Musical Control Gestures in Mobile Handheld Devices: Design Guidelines Informed by Daily User Experience

Mobile handheld devices, such as smartphones and tablets, have become some of the most prominent ubiquitous terminals within the information and communication technology landscape. Their transformative power within the digital music domain changed the music ecosystem from production to distribution and consumption. Of interest here is the ever-expanding number of mobile music applications. Despite their growing popularity, their design in terms of interaction perception and control is highly arbitrary. It remains poorly addressed in related literature and lacks a clear, systematized approach. In this context, our paper aims to provide the first steps towards defining guidelines for optimal sonic interaction design practices in mobile music applications. Our design approach is informed by user data in appropriating mobile handheld devices. We conducted an experiment to learn links between control gestures and musical parameters, such as pitch, duration, and amplitude. A twofold action—reflection protocol and tool-set for evaluating the aforementioned links—are also proposed. The results collected from the experiment show statistically significant trends in pitch and duration control gesture mappings. On the other hand, amplitude appears to elicit a more diverse mapping approach, showing no definitive trend in this experiment.

Advocating for Mobile Music Technology

The chapter reviews the benefits of implementing mobile technology in the music classroom. Matters relating to integrating mobile devices in the traditional music rehearsal setting and addressing new learning opportunities in music and media arts are presented. A detailed schedule of a class day with incorporating music technology is offered. Strategies for financing and maintaining mobile technology, as well as ways to avoid common implementation minefields, are given. A large selection of suggested apps useful in the rehearsal space is given. Further, the chapter includes practical, real-world strategies from the field to help teachers successfully adventure into the world of mobile technology in the music classroom.

On the Move: Principal Components of the Functions and Experiences of Mobile Music Listening

Mobile music listening is widely recognized as an integral part of everyday music use. It is also a rather peculiar experience, since the listeners are surrounded by strangers in public and at the same time engaged in a solitary and private activity. The current study aimed at investigating the functions and experiences of mobile listening with a quantitative online questionnaire, and collected further information about mobile listening situations and listening habits. Among respondents ( n = 203), 89% reported listening to music while being on the move. We found mood-related and cognitive functions to be most prevalent (e.g., enhancing mood, relaxation, prevention of being bored), whereas least important functions relate to social dimensions (e.g., feeling less lonely, feeling less watched). Regarding experiences of mobile music, respondents most commonly adapted their mood to the music and lost touch with the current surroundings. A principal component analysis on ratings of functions and experiences resulted in an underlying structure of five dimensions, representing different levels of involvement: (1) Mood Management comprises functions to satisfy individual needs; (2) Absorption and Aestheticization encompasses deep listening experiences and altered perception of the surroundings; (3) Social Encapsulation and Self-Focus describe the distancing of oneself and changes in attention; (4) Distraction and Passing Time include the prevention of being bored and making time pass faster; and (5) Auditory Background is defined by a non-attentive and rather unaffected music listening. These results highlight the immersiveness of mobile music listening. By creating an individual soundworld, listeners distance themselves from the surroundings aurally and mentally, and modify their attention, perception, moods, and emotions, leading to an improvement of daily life experiences while moving.

THE DESIGN OF THE PROTOTYPE MOBILE MUSIC APPLICATION

The article analyses the UI and UX concepts of popular music platforms and streaming services in terms of usability and functionality. Popular analogues of music apps are analysed – Apple music, YouTube music, Yandex music, Boom. The results of a design study devoted to the problem of promoting young performers to the music market are presented. Topicality of the problem is confirmed by the growing popularity of music services and applications among users. The stages of developing a prototype of a music application using the Figma programme are presented. The process of team work on a prototype of a mobile application with planning of project stages and distribution of tasks between team members, using scrum technology is shown.

Data-Driven Analysis of Tiny Touchscreen Performance with MicroJam

The widespread adoption of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, has made touchscreens a common interface for musical performance. Although new mobile music instruments have been investigated from design and user experience perspectives, there has been little examination of the performers' musical output. In this work, we introduce a constrained touchscreen performance app, MicroJam, designed to enable collaboration between performers, and engage in a data-driven analysis of more than 1,600 performances using the app. MicroJam constrains performances to five seconds, and emphasizes frequent and casual music-making through a social media–inspired interface. Performers collaborate by replying to performances, adding new musical layers that are played back at the same time. Our analysis shows that users tend to focus on the center and diagonals of the touchscreen area, and that they tend to swirl or swipe rather than tap. We also observe that, whereas long swipes dominate the visual appearance of performances, the majority of interactions are short with limited expressive possibilities. Our findings enhance our understanding of how users perform in touchscreen apps and could be applied in future app designs for social musical interaction.

Impact of Music on Vocally Expressed Emotions and Moods in Nostalgia

The impetus of this research work is to study the impact of musical therapy and songs to excite the human emotion with respect to the past memory. At the primitive music history, music was the tool of entertainment and was in the access of elite class only. But now a day it is in the access of every hand in the form of mobile music player. This will figure out the role of music in our life with respect to its role in emotion driving ability. Considering the influence and the role of music in controlling our psychology, it is much important that it should be used as positive emotion driver. This research will help us to explore the use of music in our routine life and endeavours to determine its value to our emotions. Private school teachers will be asked to share their experience about Nostalgia remembering their past