Digital Musical Instruments Research Articles

Alternative ways of organizing distance practical classes for future music art teachers

The aim of this research was to find and study the effectiveness of alternative ways of organizing practical classes in Musical Art for Pedagogy students in the context of distance learning. The research involved semi-structured interviews with teachers and student surveys using a close-ended questionnaire. The content analysis of the answers revealed the main difficulties that the teachers had to deal with when organizing distance practical classes in Musical Art. It also enabled finding optimal ways to eliminate them. Their high efficiency was verified by conducting a pedagogical experiment. It was established that traditional methods of education are impossible during distance learning. They need to be replaced with new ones that are effective in technology-mediated learning. It was found that music teachers used special software, digital musical instruments as an alternative to traditional ones. Teachers also recorded video instructions and video lessons, and students recorded video reports on the work done. Teachers began to use new teaching methods. Distance learning yielded higher learning outcomes than the traditional one, as technologies are interesting to students and contribute to their motivation and engagement. This article was reduced to the study of the peculiarities of the organization of distance learning of students — future teachers of Musical Art. Further research should be aimed at identifying ways of organizing Music Art education in general secondary educational institutions.

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A 36-NOTE LOW-COST CUSTOMIZED DIGITAL MUSIC BOX

The purpose of the current study was to design and build a music box with digitally produced notes. The input command sheet allows anybody to create any melody from the octave, making it possible to think of it as a small version of a musical instrument. This instrument is capable of producing frequencies in all three octaves, i.e., the lower, the middle, and the higher octaves. This music box may therefore play any tune, no matter how short or lengthy the note is. There is no need to alter the frequencies over time because no string is used in the creation. It can play any song to one’s heart’s content if the song’s music sheet is accessible. In an epitome, this music box can be viewed as a very simple musical instrument with digitally created tones. There is no need to customize the strings over time like with traditional mechanical musical instruments owing to tones produced digitally. The ability to generate a vast variety of tones, the ease with which it can be adjusted, the convenience with which anyone may have their desired notes customized, and the low cost at which it was produced are the most notable advantages of this digital music instrument. Due to its low price, it can be simply incorporated, altered, slightly improved, and produced at a considerably reduced cost for commercial use.

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A 36-NOTE LOW-COST CUSTOMIZED DIGITAL MUSIC BOX

The purpose of the current study was to design and build a music box with digitally produced notes. The input command sheet allows anybody to create any melody from the octave, making it possible to think of it as a small version of a musical instrument. This instrument is capable of producing frequencies in all three octaves, i.e., the lower, the middle, and the higher octaves. This music box may therefore play any tune, no matter how short or lengthy the note is. There is no need to alter the frequencies over time because no string is used in the creation. It can play any song to one’s heart’s content if the song’s music sheet is accessible. In an epitome, this music box can be viewed as a very simple musical instrument with digitally created tones. There is no need to customize the strings over time like with traditional mechanical musical instruments owing to tones produced digitally. The ability to generate a vast variety of tones, the ease with which it can be adjusted, the convenience with which anyone may have their desired notes customized, and the low cost at which it was produced are the most notable advantages of this digital music instrument. Due to its low price, it can be simply incorporated, altered, slightly improved, and produced at a considerably reduced cost for commercial use.

Playing Gamelan Bonang in the Air: User Requirements for Designing a Digital Musical Instrument for the Malay Bonang

In recent years, computer technologies have been impactful in the design and development of Digital Musical Instruments (DMIs). As music interaction became prominent in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) field, emphasis on user requirement upon the design of musical interfaces has also grown since the last decade. Although designing new DMIs is becoming very popular, it is often determined by the designers and often not reflective of users’ needs. In this study, we explored user requirements for the design of a virtual musical instrument of the Malay bonang, an instrument found in the Malay gamelan ensemble. The requirements were elicited from a group of gamelan experts to establish the bonang playing techniques to be mapped to the virtual instrument which we called Air Bonang. Findings revealed that in designing the Air Bonang that is natural and expressive, the fundamental playing techniques of the bonang should be integrated into the system using mid-air interaction. In addition, exploratory techniques might also be integrated into the Air Bonang to leverage musical expression. The outcome of the study proposes design criteria that encompass three aspects of a natural Air Bonang, namely, embodiment, expressiveness, and feedback.

