ABSTRACT
Percussionists are unique among western classical instrumentalists in that their artistic practice is defined by an approach to interaction rather than their instruments. While percussionists are accustomed to exploring non-traditional objects to create music, these objects have yet to encompass touch-screen computing devices to any great extent. The proliferation and popularity of these devices now presents an opportunity to explore their use in combining computer-generated sound together with percussive interaction in a musical ensemble.
This paper examines Ensemble Metatone, a group formed to explore the "infiltration" of iPad-based musical instruments into a free-improvisation percussion ensemble. We discuss the design approach for two different iPad percussion instruments and the methodology for exploring them with the group over a series of rehearsals and performances. Qualitative analysis of discussions throughout this process shows that the musicians developed a vocabulary of gestures and musical interactions to make musical sense of these new instruments.
Supplemental Material
- Bragdon, A., Nelson, E., Li, Y., and Hinckley, K. Experimental analysis of touch-screen gesture designs in mobile environments. In Proc. CHI 2011, ACM Press (2011), 403--412. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Braun, V., and Clarke, V. Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3, 2 (2006), 77--101.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Cahn, W. L. Creative Music Making. Routledge, 2005.Google Scholar
- Cook, G. Teaching Percussion. Schirmer Books, 1997.Google Scholar
- Costello, B., Muller, L., Amitani, S., and Edmonds, E. Understanding the experience of interactive art: Iamascope in beta space. In Interactive Entertainment 2005, Creativity & Cognition Studios Press (2005), 49--56. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Hayden, S., and Windsor, L. Collaboration and the composer: Case studies from the end of the 20th century. Tempo 61, 240 (2007), 28--39.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Hinrichs, U., and Carpendale, S. Gestures in the wild: studying multi-touch gesture sequences on interactive tabletop exhibits. In Proc. CHI 2011, ACM Press (2011), 3023--3032. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Hook, J., Green, D., McCarthy, J., Taylor, S., Wright, P., and Olivier, P. A vj centered exploration of expressive interaction. In Proc. CHI 2011, ACM Press (2011), 1265--1274. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Hook, J., McCarthy, J. C., Wright, P., and Olivier, P. Waves: exploring idiographic design for live performance. In Proc. CHI 2013, ACM Press (2013), 2969--2978. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ouyang, T., and Li, Y. Bootstrapping personal gesture shortcuts with the wisdom of the crowd and handwriting recognition. In Proc. CHI 2012, ACM Press (2012), 2895--2904. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Schick, S. The Percussionist's Art: Same Bed, Different Dreams. University of Rochester Press, 2006.Google Scholar
- Wobbrock, J. O., Morris, M. R., and Wilson, A. D. User-defined gestures for surface computing. In Proc. CHI 2009, ACM Press (2009), 1083--1092. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
Exploring percussive gesture on iPads with ensemble metatone
Recommendations
Metatravels and metalonsdale: ipad apps for percussive improvisation
CHI EA '14: CHI '14 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing SystemsPercussionists are unique among instrumentalists in that their artistic practice is defined by an approach to interaction rather than their instruments. While percussionists are accustomed to exploring non-traditional objects to create music, these ...
Sonic Gestures Applied to a Percussive Dialogue in TanGram Using Wii Remotes
ICEC '09: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Entertainment ComputingTanGram, is an original music score composed by Carlos D. Perales for Percussion Quartet and Nintendo Wii Remotes used as a wireless interface for Live Electronics. This paper examines how this composition explores exiting research in interaction and ...
Harmonic/percussive sound separation based on anisotropic smoothness of spectrograms
This paper describes a method to separate a monaural music signal into harmonic components e.g., a guitar and percussive components, e.g., a snare drum. Separation of these two components is a useful preprocessing for many music information retrieval ...
Comments