How to Choose and Change an Acoustic Guitar String

I’m a proud member of the , a research group that crosses the disciplines of music education, technology, and design. Here’s an overview of our many ongoing projects.

Performance interfaces

My personal baby is the , an outgrowth of my . It’s a prototype circular rhythm interface that we’re shaping into a powerful math teaching tool. Try it yourself:

My other major personal involvement is in the , which turns any computer keyboard into a futuristic MIDI controller.

You can choose from a variety of scale and chord mappings, and then jam or compose with the confidence that you can’t play a wrong note. You can use our built-in sound library, or you can  play software instruments from Logic, GarageBand, Ableton, and so on.

Music theory

The aQWERTYon and Groove Pizza are core components of a new learning tool called , part of the  series. They were originally conceived as MOOCs, but have since evolved into online learning communities. All of the recording, mixing, editing and performance interfaces run in the web browser, so you don’t need any additional hardware or software to participate.

Conferences and workshops

The MusEDLab lab hosts regular , , and the annual . Here’s the sizzle reel for last summer’s conference, in which you can see me awkwardly breakdancing!

Hip-hop education

The lab has a close relationship with the . We’re creating web tools in support of , an amazing initiative that teaches various humanities subjects using hip-hop. We’re talking to them about incorporating the Groove Pizza into their work as well. And we play host to –last summer a kid designed a biology game starring a character named Homie O. Stasis.

Chamber music

Other folks in the lab are working with the to create a set of . I’m particularly fond of the , giving you the chance to see and hear a Haydn performance from the players’ perspectives. There’s also a cool .

Finally, lab director has been consulting on a new multitrack audio format called , which lets you hear a song’s instruments and vocals in isolation or the mix of your choosing, and also layers in video, lyrics, and even guitar chords. It’s sadly not available in the US yet, but if you’re in Europe, you can download away.

How can I help?

If you are an educator, coder, or designer, and you want to get involved, . If you’re a philanthropist or grantmaker and you want to support us, definitely . Also, we’ll be spinning off a business arm this winter; if you’d like to become an investor, as well.