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Does Virtual Practice Make Perfect?

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Summary

Areas of Science
Difficulty
 
Time Required
Average (6-10 days)
Prerequisites
None
Material Availability
You'll need access to a game console and a music video game like Guitar Hero or Rock Band.
Cost
Very Low (under $20)
Safety
No issues
*Note: For this science project you will need to develop your own experimental procedure. Use the information in the summary tab as a starting place. If you would like to discuss your ideas or need help troubleshooting, use the Ask An Expert forum. Our Experts won't do the work for you, but they will make suggestions and offer guidance if you come to them with specific questions.

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Abstract

You've probably heard the phrase, "practice makes perfect" more times than you care to remember, but is it actually true when you use a music game as your practice for real-life singing, strumming, or drumming? You can design a science fair project to discover the answer! First, you'll need to think about how to measure how well someone is playing or singing a song in real life. Using the test you design, measure several musicians' ability to play or sing a few different songs. Then have your musical volunteers switch to practicing using a virtual music game, like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, whose control schemes resemble those of real instruments. You'll need to decide whether it is important for your volunteers to play the same songs in both real life and in the game and how long (minutes, hours, several days in a row) the volunteers should practice. Doing a bit of research on how practicing helps people learn will help you design a better experiment. Once the practice phase is over, use the same test to measure the musicians' song-playing or singing skills. Did virtual practice improve their real-world music playing?
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MLA Style

Science Buddies Staff. "Does Virtual Practice Make Perfect?" Science Buddies, 28 July 2017, https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Music_p023/music/does-virtual-practice-make-perfect. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

APA Style

Science Buddies Staff. (2017, July 28). Does Virtual Practice Make Perfect? Retrieved from https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Music_p023/music/does-virtual-practice-make-perfect


Last edit date: 2017-07-28
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