MusicalAid: A Playful Collaborative Music Tool for People Finding it Difficult to Handle Common Instruments

MusicalAid is a tangible music system that allows people with different musical literacy and gross/fine motoric skills to play and create music together, either guided by a predefined rhythm or in a ‘free play’ mode. The system is composed of a main unit and a set of ‘instruments’, for example joysticks, a board with large buttons or soft interfaces like pillows with areas that act as switches. MusicalAid is designed so all instruments can at a basic level be synchronized to play to the same rhythm or beat, so they all sound at the same time. MusicalAid was originally developed for adults on the autistic spectrum with gross/fine-motoric limitations but MusicalAid can also allow people in general with different musical and motoric capabilities to play together. Therefore, MusicalAid enables a fun music experience for people that find handling traditional musical instruments challenging, or simply someone who just likes to jam.