Play Fluency in Music Improvisation Games for Novices

Anne-Marie S. Hansen, Hans J. Anderson, and Pirkko Raudaskoski

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

In this paper a collaborative music game for two pen tablets is studied in order to see how two people with no professional music background negotiated musical improvisation. In an initial study of what it is that constitutes play fluency in improvisation, a music game has been designed and evaluated through video analysis: A qualitative view of mutual action describes the social context of music improvisation: how two people with speech, laughter, gestures, postures and pauses negotiate individual and joint action. The objective behind the design of the game application was to support players in some aspects of their mutual play. Results show that even though players activated additional sound feedback as a result of their mutual play, players also engaged in forms of mutual play that the game engine did not account for. These ways of mutual play are descibed further along with some suggestions for how to direct future designs of collaborative music improvisation games towards ways of mutual play.

Citation:

Anne-Marie S. Hansen, Hans J. Anderson, and Pirkko Raudaskoski. 2011. Play Fluency in Music Improvisation Games for Novices. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1178039

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{Hansen2011,
 abstract = {In this paper a collaborative music game for two pen tablets is studied in order to see how two people with no professional music background negotiated musical improvisation. In an initial study of what it is that constitutes play fluency in improvisation, a music game has been designed and evaluated through video analysis: A qualitative view of mutual action describes the social context of music improvisation: how two people with speech, laughter, gestures, postures and pauses negotiate individual and joint action. The objective behind the design of the game application was to support players in some aspects of their mutual play. Results show that even though players activated additional sound feedback as a result of their mutual play, players also engaged in forms of mutual play that the game engine did not account for. These ways of mutual play are descibed further along with some suggestions for how to direct future designs of collaborative music improvisation games towards ways of mutual play. },
 address = {Oslo, Norway},
 author = {Hansen, Anne-Marie S. and Anderson, Hans J. and Raudaskoski, Pirkko},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1178039},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 keywords = {Collaborative interfaces, improvisation, interactive music games, social interaction, play, novice. },
 pages = {220--223},
 title = {Play Fluency in Music Improvisation Games for Novices},
 url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2011/nime2011_220.pdf},
 year = {2011}
}