Introduction
Tapestry aims to work in partnership with Scottish local authorities on the progression of good practice.  This initiative is a world first.  It sees the product of a completely new musical instrument for children and young people who have profound challenges in learning.

Those involved in this partnership include NESTA, Tapestry, lead local authorities for Music and the Mind and partner academic institutions.  In this case it is Easy Ayrshire, Fife, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Edinburgh University Department of Music and Scottish Enterprise-Glasgow. 

The Aim of the Project
The aim of this project is to design and build an exciting entirely new musical instrument, which may be played to a high standard of musicianship, expressivity and sound quality by children and others who are unable to play conventional musical instruments.

This research is ground-breaking.  The concept, design, development and application of this new musical instrument supercedes any prior invention.  It brings together in Scotland, for the first time, a multi-disciplinary team which comprises academic leaders in research and innovation; Scottish Enterprise and speciality manufacturers; directors of education; advisers; experienced teachers and staff who work with children who have profound physical and learning challenges.

The Origins of the Project
This project came about as a result of Tapestry’s response to its lead local authorities.  Early discussions in the Music and the Mind group envisaged a large-scale research project investigating the positive impact of music on all young learners.  Further discussions, and extensive consultation at a grass roots level, identified a need for better engagement of learning for those children who have profound physical and learning challenges.  The concept of a new musical instrument proposed by Professor Nigel Osborne was unanimously accepted.  Tapestry is fortunate that Professor Nigel Osborne leads the Music and the Mind strand and directs this research project.  He is Reid Professor of Music at the University of Edinburgh and acknowledged international figure in music as therapy for children with special needs. This secured a commitment from and the support of the four directors of education from the Music and the Mind authorities. 

In discussion with NESTA, it was proposed that the new musical instrument should be seen as an independent project.  This was gladly accepted, as NESTA is well placed to offer expertise and guidance in the area of Technology, Education and the Arts. It was agreed that the new instrument also has commercial potential and that an objective of the core team should be to maximise this opportunity.

The Instrument
The new instrument will combine three features, entirely new to music and lifelong learning and two features, new to technology itself:

• a powerful way of sensing fine or limited movement of the body, such as to make the instrument available to people with a wide range of abilities and disabilities.
• a way of understanding and interpreting the musical meaning and expressivity of such movement.
• a way of communicating this meaning and expressivity to a new, flexible and beautiful source of musical sound, offering the opportunity for learning, progression and profound creativity.

Scientific and Action Research Process
The research will be divided into two strands:

• Scientific and action research related directly to development of the new instrument.
• Action research in the local authorities relating to the wider, integrated Tapestry Music and the Mind agenda of music, health and new technology.

Objectives

• to fulfil the local authorities’ brief to design a musical instrument for disability; the instrument should be available for a maximum achievable range of disability; it should be capable of musical “expressivity” and of offering a musical “learning” experience; it should have an interesting and rewarding sound;
• to fulfil more general ambitions, it should also be of interest to the population as a whole;
• to fulfil the NESTA brief, it should be a practical and economic proposition for manufacture.

Principal Areas for Research and Development

• the control/s
  control/s will be accessed “off the shelf”; the principal research will be establishing what works best regarding expressive movement for disabled people, and what offers the best interface etc. for these purposes; it is possible there may be more than one control, to accommodate a wider range of disability; if possible, the control may include sensory feedback in addition to the sound;

• expressivity
  an “intelligent” expressivity will be included, using the mathematics of expressive movement; this will require dedicated research, and will be developed in close tandem with control selection;

• the sound
  this will make use of “modelling” technology, which offers control of the “internal” expressive parameters of musical sound; there is the possibility (and desirability) of installing more than one instrumental model, and indeed more “experimental” sounds; it is envisaged that sound will be controlled both “in time”, and in relation to programmable sequencing devices; this work will also require dedicated research and careful coordination and interfacing with the expressivity information output.

The Key People: The Young Volunteers

All children/young people in the four lead local authorities have extremely challenging learning problems due to physical disabilities.

There are 8 schools involved in the progression of the new musical instrument.  In each of the 4 local authorities viz: East Ayrshire, Fife, North Ayrshire and North Lanarkshire and under the direction of Professor Nigel Osborne different programmes are progressing in each establishment to meet the various demands of the childrens/young peoples learning.

To date, a play-doh phone, a mirror phone, underwater speakers and various CD’s have been produced – whilst the production of the new (main) musical instrument is being progressed.

The Key People: The Team

Professor Nigel Osborne’s key team in the progression of the instrument comprises:

• Emeritus Professor David Lee
• Professor Murray Campbell
• Dr David Skulina
• Dr Ben Schogler

The local authority teams are led by:

• Brian Kerr – North Ayrshire Council
• John O’Dowd – North Lanarkshire Council
• Graeme Wilson – Fife Council
• John Wilson – East Ayrshire Council

NESTA

• Siobhan Edwards was key to the establishment of this exciting project. Tapestry owes Siobhan many thanks.
• Ian Ritchie and Barry Ellis are Tapestry’s supervisors for the project.

Scottish Enterprise Glasgow and The Kelvin Institute are currently advising Tapestry on the production of the new musical instrument.  It is envisaged that the launch of the prototype will take place in the summer of 2008.