QOL-18. CAN QUALITY OF LIFE FOR BRAIN TUMOR SURVIVORSHIP CARE

Abstract Cancer survivorship is an important area of medicine as it focuses on the quality of life of patients after experiencing cancer and cancer treatment. Thankfully, many patients survive cancers and other benign tumor diagnoses but must live with the side effects and subsequent consequences of their treatment. These, sometimes lifelong, effects can diminish quality of life and interfere with day-to-day activities. A number of therapy tools have been developed to aid in survivorship care, but how can we advance new digital therapy tools for cancer survivorship and brain-related diseases, specifically quality of life? The University of Cincinnati has curated an innovative team of faculty and students across disciplines to develop digital applications to emphasize cancer and brain tumor survivorship and create new methods for health and wellbeing at the hands of people. This includes the CAN Quality of Life applications which use novel technologies to administer digital pre-existing therapies. The first, ARMCan, is a digital music therapy instrument used by breast cancer patients with post-chemotherapy brain fog. The second, ARTCan, is a digital art therapy platform in which vestibular schwannoma and NF2 patients with mood issues can complete self-guided art activities. ARTCan is partnered with ARCCan, animal robotic-like companions. A narrative application for cancer survivors and caregivers is being developed. These CAN applications hope to improve the quality of life for the people they serve by improving executive function and mood, respectfully. ARMCan and ARTCan/ARCCan pilot feasibility studies are currently accruing subjects at our institution.

Music-based intervention drives paretic limb acceleration into intentional movement frequencies in chronic stroke rehabilitation.

This study presented a novel kinematic assessment of paretic limb function “online” during the actual therapeutic exercisers rooted within the acceleration domain. Twenty-eight patients at chronic stroke stages participated in an auditory-motor intervention mapping reaching movements of the paretic arm unto surfaces of large digital musical instruments and sound tablets that provided rhythmic entrainment cues and augmented auditory feedback. Patients also wore a tri-axial accelerometer on the paretic limb during the nine-session intervention. The resulting acceleration profiles were extracted and quantified within the frequency domain. Measures of peak power and peak width were leveraged to estimate volitional control and temporal consistency of paretic limb movements, respectively. Clinical assessments included the Wolf Motor Function Test and Fugl-Meyer – Upper Extremity subtest. The results showed that peak power increased significantly from Session 1 to Session 9 within oscillatory frequency ranges associated with intentional movement execution (i.e., 4.5 Hz). Decreases in peak width over time provided additional evidence for improved paretic arm control from a temporal perspective. In addition, Peak width values obtained in Session 1 was significantly correlated with pre-test Fugl-Meyer – Upper Extremity scores. These results highlighted improvements in paretic limb acceleration as an underlying mechanism in stroke motor recovery and shed further light on the utility of accelerometry-based measures of paretic limb control in stroke rehabilitation.The data reported here was obtained from a larger clinical trial: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03246217 ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03246217.

From Fiction to Function: Imagining New Instruments through Design Workshops

Abstract This article introduces a series of workshop activities carried out with expert musicians to imagine new musical instruments through design fiction. At the workshop, participants crafted nonfunctional prototypes of instruments they would want to use in their own performance practice. Through analysis of the workshop activities, a set of design specifications was developed that can be applied to the design of new digital musical instruments intended for use in real-world artistic practice. In addition to generating tangible elements for instrument design, the theories and models utilized, drawn from human–computer interaction and human-centered design, are offered as a possible model for merging the generation of creative ideas with functional design outputs in a variety of applications within and beyond music and the arts.

Assessing the Influence of Multimodal Feedback in Mobile-Based Musical Task Performance

Digital musical instruments have become increasingly prevalent in musical creation and production. Optimizing their usability and, particularly, their expressiveness, has become essential to their study and practice. The absence of multimodal feedback, present in traditional acoustic instruments, has been identified as an obstacle to complete performer–instrument interaction in particular due to the lack of embodied control. Mobile-based digital musical instruments present a particular case by natively providing the possibility of enriching basic auditory feedback with additional multimodal feedback. In the experiment presented in this article, we focused on using visual and haptic feedback to support and enrich auditory content to evaluate the impact on basic musical tasks (i.e., note pitch tuning accuracy and time). The experiment implemented a protocol based on presenting several musical note examples to participants and asking them to reproduce them, with their performance being compared between different multimodal feedback combinations. Collected results show that additional visual feedback was found to reduce user hesitation in pitch tuning, allowing users to reach the proximity of desired notes in less time. Nonetheless, neither visual nor haptic feedback was found to significantly impact pitch tuning time and accuracy compared to auditory-only feedback.

Customizing and Evaluating Accessible Multisensory Music Experiences with Pre-Verbal Children—A Case Study on the Perception of Musical Haptics Using Participatory Design with Proxies

Research on Accessible Digital Musical Instruments (ADMIs) has highlighted the need for participatory design methods, i.e., to actively include users as co-designers and informants in the design process. However, very little work has explored how pre-verbal children with Profound and Multiple Disabilities (PMLD) can be involved in such processes. In this paper, we apply in-depth qualitative and mixed methodologies in a case study with four students with PMLD. Using Participatory Design with Proxies (PDwP), we assess how these students can be involved in the customization and evaluation of the design of a multisensory music experience intended for a large-scale ADMI. Results from an experiment focused on communication of musical haptics highlighted the diversity in employed interaction strategies used by the children, accessibility limitations of the current multisensory experience design, and the importance of using a multifaceted variety of qualitative and quantitative methods to arrive at more informed conclusions when applying a design with proxies methodology.

