J.W.Reed Design - DMI Research Book

senior thesis spring 2010

DIGITAL MUSIC INSTRUCTOR

J. W. REED


d i g i t a l m u s i c i n s t r u c t o r



J. W. REEDsenior thesis spring 2010

D I G I T A L M U S I C I N S T R U C T O R

2 CONCEPTCONCEPT









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Frustrated Learning Music?





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“Can’t Learning Music be Easier?!”

Design Hypothesis -

This device will be the easiest way to learn

to play, and improve playing, an instrument.

A sophisticated electronic device dedicated to mu-sic instruction will help individuals learn music or improve their musical skills through graphical/vid-eo examples, real time feed back, and music analy-sis.









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Basic Concept





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Basic Concept - Feedback Loop









7PROBLEMPROBLEM





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Have You Ever Tried to Learn Music?

How did it make you feel?!









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“Learning music sucks.”- Ludwig Van Beethoven

Whether y ou are a child just starting piano lessons or an adult that never got the chance to learn be-

fore, everyone struggles with learning music.

Some people struggle more with certain aspects of learning music, but everyone struggles to some

degree with every aspect.

One key factor that makes learning music so difficult is a lack of constant feedback, especially when playing a new piece of music.

Without experience it is very difficult for a music student to know whether they are playing something correctly or incorrectly.





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There are several common ways to learn music:

First, many people attempt to learn music from a book.

There are music teachers. Some teach in a group setting or a music camp, while the majority are

private instructors.

Also, there are also many webpages, online videos, and computer programs that attempt to teach a person

music.









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Various Methods of Instruction





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These three main forms of learning music - through a book, through a computer, and through an instructor - all have their own limitations.

Music students try all three ways of learning, and most find that some combination of books, online resources, and personal instruction work well for them.

EASY PORTABLE AVAILABLE24/7









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Learning music through a book can be a most frustrating

process.

It is akin to learning math by reading a textbook.

Music instruction books are normally written to be accompanied by a music

instructor.

Few music books are thorough enough to be relied solely upon

for musical instruction.

Those that are run the risk of being so comprehensive that

a student doesn’t know what information to focus on.

M

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M

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B

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Whether too much or too little information, it is at least always accurate and reliable information.

Music books are also very portable and often fit into a musical instrument case if the student uses one.

It goes with out saying that a music instruction book provides no feedback to the student as to whether they are playing correctly or incorrectly.

This can make learning from a book a very frustrating process.









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COMPUTER LEARNING

There are many websites dedicated to learning music - some good, some bad.

There are also many YouTube and other videos directed towards music instruction - again, some good, some bad.

Similarly, there are a few programs for teaching music, especially for the popular instruments such as guitar and piano.

These different digital applications for learning music are often easier to understand than music books.

This is because the graphical instruction on these ap-plications show through video and animation what the user is supposed to do.

These animation and videos gives the music student a better sense of what they are doing right and wrong.





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COMPUTER LEARNING

Unfortunately, often times these digital means to learning music are not completely accurate.

Furthermore, even if they are accurate, they might not be comprehensive or complete enough to provide lasting assistance to a be-ginning musician.

Digital means of music instruction are obviously less portable than a book.

And again, there is no sense of feedback for a student to know whether they have applied their lesson to their instrument correctly.









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Music instructors are a reliable source for musical knowledge.

They should be easy to communicate with and able to provide quick, accurate, and understandable answers to a music student’s questions.

Music Instructors provide a student with guidance and important feedback about their playing.

This helps a student to learn the correct way to play something without making bad habits or excessive errors.

This guidance and feedback are very reas-suring to the student and viewed as a primary reason for employing the instructor.

Many instructors will utilize music books, web-sites, and/or computer programs as teaching aids for their own lessons.

Music Instructors





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Some music instructors teach in a classroom setting with many students, while the majority are private music teachers that instruct one-on-one with their students.

While both types of teachers are knowledgeable about music, the amount of personalized instruction a student receives will be greater with a private instructor.

Of course, either situation costs money, and over time can become a significant expenditure. Unfortunately, music instructors are not always

available for guidance and feedback and are typically met with only once a week for a lesson.

