arXiv subjects

Yohei Wada

Publications and source records attributed to Yohei Wada.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Exploring Breathing-Music Coupling: Using the Breathing Mirror for Somatic Reflection in Piano Performance

While breathing is essential to living and for sound production in some instruments, for pianists, it is often a hidden and automatic process, making it difficult to analyze or refine. A critical gap exists between data and awareness: while sensors record precise physical metrics, they fail to capture the performer's somatic experience. Conversely, the high cognitive load of performance makes it nearly impossible for musicians to recall their internal states with temporal precision. To address this, we present a system, Breathing Mirror, and associated methodology designed to externalize the pianist's internal somatic experience through three analytical lenses: a Baseline View (synchronized signals), a First-Person View (subjective recall), and an Interpersonal View (collaborative reflection). Through a four-week longitudinal study with a skilled amateur pianist (35 years of experience), we evaluated the system's effectiveness by recording respiratory data using textile-integrated strain sensor belts. The results show that the Breathing Mirror reveals some patterns of breathing-music coupling and identifies critical blind spots where objective data diverges from subjective perception. Furthermore, we propose four somatic themes regarding the link between breathing and musical elements, offering a foundation for future large-scale validation across a broader range of pianists. This work provides a new way to study body signals, transforming breathing from an internal biological function into an articulate expressive parameter.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

SKY-Piano: A Multimodal Piano Performance Dataset

Music information retrieval research on piano performance increasingly involves diverse modalities of data and annotations beyond audio and MIDI. We present SKY-Piano, a multimodal piano performance dataset that includes 11 hours of performance recordings of motion, multi-view video, audio, MIDI from 7 professional and 12 amateur pianists along with MusicXML scores. The performance pieces were selected considering playing technique, difficulty, and performer expertise on a shared core repertoire. The motion data include both hand and body motion, released in both flagged form, where samples lost to marker occlusion are marked as unreliable, and imputed form, where those gaps are reconstructed, together with Visual3D body-segment kinematics and other time-synchronized modalities. To easily browse different modalities of data at a glance, we provide an interactive web browser. In addition, we developed a fingering annotation model and tool for deriving pseudo fingering annotations from the MIDI and motion data. Lastly, we present MIDI-to-motion generation through a fine-tuning experiment as a use case of the dataset.

cs.SD↗

arXiv2025

Designing a Multimodal Viewer for Piano Performance Analysis -- a Pedagogy-First Approach

Abstract instructions in piano education, such as "raise your wrist" and "relax your tension," lead to varying interpretations among learners, preventing instructors from effectively conveying their intended pedagogical guidance. To address this problem, this study conducted systematic interviews with a piano professor with 18 years teaching experience, and two researchers derived seven core need groups through cross-validation. Based on these findings, we developed a web-based dashboard prototype integrating video, motion capture, and musical scores, enabling instructors to provide concrete, visual feedback instead of relying solely on abstract verbal instructions. Technical feasibility was validated through 109 performance datasets.

cs.MM↗