ArchiTone: A LEGO-Inspired Gamified System for Visualized Music Education

Abstract: Participation in music activities has many benefits, but often requires music theory knowledge and aural skills, which can be challenging for beginners. To help them engage more easily, it's crucial to adopt teaching strategies that lower these barriers. Informed by formative investigation and inspired by LEGO, we introduce ArchiTone, a gamified system that employs constructivism by visualizing music theory concepts as musical blocks and buildings for music education. This system includes two modes: Learning Mode, which involves recognizing and learning common musical blocks through familiar musical works; Creation Mode, which allows learners to freely create and combine musical blocks to produce new musical works. User studies demonstrate that our gamified system is not only more engaging than traditional music education methods but also more effective in helping learners understand abstract music theory and apply it to music praxis. Additionally, learners demonstrate superior performance on music theory tasks after using ArchiTone.