5 ms·
Steve Reich’s Clapping Music aims to teach people how to perform a piece of contemporary music from the ground up: http://clappingmusicapp.com/ http://clappingm
by a-martyn 8y ago
Steve Reich’s Clapping Music aims to teach people how to perform a piece of contemporary music from the ground up:
http://clappingmusicapp.com/ http://clappingmusicapp.com/
[full disclosure] I developed this. We collaborated with London Sinfonietta Orchestra to get the pedagogy right.
We aimed to make a game that is both engaging and addictive, whilst also teaching real musical skill (in contrast to say Guitar Hero :o). The pedagogy and game mechanics did clash into each other during development, we did a lot of user testing to find a balance. Raph Koster's Theory of Fun for Game Design was invaluable, as were lectures and posts by Daniel Cook.
It's a hard game, especially for people with no musical background, but nonetheless we had strong engagement.
Players who topped the leaderboard after a few months were invited to perform at a live event. They were pretty good, but then I didn't see them perform before they played the game.
- sbilstein 8y agoThat's incredible that you got to work on something with Steve Reich. I saw him recently at the SF Symphony and he performed some clapping music pieces alongside Michael Tilson Thomas. Steve Reich is a legend for sure!
- Raph_Koster 8y agoI'm tickled that my book was helpful!
- xcubic 8y agoIs there any chance for an android version?
- jedimastert 8y agoRight? Or even an online version where you tap the space bar or something
- xcubic 8y agoGood idea too!
- mm_aa 8y agoExcellent app! And great music. Had so much fan playing it instead of sleeping last night. There’s only one thing I wish (musician here): slightly bigger visual distance before strong beats? Or make a circle a itty bit larger? This is the only reason I might prefer musical notation for sight reading. Technical question: can you tell about latency? What’s the typical? Is it consistent across devices? PS now I have to beat this thing on hard...
- kashyapc 8y ago[tangent] Speaking of Steve Reich, if you haven't yet listened to his glorious Music for 18 Musicians ensemble piece (duration: 55 minutes), do give it[1] a try. An explanation of the composition and its structure: http://www.18musicians.com/genreunique.html http://www.18musicians.com/genreunique.html http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/catalogue/cat_detail?musicid=548 http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/catalogue/cat_detail?musicid=... [1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXJWO2FQ16c https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXJWO2FQ16c [/tangent]
- pavedwalden 8y agoThanks for making that game! When I was trying to learn better rhythm, I found it really interesting. I never got very good at it, but it was an engaging tool.