SBIR Phase II: Empowering Music Learning Through Composition on Mobile Devices

该项目将满足无障碍、创造性音乐教育的需求。超过90%的美国人认为音乐教育是有价值的，但很少有人能学到足够的知识来创作自己的音乐。乐器课对于一些初学者来说是学习音乐的好方法;然而，乐器课既昂贵又困难，并且以牺牲创造力为代价专注于表演和技术。这个项目使用一个简单的视听作曲界面，使音乐学习者能够从音乐教育的一开始就在移动的设备上创作自己的原创音乐。通过将这种直观的作曲界面与数据跟踪和分析相结合，该项目为音乐制作者创造了在作曲时提供个性化，自适应反馈的机会。目前，美国每年花费30亿美元用于乐器课程，尽管许多潜在客户负担不起。通过利用全球移动的设备的激增，该项目将提供一个可访问的，低成本的数字音乐教育选项，创造一个新的市场，包括客户谁是目前的价格了。扩大对创意音乐教育的参与将提高全球音乐创作的数量和质量，同时建立可持续的创收业务并创造新的就业机会。通过数据驱动的敏捷软件开发，该项目将通过创建一个技术平台，为音乐初学者提供自适应学习，从而满足对无障碍音乐教育的需求。因为这个项目所建立的平台已经能够每周创作数千首歌曲，并从实时用户那里收集使用数据，所以这个项目具有独特的优势，可以解决大规模创造性工作的算法反馈的复杂问题。研究和开发将分四个阶段进行：（1）扩展内部工具，允许直接分析每周在平台上创建的数千首歌曲;（2）开发一种算法方法来分析歌曲并向用户报告结果;（3）应用分析将用户与相关社区和合作者相匹配;（4）将用户与其他用户相匹配。以及（4）实施自适应学习方法以帮助用户更有效地学习创作音乐。这种分阶段的开发过程将产生一种创新的、高度差异化的技术，使没有音乐经验的初学者能够创作自己的音乐，并在学习过程中使用数据积极支持他们的个人需求。

This project will address the need for accessible, creative music education. Over 90% of Americans believe music education is valuable, but very few people ever learn enough to create their own music. Instrument lessons are a great way for some beginners to learn about music; however, instrument lessons are expensive and difficult, and focus on performance and technique at the expense of creativity. This project uses a simple audiovisual composition interface to empower music learners to create their own original music on mobile devices from the very beginning of their music education. By combining this intuitive composition interface with data tracking and analysis, this project creates the opportunity to provide music makers with personalized, adaptive feedback as they compose. Currently, $3 billion are spent each year in the United States on instrument lessons, even though they are unaffordable for many potential customers. By leveraging the proliferation of mobile devices worldwide, this project will deliver an accessible, low-cost digital music education option, creating a new market that includes customers who are currently priced out. Expanding participation in creative music education will increase the quantity and quality of music composed worldwide, while also building a sustainable, revenue-generating business and creating new jobs.Through data-driven agile software development, this project will address the need for accessible music education through the creation of a technology platform that delivers adaptive learning to musical beginners. Because the platform upon which this project is built is already empowering the creation of thousands of songs each week and collecting usage data from live users, this project is uniquely positioned to tackle the complex problem of providing algorithmic feedback on creative work at scale. Research and development will proceed in four stages: (1) expanding internal tools to allow for direct analysis of the thousands of songs being created on the platform each week; (2) developing an algorithmic approach to analyzing songs and reporting the results to users; (3) applying analysis to match users with relevant communities and collaborators; and (4) implementing adaptive learning approaches to help users more effectively learn to create music. This staged development process will result in an innovative and highly differentiated technology that enables beginners with no musical experience to compose their own music, and uses data to actively support their individual needs as they learn.