Light.void~: An Autographic Case Study on Approaches, Constraints, and Affordances with a Light-dependent Musical Interface.

This paper discusses the strategies, considerations, and implications of designing and performing with a light-dependent digital musical interface (DMI), named light.void~. This interface is introduced as a replica of light thing, an existing DMI designed and popularized by British artist Leafcutter John. The rationale for reproducing this DMI is presented, followed by a discussion around the guiding criteria for establishing data-to-sound mappings, and the kind of affordances that these decisions may bring — including performer control, unpredictability, intentionality, spontaneity, action-sound reactivity, visual interest, and so on. The remainder of the paper focuses on dissecting the nature of this digital musical instrument, using contributions by DMI researchers Miranda and Wanderley as the main analytical framework. The outcome of this process is a semi-improvisational work titled «Umbra», along with the open source documentation for the light.void~ interface. Additionally, some relevant questions emerge with regards to performer expertise, observed vs. unobserved performance, as well as ontological frictions between instrument, composer, performer, designer, and audience.

Inclusive Improvisation: Exploring the Line between Listening and Playing Music

The field of Accessible Digital Musical Instruments (ADMIs) is growing rapidly, with instrument designers recognising that adaptations to existing Digital Musical Instruments (DMIs) can foster inclusive music making. ADMIs offer opportunities to engage with a wider range of sounds than acoustic instruments. Furthermore, gestural ADMIs free the music maker from relying on screen, keyboard, and mouse-based interfaces for engaging with these sounds. This brings greater opportunities for exploration, improvisation, empowerment, and flow through music making for people with disability and the communities of practice they are part of. This article argues that developing ADMIs from existing DMIs can speed up the process and allow for more immediate access for those with diverse needs. It presents three case studies of a gestural DMI, originally designed by the first author for his own creative practice, played by people with disability in diverse contexts. The article shows that system-based considerations that enabled an expert percussionist to achieve virtuoso performances with the instrument required minimal hardware and software changes to facilitate greater inclusivity. Understanding the needs of players and customising the system-based movement to sound mappings was of far greater importance in making the instrument accessible.

Improvisation Pedagogy: An Epistemological Perspective of the 4‘E’ Model within Digital Musical Instruments

Recent years have witnessed the appearance of many new digital musical instruments (DMIs) and other interfaces for musical expression (NIME). This paper highlights a well-established music educational background theory that we believe may help DMI developers and users better understand DMIs in the context of music cognition and education. From an epistemological perspective, we present the paradigm of enactive music cognition related to improvisation in the context of the skills and needs of 21st century music learners. We hope this can lead to a deeper insertion of DMIs into music education, as well as to new DMIs to be ideated, prototyped and developed within these concepts and theories in mind. We specifically address the theory generally known as the 4E model of cognition (embodied, embedded, extended and enactive) within DMIs. The concept of autopoiesis is also described. Finally, we present some concrete cases of DMIs and NIMEs, and we describe how the experience of musical improvisation with them may be seen through the prism of such theories.

Idiosyncratic Audio Feedback Networks for Music Creation

This article presents practical and artistic contributions to the field of computer music systems based on audio feedback networks. The ideas that oriented the conception of two digital music instruments and examples of their use in the author's music practice are discussed. The article begins with a general conceptualization of feedback systems as well as a brief historical review of its use in experimental music. Later, a more specific contextualization of its application in recent computer music research and artwork is made, and two contributions are presented: the first is a network of cross-modulated sinusoidal oscillators (by frequency modulation), and the second is a network of algorithms for playing and transforming pre-recorded sound samples. In conclusion, examples of the artistic usage of the described systems to the creation of electroacoustic music are discussed.

Idiosyncratic Audio Feedback Networks for Music Creation

This article presents practical and artistic contributions to the field of computer music systems based on audio feedback networks. The ideas that oriented the conception of two digital music instruments and examples of their use in the author's music practice are discussed. The article begins with a general conceptualization of feedback systems as well as a brief historical review of its use in experimental music. Later, a more specific contextualization of its application in recent computer music research and artwork is made, and two contributions are presented: the first is a network of cross-modulated sinusoidal oscillators (by frequency modulation), and the second is a network of algorithms for playing and transforming pre-recorded sound samples. In conclusion, examples of the artistic usage of the described systems to the creation of electroacoustic music are discussed.

