SpecialEffect's accessible GameBase

Level Playing Field is a two day event set up to showcase accessible music performance and technology. It's part of the City of London Festival's Golden Jubilee year, and plans to bring musicians of all abilities together. It runs on the 6th and 7th of July 2012.

Skoogmusic will be there with their latest developments (see the video below) as will Drake Music. Musician Clarence Adoo will be performing using mouth controlled instruments (see his Headspace page). There's mention of Eye-sound and Share Music Sweden. Basically a whole world of accessible music, performance and technology packed into two days.

Click the main picture above to see the time-table for the Level Playing Field event, and for booking details. It looks plenty exciting.

Skoogmusic YouTube Clip

In the very early days of the Skoog, before it was called the Skoog, this was the hope: That this accessible instrument would be a way into the mainstream for otherwise disabled musicians. Looks like it's happening. Fantastic!

The latest free upgrade (1.30) to the Skoog musical instrument brings "Skores" to life. Within this new feature, you can select a song from a drop down menu, then play guided by a flow of coloured shapes. It works really well in practice and will help a lot of musicians who find traditional music scores far too difficult.

Excitingly, I hear rumours of a one-side to play musical Skores in the works. Can't wait to see and try that out.

Today, we were approached by a teaching assistant at Temple Moor High School in Leeds, asking about switch accessible music:

His question was: "This year I am working with [a student] who told me about the great work that you do for people with disabilities. I want to allow [this student] and his peers to program drum beats using the music softwear we have in school. Basically I need to get three or more switches to trigger notes on a softwear sampler on PC/Mac. The softwear I am most likely to use will be Logic Pro". 

This got me thinking about switches and free on-line drum machines as a starting point...

Skoog musical instruments (PC or Mac) - Skoogmusic

What is a Skoog? A Skoog is wonderful. But that's not helpful is it? More specifically, it is a spongey, colourful, versatile musical instrument that plugs into your Mac or PC's USB socket.

What does it sound like? It can sound uncannily like real-world instruments due to the use of some clever stuff called Physical Modelling Synthesis. This allows the computer to replicate things like the pressure of breath down a virtual flute, and the tension of a string on a bass guitar. It can also play traditional samples and MIDI instruments in a range of interesting ways. In short, a rainbow of sounds are under the control of anyone who can interact with the Skoog, and most people will be able to do so.

Alright, but what does it really sound like? Well, here's an Electronic Soup Podcast, where you can hear our early Skoog experiments.

Wii-Nintendo
If you have little or no musical talent don’t fret (excuse the pun). A few quick introductory lessons from your tutor Sebastien Tute will get you jamming, improvising and even conducting an orchestra in no time.