This lack of constant guidance and feedback can cause a regression from what was learned during the lesson.

A student might be making many errors by the next lesson and not be aware of them at all.

Even so, the reliability and guidance a music teach-er provides makes them one of the best ways to learn music… and also one of the most expensive.

Music InstructorsSUMMARY









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In this digital age with impressive electronic devices everywhere making daily life easier, it is inconceivable that a device has not been created that can finally help aspiring musi-cians to affectively learn music.

vv

SUMMARY

Technology has been applied to this problem, but never in a comprehensive way with the guidance and feedback only received through music instructors.





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Computer interfaces and videos have made the me-chanics of learning music far easier than using music instruction books, but are sometimes unreliable and not very portable.

The comprehensive amount of information found in some music books are beneficial to students as they become more advanced, as long as they can read the notation system.

Music instructors can inform a student when they have made an error and explain to them immedi-ately how to fix it, although they are not always present for the student to rely upon.

Why can’t the benefits of these three meth-ods be combined into a Comprehensive Dig-ital Music Instructor?

SUMMARY









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Books

Instructors

Programs

Websites

Online Video

Music Classes

Easy to Use Comprehensive Portable Gives Feedback Easy to Use

Current Method Analysis





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EASY PORTABLE AVAILABLE24/7

Current Method Summary









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EASY TO USE

PORTABLE

ALWAYS AVAILABLE

GIVES FEEDBACK

GIVES EXAMPLES

TRACKS PROGRESS

MULTIPLE INSTRUMENTS

COMPREHENSIVE

Proposed Device Attributes

The Device Needs to be...





24 SOLUTIONSOLUTION









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iPad Station

iPad Jacket





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iPad Station









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headphone port3.5mm trs cable

2 front input ports1/4in. trs cable

opening forHome button

2 speaker outputs1/4in. trs cable

video outputVGA video port

2 hi-fi mic inputsXLR microphone port

6 rear input ports1/4in. trs cable









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iPad Jacket





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listens & recognizes





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speaker housing -blunet audio corp.model ESP-34pf 8.5

opening for Home button

opening for Apple Logo

microphone housingTransound Electronics Co., Ltd. model TSB-6040A









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37FUNCTIONALITYFUNCTIONALITY





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Functionality - Multiple Instruments









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Functionality - Size





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Functionality - Portability









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Functionality - In Use





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Functionality - Uploading Music









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Feedback Mode

The Correct note Was G

You Played an A

To Play a GPut your First, Second and Third Fingers On The but-tons shown - Click Here to see a video

Example

Functionality - Feedback





44Ligature

Parts of the Saxophone

Bell

Keys

ReedNeck

Rods

Key Pads (under keys)

Key Guard

Graphic

Video

Interactive

Select or Play the Following Note:

Standard Notation Trainer

Guitar Tuning Video

Musical Instruction - Methods









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PROGRESS

T I M E P R A C T I C I N G

Progress

Tracker

Musical Instruction - Progress Tracking





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TAB 3

1 4

Translate Mode

Additional Tools - Music Translator









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TranscribeMode

Additional Tools - Notation Transcriber





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Main Menu

A Feedback Mode

C Lesson Mode

E Tools

Play Noteor

Press Buttonfor Selection

Main Menu

A Feedback Mode

C Lesson Mode

E Tools

Feedback Mode Loading...

Interfacing - Musical Navigation

A user can PLAY the note that corre-sponds to the func-tion they wish to se-lect

Each selection in the interface will have a corresponding let-ter, which is a NOTE.

The device will listen and allow the user to navigate through the interface with music









49RESEARCHRESEARCH





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Research for this project began by analyzing the various forms of music instruction.

Each form of instruction was analyzed regarding sev-eral criteria - - Ease of Use (Understandability) - Value to user over time (Comprehensiveness) - Portability - Guidance and Feedback

BooksFirst, different music instruction books were examined.

Music books are normally specific to a certain instrument.

Most music books teach the same information but not nec-essarily in the same order.

They start with instrument related information, like the parts of the instrument and how to hold it, then launch into a brief explanation of how musical notation works.

