Berlin 2016

the KDE approach to music education

Sandro Andrade@andradesandro

Berlin 2016

#whoami

● Professor at IFBA, Brazil● Using Qt and KDE technologies since 2001● Contributing in KDE since 2008

– Gluon– KDevelop and Plasmate– Community management in Latin America– KDE Edu– KDE e.V. board of directors

● … and totally mad about music!

Berlin 2016

FLOSS and Music

● They are really close friends …

Berlin 2016

FLOSS and Music

● … but they aren’t game for everything though!

We lack free software for music education

Berlin 2016

Our first bid …

● 2010 – Spinet

Berlin 2016

… and it rises from the ashes

● 2015 – Minuet

Berlin 2016

About Minuet

● What is it?– It’s a free software for supporting teachers and students

in playing their roles for all sort of music-related educational content

– It’s developed by → minuet.kde.org● We want it to be:

– Extensible to new content, learning assessments, …– Available for multiple platforms and form factors– A hub to leverage open data for music education– Driven by real users’ needs

Berlin 2016

Current features

● Ear training exercises in four categories:– Chords– Intervals– Rhythms– Scales

● New exercises can be easily defined (JSON files)● Volume, pitch and tempo control

Berlin 2016

It’s time for some fun …

Minuet Demonstration

Berlin 2016

The architecture (v0.1)

ExercisesJSONfiles

data access

ExerciseController MidiSequencer(Drumstick + TiMidity/FP)

pcevent

pc

Core

PlayerControls

MinuetMenu ExerciseViewevent

QML UIsubsystem

event

Berlin 2016

The architecture (v0.2)

Definitionsand

ExercisesJSONfiles

data access

pc

Core

PlayerControls

MinuetMenu ExerciseViewevent

QML UISubsystem

(QtQuick Controls2)

SoundBackendPlugins

SoundBackendPlugins

SoundBackendPlugins

ExerciseController

PluginController

SoundBackendInterface

UIController

Berlin 2016

Minuet on your hands …

GSoC 2016 project (Ayush Shash)250 downloads since 21st August

Berlin 2016

The Android solution

● QtQuickControls2 (UI)● CSound (sound backend)

– Fluidsynth– sf_GMbank

● Extra CMake Modules (build system)

Berlin 2016

Minuet on your hands …

Berlin 2016

What’s next?

Berlin 2016

What’s next?

● Finish code convergence● Rethink UX● Improve UI for tablets● Sheet music support● Other music education content● Singing and clapping capabilities

Berlin 2016

Minuet and KDE Community

● KDE provides you everything needed to bootstrap a new free software project– VCS infrastructure– Tasks and code review (Phabricator)– Localization (Minuet is available in 20 languages)– CI– Bug reporting– Release and distribution– … friends :)

Berlin 2016

Minuet and KDE Community

● Join us, if you like …– Coding– Music– Artwork– Translating– People

● Talk to us– kde-edu@kde.org– #kde-edu IRC channel in freenode

Berlin 2016

Thanks !

Sandro Andrade@andradesandro