music education and rehabilitation. Her work has explored innovative ways of integrating technology into music education and using music as a means of rehabilitation. Notably, she received a best paper award at the 3rd EAI International Conference on Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good in 2017 for her study on the rehabilitation of blind children. In 2018, Mandanici led a project called 'The Discovery of Interactive Spaces,' which received support from the National Operation Program (PON) as part of the 'Fondo Sociale Europeo (FSE)' framework. This project likely involved exploring interactive and immersive environments in the context of music. She is PC member of CIM (from 2016), SMC 2019 and 2020, CSME and UBIMUS from 2020. Since 2019, Mandanici has taken on the role of director for the MSc degree in Technologies for Music Education. This position allows her to shape and guide the curriculum for students interested in utilizing technology in music education. Furthermore, Mandanici actively organizes various music technology workshops and conferences for music teachers. Notable events include the Music Technology Day, which has seen four editions since 2019, and the Teaching Music at Distance conference in 2020. These events highlight her commitment to sharing knowledge and fostering professional development within the music education community. Throughout her career, Mandanici has authored over 30 scientific works in the areas of sound and music computing, multimedia, and music education.

Simone Spagnol's scientific activity is mainly devoted to the management and representation of auditory information, and to its use within virtual reality and assistive technologies. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at TU Delft, The Netherlands. He previously held a Marie Curie fellowship within the Horizon 2020  project IT'S A DIVE: Individual Three-dimensional Spatial Auditory Displays for Immersive Virtual Environments , funded at Aalborg University for a budget of approximately EUR 200,000 . He has been principal investigator of a research project at the University of Padova and he took part, mainly as key researcher, to further 7 European and local research and cooperation projects for a total budget of approximately EUR 4,500,000. Among these, he cites the Horizon 2020 project Sound of Vision, funded at the University of Iceland and eight more European institutions, where he had responsibility of two scientific deliverables. His teaching activity includes teaching collaborations for courses at the University of Padova, the University of Iceland, and Aalborg University, as well as supervision of Master and Bachelor students. He has been CEO (03 /2013 -12 /2014 ) of Bloop s.r.l., spin-off company of the University of Padova. Since 2020 , he is Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Luca Andrea Ludovico was born in Milan on February 5, 1977. He obtained his scientific high school diploma at Leone XIII Institute with a grade of 60/60. In 2003 he graduated with honors in Computer Science and Engineering at the Politecnico of Milan, discussing a thesis entitled 'Automatic identification of musical structures: software models and prototypes' (supervisors Prof. Carlo Ghezzi and Goffredo Haus). In November 2003 he obtained the state professional qualification as an electronic engineer. At the end of 2003 he became a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Milan. He started his research activity under the guidance of Prof. G. Haus at LIM - Laboratorio di Informatica Musicale. He obtained his doctor's degree in 2006. Since 1987 he has also been attending music courses. He passed piano and composition exams at the Conservatory of Milan and Bologna. His main research areas are multi-layer encoding of music information, formal description of music and computational musicology, computer-supported music education and promotion of music-related cultural heritage.

Adriano Baratè has designed a number of traditional and multimedia databases. He has developed analysis tools to retrieve information from large databases of music pieces, allowing a number of musicological studies. He has developed new analysis tools to check partial matching of metadata. He studied the use of Petri Nets to represent structural musical information. He has developed new software tools to design Musical Petri Nets, adding the possibility of interacting in real time with

music structures. He has analyzed a great number of music pieces to create a database of models. He contributed to the development of the IEEE 1599 standard, developing a number of frameworks to work with this XML-based encoding. He has developed new analysis tools to synchronize audio signals with the corresponding IEEE 1599 documents. He has designed and developed new interfaces for music fruition, studying how the genre of music pieces can influence human-computer interaction. These interfaces were used to promote cultural heritage in various projects. He has designed and developed new solutions for computer-aided music education, thanks to the IEEE 1599 standard and to new visual interfaces.

Federico Avanzini is currently Full Professor at the University of Milano. He received my Ph.D. degree in computer science from the University of Padova in 2002, and worked there until 2017, as a postdoctoral researcher, Assistant Professor, and Associate Professor. His main research interests are in Sound and Music Computing (SMC), and mainly concern algorithms for sound synthesis and processing, non-speech sound in human-computer interfaces, multimodal interaction. He has been key researcher and principal investigator in several national and international research projects, have authored about 200 publications on peer-reviewed international journals and conferences, have chaired and served in several program and editorial committees. He has been Associate Editor for the international journal Acta Acustica (2014-201), and he is a member of the Editorial Board of Milano University Press. He is currently Conference Coordinator in the International SMC Board, and President of the Italian Music Informatics Association.