The authors then attempt to apply this understanding of notation to the instrument showing how to play notes one at a time until a simple song can be played.









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As the book progresses, more notes are introduced, more information about notation is introduced, and more difficult songs using the recently received infor-mation are learned as well.

The method of instruction in these books is very simi-lar, using musical notation and infographics / photo-graphs as reference.

A few musical instruction books are geared towards advanced musicians and mostly have information on music theory as it pertains to an instrument.

While these books contain valuable information to a progressing student, they are extremely difficult to understand, as well as so comprehensive one doesn’t know what information is the most important to focus on.

Findings-The majority of music instruction books are difficult to understand.

Most books are either for beginners or for advanced musicians - very few books are comprehensive.

Music instruction books are very portable and many instrument bags and cases are designed to carry such books.

While these books do provide many tips and guidance, they cannot provide any feedback for the music student.





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WebsitesNext, several music based websites were examined.

The vast majority of music based websites are dedicated to guitar.

Some are dedicated to teaching piano or musical nota-tion.

Very few attempt to teach any other instrument or music theory beyond the basic fundamentals.

Many sites dedicated to other instruments are rudimen-tary and have no real improvement over a book.

Most websites are easier to understand than read-ing using a music book, but they still contain a lot of writing.

Because of this, many music learning websites embed YouTube videos to get around being too wordy.

It is hard to determine which sites are the best to use, especially for a beginning musician.









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The biggest attraction to using a website to learn music is that it is normally free.

Those dedicated to the guitar often do not use or attempt to teach standard music notation.

The sites for guitar mostly utilize guitar specific notation styles that relate to the fretboard

These guitar sites use these styles of notation with info-graphic and photographic examples for instruction.

Websites for piano utilize standard notation with info-graphs and photographs for examples.

Many piano based sites also teach standard musical no-tation to some degree since it is used to teach piano.

Sites dedicated to other sites can vary significantly in quality and interest.

Many have no improvement over using a book.





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Findings- Some websites can be easier to understand than music books since they have more infographics and some-times interactive applications. Some are no different than an online book.

Most websites are only for beginners, some are for advanced musicians, but very few are comprehensive and can help a student as they progress musically.

Even with a laptop you still need an internet connection to access the website, and thus it is not very porta-ble.

While most websites do provide many tips and guidance, they cannot provide any feedback for the music student.









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ProgramsThere are many computer programs available for learning music.

Some programs are geared towards only teaching kids, but most are aimed at a large segment of the population, kids included.

Many are dedicated to learning popular instruments such as guitar and piano.

Some are dedicated to learning how to read standard music notation.

A few are a mix of notation and instrument instruction, or focus on another aspect of learning music, such as ear training or music theory.

Some programs don’t even teach music at all but help decipher and transcribe a song into notation so the user can read and learn it.

Others allow you to write your own music notation or to actually compose music on your PC.





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The quality of musical computer software tends to be an improvement over music websites since they are not free.

Even so, the content might not be much between mu-sic books, websites, and computer programs.

Computer software tends to be more interactive and “game-like” than websites which tend to be more like online books.

Findings-Most programs are an improvement over books and websites and tend to be easier to use and under-stand.

Most programs are only for one level of player and require either an upgrade or a different program entirely after a user has advanced.

While more portable than a website, programs still requires a laptop with a battery charge in order to take with you.

While often giving video examples and interactive tutorials, no musical software seems to give a student live feedback on their playing.









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Musical books, websites, and programs for begin-ners first focus on the instrument: the parts of it, how it is held, how it is played, etc.

Then there is focus on a system of notation used for instruction with a brief explanation of the system.

After that, the notation system is applied to the instrument, one note at a time.

Simple songs are then introduced to reaffirm what the student has learned so far.

This system is repeated until the student knows all the notes on the instrument, and typically more musical concepts and details about the notation system have been introduced.

Usually there are more difficult pieces of music after the final lesson, utilizing all the things a stu-dent has learn thus far.

At this point, a new music book, program, or web-site is usually needed to continue learning music at an intermediate level.





58 Music instruction videos are typically broken up into short segments about a specific subject - ie. the notes on the instrument, or the musical notation system.

