Quantitative Evaluation of Percussive Gestures by Ranking Trainees versus Teacher

In this paper we characterize timpani gestures by temporal kinematic features, containing most information responsible for the sound-producing actions. In order to evaluate the feature sets, a classification approach is conducted under three main attack categories (legato, accent and vertical accent) and sub-categories (dynamics, striking position). Two studies are carried out: intra-subject and inter-subjects classification. Results are presented in terms of a quantitative ranking of students, using professional gestures as training set, and their gestures as test set.