Audio-Synchronized Inertial Motion Capture for Conducting Pedagogy: A Randomized Pretest–Posttest Study

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

This study tested whether audio-synchronized inertial motion capture can produce measurable improvements in gesture–sound communication in higher-education conducting instruction. Eighteen conducting students at Shenyang Conservatory of Music (China) completed a randomized, pretest–posttest protocol comparing motion-capture-assisted training with traditional instruction, using blocked randomization within expertise strata and concealed allocation. Motion-capture-assisted training produced clear advantages. The beat–sound interval shortened by ∼29 ms within the intervention group, with a between-group advantage of ∼24 ms. Gesture size–loudness coupling strengthened by 0.28, tempo variability decreased by ∼13 ms, and smoothness increased substantially. Expert evaluations rose by ∼9 points on a seven-item rubric. A dose–response pattern was observed: greater session engagement was associated with larger timing gains.