A specific teacher may have comprehensive videos relating to many topics of music, both simple and ad-vanced, or they might only gear their videos towards a certain skill level or subject.

Music instruction videos allow the user to pick and chose what they would like to learn in the order they would like to learn it, although without guidance from a music teacher this could be detrimental to the students ability to advance.

VideosMany instructional videos about music can be found online.

They can be found on any variety of instruments at various skill levels.

Some videos are dedicated to learning musi-cal notation systems, abstract musical concepts, even instrument configurations - as for the elec-tric guitar.









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Music instruction on video has always been seen as an easy and more affordable way to learn an instrument.

In the past, many reputable music teachers had attempt-ed to publish video tapes and DVDs and sell them on TV or by catalog.

With the advancement of YouTube and other online vid-eo hosting, purchasing musical instruction videos is nearly obsolete.

Unfortunately, not all videos online are reliable from reputable music teachers.

Some of the videos are by teenagers or young adults without any real teaching experience.

There are many well done videos available by gen-uine music instructors - finding them is the trick.

Many videos are hosted on YouTube or other sites and then embedded into a music teacher’s online instruction website.

Some online instruction sites use a conglomeration of videos posted across to internet to substitute for not having any real input of their own.





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If well made, music videos can have a great im-provement over books and websites since they can be more natural to understand and provide live 3D examples instead of using a graphic.

Also, many people seem find it easier to listen to someone speak about music as opposed to reading text.

Findings-Music instruction videos are much easier and natural to understand than books, websites, and even some programs

While each video is not comprehensive, there are many videos available on nearly every aspect of music at all different skill levels.

Music instruction videos are less portable than book, requiring a laptop with a battery charge and either a copy of the video or an internet connection.

While videos might have excellent guidance through a topic, they do not offer a student much feedback as to whether they are playing the lesson correctly.









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Music TeachersMusic Teachers offer a customized and personalized ap-proach to learning music.

While many teachers instruct each student on the same topic, no two teachers do it the same way.

Furthermore, most teachers do not teach each of their students the same way either, often personalizing their approach to the interests or ambitions of their student.

Music teachers offer a vast amount of knowledge to a student and are an easy to access reference for musical questions.

Instead of reading a book or manipulating a software program, accessing musical informa-tion from a teacher is as easy as talking.

Most music teachers can instruct students in a multitude of sub-diciplines related to their cho-sen instruments of expertise.





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For instance a vocal coach might not only teach a student how to sing in general, but also instruct them on singing the blues, stage presence, singing while playing an instrument, breath and sound control, and lyrical ideas.

The experience of the teacher as a musician com-bined with their experience at teaching allow them to analyze a student’s shortcomings and help them to struggle less with overcoming them.

Most importantly, a teacher can listen to a student and tell them when they are making errors - as the students don’t often realize they are - and then ex-plain how to correct those errors.

Also available to a student are music classes in a group setting.

Typically these classes offer less personalized music instruction and guidance for the student.

The teacher is usually just as competent as a pri-vate music instructor, but they have to balance the needs of more people at one time.









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This form of instruction typically costs less than a pri-vate music teacher as well.

While both forms of music lessons can provide neces-sary feedback to a student, music lessons are normally scheduled only once a week.

During the time in-between lessons a student can forget what guidance they received or slip back into old hab-its that the teacher was attempting to break.

Unfortunately the excellent guidance and feedback from a music teacher cannot be accessed at all times.

Findings-Music teachers are very easy to use, as one only has to talk and listen in order to access information from them.

Music instructors are very comprehensive and can teach students of various skill levels.

Music instructors are not portable and are typically only available for one hour a week.

Music teachers do provide excellent guidance, and more so, necessary feedback to the student.





