# Automatic Evaluation of Piano Performances for STEAM Education
## 1 Introduction  
It is believed that by employing new teaching methods or education systems, students can not only be able to obtain good grades and good jobs but also connect and combine the critical areas of their learning with meeting various needs of the 21 st century. STEM is an education system based on the idea of an interdisciplinary field for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Recently, there has been a significant movement from STEM to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math), as the inclusion of \"arts\" can help students to \"connect the dots\" in learning, which is lacking in STEM [1]. As a prime part of arts, music is popular and interesting to many people from an early age, and many people study musical skills. One of the most popular musical instruments is the piano. Learning to play the piano may require learners to be motivated and involve mathematical and engineering processes [2]. Much research has shown that music positively affects the human brain and the memory of the learner as both sides of the brain are employed [3]. Playing musical instruments helps to improve listening, recognition, and voice differentiation and helps in filtering background noise. These skills can be employed in normal daily routines; for example, students have to concentrate in class despite various distractions. Additional studies also show that playing the piano can help to prevent age-related listening problems. Moreover, playing the piano can improve hand-eye and body coordination where accuracy and strength are required to play the piano. While piano players are reading the score, their left and right hands have to be coordinated and systematized simultaneously. Moreover, their feet have to control the pedals at the sametime, which means that both the hands and feet are used and must be coordinated. This allows cognitive development and body balance at the same time. As mentioned before, playing musical instruments can improve learners' memory, and many studies have revealed that music positively affects the human body and brain in several ways. When playing the piano, the brain communicates with various body parts. Adult keyboard playing can help human growth hormone (HGH) stimulation and increase muscle mass while decreasing and delaying osteoporosis. Nowadays, there are several ways to learn the piano, such as face-to-face classes or online learning, both of which have limitations. For example, non-standard evaluation depends on teachers' ability and experience and software limitations, and the lack of quality internet affects online learning, which can lead to communication failure and misunderstandings while learning. Many parents are aware that learning piano-playing skills can be an important foundation for many life skills. Playing the piano helps to make connections in the brain that help in the development of other skills such as speaking skills, language skills, motivation, memory skills, and emotional expression. These skills can help children to acquire skills such as patience, diligence, cooperation, memorization, goal setting, discipline, and emotional control. The researcher strongly believes that with these skills, piano learners can achieve and develop their abilities in various ways. This study aims to improve the playing skills of piano learners by analyzing and classifying the piano sounds into three categories: \"Good\", \"Normal\", and \"Bad\" and thereby assisting piano learners in understanding their performance levels and improving their piano skills quickly. There are four classification approaches investigated in this research, including Support Vector Machine (SVM), Naive Bayes (NB), Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). This study will contribute to the integration of music education and computer science technology in learning. The data analysis is divided into two parts, which are \"Legato\" and \"Staccato\", to obtain accurate results.