Accessible Digital Musical Instruments in Special Educational Needs Schools – Design Considerations Based on 16 Qualitative Interviews with Music Teachers

Accessible digital musical instruments (ADMIs) can provide access to active music-making to a broad range of people, including those who may experience different access barriers due to impairments and exclusive social practices. While there is an increase in publications regarding ADMI design and evaluation in specific use cases, little is known on the actual use of ADMIs in special educational needs (SEN) schools. Therefore, the aim of the first part of the ongoing sequential mixed-methods survey that is presented in this paper is to collect data on the use of ADMIs in SEN-schools and to derive design considerations from a music teacher’s perspective. The information presented here is based on 16 qualitative interviews that have been conducted with German SEN music teachers from schools with specializations in eight different SEN areas.

Why did wind instruments stop evolving?

Adolphe Sax invented the last widely spread orchestral wind instrument in 1846, and the saxophone has hardly changed since its inception. Also, outside of classical music, wind instruments have not evolved with very few exceptions in popular music, like the melodica. The latter was popular in the mid 20th century, because it was one of the cheapest instruments with a piano-style keyboard before mass-produced electronic keyboards. Since its inception, jazz drew from traditional orchestral wind instruments that were invented long before jazz came up. They were easily available as they were widely spread in military ensembles. This presentation looks into the factors that stalled the evolution of mainstream wind instruments during the 19th century, such as instrument affordability, practice habits, conservatory education practices, standardization, and cultural identification. While individual instrument makers and musicians continue to develop fundamentally new wind instruments, they no longer exceed experimental status. Instead, widespread innovations now focus on electronic and digital musical instruments.

The presence of computers in Yugoslav popular music of the second half of the 1980s

This article is the result of my research of Yugoslav pop music discography in the second half of the 1980s, focused on the processes of implementation of digital musical instruments and general-purpose computers into music production - as original sound sources or replacements for acoustic instruments, as well as poetic metaphors and elements of graphic design of record covers. Based on the data available from recording staff listings, interviews with musicians/producers and the listening experience, the paper covers the most prominent examples of aforementioned practices.

Collectively playable wearable music: Practice-situated approaches to participatory relational inquiry.

We present two practice-situated participatory investigations using networked wearable sensors to develop movement-responsive collectively playable musical instruments: a series of four collocated workshops for expert dancers and a distance learning course in which students use wearable technology to enhance embodied learning and feelings of connectedness telematically. We reflect on our exploration of techniques for structuring ensemble improvisations augmented with bespoke digital musical instruments using aggregate statistical measures, such as variance of participants' physical orientation as an index of group intention. Participatory design exchanges top-down design methodologies with bottom-up approaches consulting actors' interests. We follow this approach by evolving our instruments through abductive experiments and trial-and-error tinkering, without strong theories, methods, or models, using elementary signal processing techniques that are meaningfully understood and modified by participants. Our experiences suggest useful scaffolding techniques for educational transdisciplinary research-creation communities seeking to explore relational ensemble dynamics in telematic and/or physically collocated settings using accessible wearable technologies. Through creative inquiry and participation, technical objects can become bearers of sense and meaning rather than instating mystifying or alienating relations for the participants.

Designing felt experiences with movement-based, wearable musical instruments: From inclusive practices toward participatory design.

Inclusive musical instruments benefit from incorporating wearable interfaces into digital musical instrument design, creating opportunities for bodily felt experiences and movement-based interactions. In this article, we discuss the evolution of our inclusive design approach behind the design and performance practices of three wearable musical instruments. By focusing on the embodied, somatic, and tacit dimensions of movement-based musical interaction, we evaluate these case studies, combining the third and first-person perspectives. The design and implementation of the wearable sensing, utilizing the additive manufacturing techniques, are discussed for each instrument and its performer in specific cases of musical expression. This article further discusses how our approach integrates music performance as a crucial step into design and evaluation, utilizing these performance practices and such collaborative settings for improved diversity and inclusion. Finally, we examine how our design approach evolves from user-centered design to more participatory practices, offering people with diverse abilities a shared music performance space.

The Kaon’CPT Collective: Building a musical culture of not-in-real-life performance through conducted live comprovisation

In this article we describe a Networked Music Collective for online live performance events. Four characteristics of live performance (bodies, space and time, musical culture and social process) are identified as the conceptual and technological basis of our approach. Our recent distributed comprovisation, Perripplayear, is used to illustrate these concepts and to describe the technology stack we employed. The Kaon’CPT collective uses diverse instrumentation including acoustic and electronic instruments, voice and digital musical instruments (DMIs). Its members span 12 time zones and their comprovisation is conducted via a custom distributed score.