Black dots on five horizontal lines translates to music. Different types of music notes and symbols might scare newcomers at first glance. Especially children with low attention span struggle to concentrate and understand the meaning of the different dots. I would like to explore different user interface methods in music teaching, including the use of colors and symbols. I will research approaches to make it easier for children to understand the concept of pitch and rhythm. The goal is to simply make music education more user friendly to newcomers.
Existing solutions
I am clearly not the first person wanting to solve this challenge. There are a lot of existing solutions on the market, trying to teach people music in a fun and simple way.
One competitor and inspirational source is YouTube tutorials in general. Without showing any music notation at all, the videos show how to play songs such as “River Flows in You” and “All of Me” on piano. The number of views prove that they are considerably popular, so I want to find out why people prefer them over traditional sheet music. Is it easier to follow? More fun? More efficient? And is it possible to transform them into an analog format?
Another existing solution is completely new on the market. In October 2023, the language learning application Duolingo released their own music course. It is focused mainly on piano, and the users learn music notation through the courses from a beginner’s level. The format is similar to their language courses, and colors are used to make it easier for the users to remember the different musical notes. In general, the course is well structured and easy to follow.
Several other music teaching apps has been on the market for over ten years, and the market is still growing. There are clearly a lot of different ways to learn music, but can it really compete with traditional sheet music? I hope to figure that out.
Personal motivation and design relevance
In my early primary school years, I was struggling with music theory and notation myself. I have played the trumpet since I was 6 years and started doing piano lessons in fifth grade. I have developed a love for music, but also experienced some difficulties along the way. I personally know how hard it could be to pay attention in piano lessons, as well as knowing which major to play in when 3 sharp notes are listed.
As a designer, I enjoy facilitating good user experiences. Based on my own background, I am motivated by the idea of making music education more accessible and user friendly. Design is all about understanding people and approach the users’ needs, and I aim to do so through the research of different user interfaces in music education.
Expected challenges
Working alone on such a big project will certainly lead to different challenges. Here are some of the ones I am already expecting:
As a foreigner, it might be difficult to get in touch with potential users or area experts. I think qualitative interviews would be great for my research, but it requires that I find the right people.
It could also be challenging to be innovative and broaden my thinking, as there are already a lot of different existing solutions on the market. On the other hand, it could also be a challenge to scope the project, because I find so many parts of the concept interesting.
Upcoming steps
- Analyze existing solutions
- What do they offer?
- Why do they work or why do they not?
- What is good and what can be done different?
- Look into other interesting disciplines
- Are there concepts from other disciplines that could inspire?
- Are there concepts from other disciplines that could inspire?
- Read more research articles related to the topic
- Collect interesting findings and use it further in my research
- Collect interesting findings and use it further in my research
- Talk to people with relevant experience
- Gather primary research from people with real experiences
- People that have attended music lessons or gained musical skills in another way
- People that have attended music lessons or gained musical skills in another way
- Gather primary research from people with real experiences
- Start experimenting with symbols and colors
- Get my ideas down on the paper
- Potentially testing out different interfaces on relevant users
Relevant institutions
Institutt for musikk NTNU – Norwegian University of Science and Technology: https://www.ntnu.no/musikk
Trondheim Kulturskole: https://www.kulturskolentrondheim.no/no
Music learning platform Musicca: https://www.musicca.com
Duolingo music course: https://blog.duolingo.com/music-course/
