"In our society there are very few people who think they are musical."
And those people, maintains Shaun Elder, are underestimating themselves. It's why Elder, with the help of Toronto development studio
Moonrider, created a new app called
Piano Invention, which allows users to create their own musical compositions without relying on the traditional music vocabulary and notation. Instead, they move around objects on the screen to produce different sounds, and layer them. (Moonrider has developed a broader platform which allows users to manipulate sounds using visual information, says Elder.)
The goal, Elder says, is "trying to get people to fell like they can learn something about music without necessarily needing to spend 10 years on it."
Elder is hoping to engage young people who love music but have not had any formal music education. Though the app's creators had originally targeted kids in the 7+ age group, they've been hearing from early users that children as young as two have been playing with it.
"There's a million apps that will help you remix or mash-up," Elder says when we ask what makes Piano Inventions unique, "anything that's loop-based. But classical music isn't loop based, it's chord based."
As for taking inspiration from Glenn Gould: in part that is a natural hook, as the celebrated musician is such a part of local lore and a name many recognize. But it's also a function of Gould's distinctive approach to music-making. He was, says Elder, "kind of like a composer who played the piano," playing musical pieces in ways that vary substantially from how they were written (for instance, in double time). As the musical community marks what would have been Gould's 80th birthday, it's interesting to see how that unconventional approach to music-making is taking on new life, with tools Gould probably never imagined possible.
Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Shaun Elder, Creator, Piano Inventions