Single-Note Electric Guitar Picking Detection by Using Wrist-Worn Inertial Motion Sensors

A wrist-worn inertial motion-sensing device with a high sampling frequency has been applied to evaluate single-note electric guitar picking. A combinatorial analysis using wrist-twisting angular jerk and time-differential vertical jerk signals detected on the guitar player’s dominant wrist achieved an accurate picking timing estimation. The developed signal processing algorithm succeeded in eliminating motion artifacts such as vibration from the guitar strings especially in the case of palm mute techniques. The timing differences between the motion-based method using a sampling frequency of 1024 Hz and a sound-based on-set timing analysis method as ground truth became less than 10 milliseconds. As a result, a population test in a 14-week-long guitar lesson class showed convincing results that reflected the difficulties of picking techniques.