DrumSteps

Submitted By Fionnuala O\'Donnell on 15 May, 2006

Case Study: DrumSteps

DrumSteps is a screen based virtual environment which allows users to build sets of steps and produce percussion sounds by dropping balls down the steps. The number of horizontal steps controls the time between notes while the height of each step controls accent / volume. Timbre is embodied in the ball and the full range of general midi percussion sounds is supported [1]. The concept was originally conceived by Kevin Jennings in response to the need to aid teachers in engaging children more easily in the core musical activities of composing, listening and performing. Its aim was to enable children to engage in rhythmic music construction and composition without the need for prior musical training, ability to play an instrument or read standard music notation [2]. The theory of learning underpinning the application was that of constructionism, which argues that knowledge is built by the learner and not supplied by the teacher. This is thought to happen especially felicitously when the learner is engaged in the construction of something external or at least sharable.           However, in order to engage children in the act of constructing their own musical scores there was need of a facility to enable them to undo their work if need be, to copy sections of their pieces and to insert them into different locations. Equally, there was need of an application to enable a user to save his own work for future development or storage, to isolate sections of his score for critical analysis through listening, to encompass the full range of musical idioms and to provide a host of different percussion sounds. The original version of DrumSteps was very simplistic in nature. It was developed by Kevin as proof of concept.

            Figure 1: Original version of DrumSteps.

It consisted of four playing fields into which a user could insert a number of steps, cymbals and a ball. Each playing field was designated to play one of four sounds. These were snare, congo, woodblock and hihat.  However, in order to realise the full potential of the application, there was need of input and consultation with developers.  Such consultation resulted in the redevelopment of the application from a flash based version to that of a java application. The level of functionality afforded by it was extended to include edit features similar to that offered by Microsoft word and to enable a user to start, pause, reset his piece and change its tempo.  Moreover, the four playing areas were reunited into one so as to provide a user with a large playing area into which he could place any number of balls. A user could choose to associate with a ball one of forty five different percussion sounds. Equally, the repertoire of musical symbols was extended to include, for example, a trigger, which would enable a user to designate a section of his score to play at a particular point in time and to play for a set number of times. The consultation process was driven not by the level of functionality that the technology could afford but by the need to make music notation more accessible and transparent to children.  Many of the advanced features included in the Java version arose as a consequence of the active collaboration between partners that is, Kevin and the developers and as such cannot be directly attributable to one party or the other. As a consequence of its design, DrumSteps has undergone a number of iterations. Today, there exists a networked version which enables two or more children to collaborate together to build their own compositional scores. There also exists a shockwaved version which one download for free from the BBC educational web site.

            Figure 2: Java based version of DrumSteps.

Although the creation of DrumSteps varies slightly from that documented by the Storyboarding pattern, in that Kevin created the initial idea and mock up, all remaining stages in the pattern were adhered to.

References

[1]        K. Jennings, "Computer Graphical Interfaces, Reflection and Music Composition, A Holistic Study", Department of Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin, Phd,2006, p. 1 - 300

[2]        K. Jennings and B. Tangney, "DrumSteps: A Constructionist Approach to Music Learning," Presented at 9th International Technological Directions in Music Learning Conference, San Antonio, Texas, 2002. pp. 55-64