Becoming the Maestro - A Game to Enhance Curiosity for Classical Music

Abstract

Classical music is associated with a set of social and cognitive barriers that prevent potentially interested novice classical music listeners from attending concerts. The possible strategies to overcome these barriers and make the genre appealing to new audiences are diverse. In this paper, we present Becoming the Maestro, a game where users impersonate the conductor of an orchestra during a concert in a way that allows them to better understand musical concepts of symphonic music. A user study of the game prototype with 20 subjects proved that the game succeeded in increasing curiosity for classical music.