The Mundelein Society of Ethnomusicologists is conducting a study on an iPhone application called ProChord and its use in teaching others to play the piano. ProChord allows users to select a key signature and select a chord. It subsequently accesses a database of popular music to show which chords are most likely to occur after the first chord in popular music. ProChord does this using a statistic’s engine popular among auditors — the Benford Curve to identify the chord that is most likely to occur out of the sequence.
MSE is also providing free piano lessons in Princeton to interested parties as part of the study. Prospective students have to fill out a “pre-test” of music knowledge and complete an application. They are even paid a small fee for their time working through the pedagogy lessons. If you are interested in working through a MSE pedagogy lesson with me, please let me know.