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Research Sources

Websites

www.abclearnguitar.com

www.all-guitar-chords.com

www.easypianobasics.com

www.guitar.about.com

www.guitartricks.com

www.i-love-guitar.com

www.learnguitarblog.com

www.learningviolin.com

www.piano-play-it.com

www.pianobychords.com

www.tamingthesaxophone.com

www.zebrakeys.com

Guitar Program Review - guitar-lesson-soft-ware-review.toptenreviews.com

Piano Program Review - piano-lesson-software-review.toptenreviews.com

Programs

Garage Band v.5.1 by Apple Inc - Installed on Mac OS X 10.6.3

Guitar Method v.5 by eMedia - CD-ROM

Teach Yourself to Play Guitar Deluxe by Alfred Publishing - CD-ROM

www.musicked.com - online software - Many Instruments Available

Practica Musica - www.ars-nova.com/aboutpm5/index.html theory and notation









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Interview Research

As part of the research for this project, several musicians of different disciplines and skill levels were interviewed about their experiences with learning or teaching music and their thoughts on a device that could help people to learn music easier.

Most met the idea with excitement and gave valuable insights on what problems occur when learning music and what could help them to learn music easier.





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Traci is a professional vocal coach, singer and pianist with many years of musical experience.

She was excited at the prospect of a product that could help music students learn easier and give them confidence.

She agrees that all student need feed-back as they begin to learn music and that is the source for many mistakes and bad habits until a student acquires enough experience to recognize such mistakes.

She would expect the device to show through reliable and simple examples what a user did wrong and how to cor-rect the problem.

Traci - “Everyone is different, but everyone struggles with learning music.”









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She believes that a proven method of teaching is necessary to be successful and that maybe the device makers could corroborate with publishers of music instruction books.

She would use the device herself for teaching and composing and would recommend her students to acquire one as well.

She would like to have the two devices interface, not only at the lesson but during the week so that she may check up on a student’s progress.

She believes that the device would hold her students accountable by letting their parents or heir teacher check on their progress. This will encourage student to practice more.

She said she would like to be able to compose music and store lyrics on it.

She stated how this device could be to a college level musician what a laptop is to every other stu-dent.

She believes that this device would need many layers of software to teach multiple skill levels, dif-ferent types and genres of music, even languages for different styles of singing, maybe even a col-lege edition.

She would also like it to be subscription based. She might need to buy many packages based upon what her students want to learn, and she would like to be able to purchase a subscription for unlim-ited downloads as opposed to pay out of pocket for each different package.

Traci - “Everyone is different, but everyone struggles with learning music.”





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Troy - “It could help me reach the next musical level!”

Troy is an intermediate drummer and com-puter engineer. He attempted to learn guitar several times but he found learning from a book overwhelming.

From an engineer’s stand point, he believes that the partnership between the designers, engineers, music teachers, and programmers will be very difficult.

Troy likes the idea of using this device with his entire band, whether to isolate an error and identify the problem, or to help write songs and help suggest ideas about chords or scales.

He suggested that their might be different logons for different band members.









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When done playing the device might give review and an option to see more examples.

He thinks it might need the option for tuning and calibration to different instruments, possibly with a separate microphone system.

Troy also would like to hear a pre-recorded voice giving feedback as opposed to just visual cues, and thinks people would respond better to that.

Troy points out that drums use a different notation style, which most drummers can’t read, as well as many drummers have a customized drum kit with any variety of percussion instruments.

If the device is to communicate with drummers a unique system of notation might need to be de-veloped, possibly based on a standard kit plus any extra percussion devices.

He attested that the device could help him achieve the next musical level.





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Chad - “It can keep me from burning our from frustration for less than $200?! Why wouldn’t you use it?!”

Chad is a beginning guitarist. He has sung with bands but wanted to learn guitar to complement his songwriting.

Chad has tried to use books to learn and says he “can’t get anywhere with them”. He is currently taking private guitar lessons.

Chad doesn’t read standard notation but does understand guitar tablature and chord diagrams for guitar.

He would not only use this device to give him feedback while playing songs, but also when playing chords and scales too.









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He would like to use this device to help him learn songs as well, whether playing song ideas of his own and then documenting them, or using recorded music from other songwriters/bands and having the device transcribe them so he might learn it.

He would also like the device to translate between standard music notation and guitar tab-lature so he might learn to play pieces that are only transcribed in notation.

In addition, he would like it if this device could also make suggestions or show substitutions with regards to songwriting.

Chad suggested that this device have a touch screen. He says it is cumbersome to use his computer with a keyboard and a mouse with a guitar in his lap.

