New Musical Instruments for the Physically Challenged -pleas

[hbursk]

Hello all,

I'm working on a project to create new Musical Instruments for people with limited to no mobility. Specifically, my target user is the musician who due to some health factor, (spinal injury, ALS...) can no longer play their instrument. What I'd like from you is a drawing of how you think of music when you're playing/writing/recording. Do you think of chord shapes? Do you think of melody lines or contours? Do you think note letters? Do you think do,re,me...? Use words and images to convey your perception. Use MS paint. Use whatever a mac might have that works well for painting.

On the same drawing, or on another, think of losing your freedom of motion. It's a hard thing to think about. Being a guitar player and no longer having use of your hands. What would it mean to you if you could barely move? Affecting your physical world became a huge obstacle?

Now what would it mean to you if you could in some new way, still create music. You're small movements could essentially be amplified, and you could perform and create. You can't move objects, but you can still move an audience.

Thanks so much for your help guys. I know this is a challenging request, but it would really assist in my ideation process.

Best,

Hayden
hbursk@stanford.edu

PS: I don't know if you can post images in this forum. So try to post here to keep them all together, but if that doesn't work send to my email above.

[fooks]

wow, tall order.

[cwight]

It's a tall order alright, and I suspect my guitarists can't (won't) contemplate the possibility of not being able to use their hands and hence not being able to play guitar. Now it may be that that musical creativity could/would find other outlets, but thinking about that in advance is extremely difficult.

However, in relation to you first request for a drawing about how we think about music, I suspect you aren't a guitar player yourself or you wouldn't really ask the question i that way. I don't want to suggest that we all think about it in the same way, but for most guitar players one essential way of thinking about playing is in terms of patterns on the fretboard. these are generally known as the five pentatonic positions and although very accomplished guitarists often move beyond them, almost any guitar player of whatever style will move through them initially and will fall back on them at some point. There are modification where you can add diff notes, but these are like the building blocks of guitar. You can find diagrams of them here and most guitar players I know will commit them to memory>

http://www.myguitarworkshop.com/Theory/Guitar_Pentatonic_Scales/Guitar-Major-Pentatonic-Scale-Box-Patterns.htm

[fooks]

i use my ears (and they are not so good)since i don't know theory except at the basic level and i think of shapes and patterns to help remember.

a music program that i could control and create with eye movement would be a good thing if i was severely handicapped. it would take probably no more time to create and record than a healthy person once the controls are learned and have some theory background.

[Wedgebill]

Having no knowledge of music theory I can comprehend what Cwighty is saying to you but don't think particularly along those lines. I do, however think of chord shapes and the way they make me feel when I hear them, the obvious movement from happy to sad when changing from a major to a minor, the feeling of suspense generated by an augmented or suspended chord and so on. On the lead side of things I tend to see a sine wave or graph in my head showing smooth curves or sharp peaks and troughs depending on smooth transitions or sharply struck or dubbed notes.

Once I have put some of this together I listen to it several, sometimes a lot of times and sure enough an emotion will form in my head, heart, mind, soul or wherever that special place is. Along with that the harmonics etc that "accidentally" finished up in the music will make me hear a melody and subsequently words will come into my head.

Sometimes it is none of the above and it just all happens at once, I hope this helps a bit

Uncle Bill

[jamienelson]

Hayden,

This is a very good idea. My sister (who has MS) and I have been working with adaptive equipment for the physically challenged for over a decade. I will put some thought into this and mention it to her as well.

I'd love to work with you on this. There are ways to overcome these challenges. I know, I've worked with several people that have. Where there's a will there's a way.

Jamie

[hbursk]

Hi guys,

Thanks very much for your responses. Jamie, I would love to work with you as well.

Here's my reasoning for asking these questions:

1) The way you think about music. I want to know because there's many different types of musicians out there, and many different instruments. A guitar player may think very differently from a saxophone player or simply, another guitar player. There are many physical devices out there now that allow someone to communicate with a computer. My point in asking how you think about music is to explore new interface ideaas. A piano keyboard on the screen that either goes up the scale or down the scale based on head position can be fun and exciting for children, but doesn't have the necessary musical expression for someone more serious. So in exploring how people think how music and the relationships between chords and notes overtime can provide some insight into a new intuitive interface.

2) I asked you think to about losing your mobility and still being able to play, since I want to make sure I'm answering the right question. By that I mean, I don't want to answer "I can't play my instrument, I want to play my instrument again". There's a question there in why you want to play your instrument again? Does it give you a sense of calm? Does it give you a creative outlet to express yourself? In which case, I would answer how can I give you a creative outlet to express yourself, or how can I calm you.