GR1: Proposal & Analysis

Project: Pitch Perfect

Problem Statement

Singers in musical groups often find it difficult to perfect their individual parts in ensemble rehearsals.

They run into obstacles such as:

• not being able to hear themselves among many other voices
• not finding effective ways to practice alone outside of practice
• not receiving individual feedback as vocal directors are usually only able to address groups of people

Observations & Interviews

We interviewed three people, each with a different background in musical groups (a cappella/musical theater), and used their responses to put together a portrait of both our potential users and their needs.

Interview One - The A Cappella Veteran

Background: The interviewee had been involved in an MIT a cappella group for three years.

During our first need-finding interview, our goal was to determine what a cappella singers would find useful in a web application.  In particular, we asked our interviewee about common problems he faced while in an a cappella group.

• He mentioned that as someone who had no prior vocal training, when he first joined the group, it was hard for him to sight-sing music and to adjust to singing without an instrumental accompaniment.
• He noticed that many members of his group struggled with rhythm during rehearsals.
• He mentioned a virtual sheet music interface might be useful, so arrangements can be stored and shared via a central location, as opposed to through email.  
• There was also need for someone to maintain a website for their group, so recordings and videos of performances could be uploaded, which was a minor annoyance.

His first two points were interesting to us, and we decided pursue that train of thought with our next two interviews.

Interview Two - The "New Guy" to Musical Theater

Background: The interviewee is currently involved with a musical theater group, but he has had no prior vocal training.

This interview was focused on understanding the difficulties that arise for new singers when joining an ensemble music group.  We observed one of his group rehearsals to get a better sense of an ensemble practice.  While listening, we noticed that it was hard to hear specific people singing.  After practice, we were able to talk to the interviewee and gain three main insights:

• He has a hard time hearing himself while everyone is singing, making it hard for him to determine if he is singing the correct pitch or not. 
• He has a lot of difficulty with rhythm because it is hard for him to be on beat when other singers are singing at different rates.
• He would like to get feedback on his singing from the other members of the group because it helps him get more comfortable with singing in a group.

The key takeaway from our interview is that with so many people singing in a large group, it is very easy for one person's voice to be drowned out.  The interviewee expressed strong interest in being able to practice his parts by himself first before going to group practice. 

Interview Three - The Vocal Director

Background: The interviewee is one of the vocal directors for a musical theater group on campus that has an especially high number of amateur performers.  In addition, she is also currently one of the music directors for an MIT a cappella group.

During our last interview, our goal was to determine the needs of another one of our potential user classes: the vocal director.  This interviewee also gave us the unique perspective of someone who was directing two different musical groups at the same time - both an small a cappella group and a large, amateur musical theater group.

• She mentioned the challenges experienced in her two musical groups are different.
  • A cappella:
    • Singers often find it difficult because there is no instrumental accompaniment.  
    • It is not useful to drill the notes in your head - it is more important to learn how to adapt once someone in the group goes slightly flat or sharp.  Memorization takes away the ability to adapt.
  • Musical theater:
    • There are many ensemble pieces, and in those, because people have a hard time hearing themselves over everybody else, it is hard for people to improve via just attending rehearsal.
    • As a director, it’s extremely difficult to deal with so many people all at once during rehearsal.  Calling on a few people to drill their parts leaves everybody else bored, and it’s hard to pick out exactly who is struggling, because some people will “fake” singing if they don’t know their part very well.
• The biggest problem with learning music is having the ear to hear where your part fits in.  In the past, to get around this, she gave people a recording of someone else singing their part with everybody else singing their parts in the background.  
• People have a lot of trouble with relative pitch and what things should sound like.
• As a director, she would like to give people feedback when they practice on their own, so she can know which parts need more work.

We felt that her responses gave us a lot to work with, and with that we were able to form a clearer picture of problems faced by musical groups.

User Classes

We have identified two major user classes:

1. The Singer

The singer belongs to an a cappella group or musical theater.  Two types of people fall into this user group:

• People that are new to singing.  These people have not had formal musical training and need practice on things like rhythm and sight-singing.  
• Soloists.  Soloists generally have more singing experience but find it hard to practice their solo during ensemble meeting time.

2. The Vocal Director

The vocal director is in charge of all singers during ensemble meeting times and must help everyone learn and improve their parts.

Needs & Goals

From our interviews, we determined a set of needs and goals of our target user classes.

• New singers have trouble with pitch and rhythm.
• Singers have a lot of trouble knowing how their part fits in with others.
• In ensembles, it is hard to hear oneself sing during group rehearsal.
• A cappella singers have a hard time dealing with singing without instrumental accompaniment.
• Singers want personalized feedback from their vocal directors.
• Vocal directors want to give people individual attention and feedback, but rehearsal time is too precious.