He also said that a device like this would depend on the amount of features it has and its price. Under $200 would be ideal especially if it did all the features he mentioned.





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Ryan has sung with bands and wanted to learn bass gui-tar. He fell short of his aspirations due to a lack of time and motivation.

He expressed a desire for a device that could track his musical skill progression.

He would also like to be able to chose whether to work on rhythm and timing or on notes, or both at the same time.

He would also like to see a unique interface, maybe using foot pedals to keep hands free or the like, in order to dif-ferentiate the product.

Whether it is a percentage/point based system or some-thing different, he said he would be encouraged to see that the amount of time put into practicing really was helping him make fewer errors in his playing.

Ryan - “I stopped learning because of lack of motivation”









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Mark is an intermediate guitarist and songwrit-er. He currently plays bass and guitar is a mod-ern country band.

He has played music for a long time, but has mostly stuck to rhythm basics and songwriting. Recently he is taking lead guitar lessons to im-prove his playing.

Mark was excited about the possibility of using a device with his band - something that could allow them to work on specific parts of a song they were writing or that might allow them to single out mistakes from one member.

He would also use any type of theory lessons or scale analysis in his current guitar lessons.

Mark - “I would use that with my band!”





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Marcia is a pianist with nearly 65 years of experience. She does not remember a time when she could not read music.

Marcia plays mostly jazz using very complex chord substitutions. She says even with as long as she has played it is still easy to get mixed up between the chords due to their complexity.

She she’s a device like this really helping her keep straight all the correct notes in the up to 10 note substitution chords that she uses.

Marcia pointed out that a device like this would need to be able to discern at least 10 different notes at the same time in order to work with jet a single piano player.

She also pointed out that a device like this could help orchestral musicians who have coordinate breaks to turn the pages of their sheet music so that the music continues without interruption.

We extrapolated this into the idea that an entire orchestra could use these devices with all the musicians devices slaved to the conductor who would control start and stop times, and then could review the practice and identify mistakes made from individual musicians while analyzing the entire orchestra.

Marcia - “I would use it to help me keep straight complex jazz chord substitutions”









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Wes is an advanced guitarist and songwriter. He plays most-ly jazz and pop and has been playing for nearly 30 years.

He was not too keen on the idea of a digital device to help a student with music.

He believes a student should use the tried and true methods of learning from a book and instructor, and that if they don’t have the tenacity to do that they don’t deserve to play an instrument.

He was asked if he might use an analytical or music theory function of such a device and he attested that an advanced musician should only use his mind for such things.

He was then asked if he might use such a device for his daughter who is learning the piano, and he once again said no.

Then he was prompted if he might use such a device to help him with his singing, which he admits is not his strong suit, to which he agreed he would use it to help him hear when he is singing the correct note.

Wes - “I’m just old fashioned, I guess…”





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Becky - “I’d use it as like a personal music computer at school”

Becky is a college level musician, as performance major, and has played clarinet for nearly fifteen years.

She has taught music before and initially thought she would not use a device like this for herself but only to teach.

Upon learning some of the anticipated features such as song analysis and theory instruction she became much more ex-cited about the prospect of using it for herself.

Becky feels that she would not need the feedback function on the device because she is experienced enough that she recognizes when she makes a mistake and knows how to fix it when she does.

She does like the aspect of it being all of her music tools in one device - it could be her tuner, music books, metronome, notepad, composing software, and homework platform all in one device.

She believes this device could be to music majors what a laptop is to other students.









77PROCESSPROCESS





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Mind Map - Complete









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Mind Map - Logic System





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Mind Map - Teaching System









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Mind Map - GUI System





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Mind Map - Configuration





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Original Concept - Standalone Device

Handle Concept - device incorporates handle and a cover that can articulate into a stand









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Hanging Device Concept - device can attach to chair, music stand, piano, etc.





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Base Station Dock Concept - allows for additional components still with portability









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Unique Physical Interfacing, Handles, and Stands





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Unique Displays, Handles, and Protrusions for Hanging









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Articulating Stands, screens and Docking bases


Documents

J.W.Reed Design - DMI Research Book