Playpens, Fireflies and Squeezables: New Musical Instruments for Bridging the Thoughtful and the Joyful

The author discusses research in music cognition and education indicating that novices and untrained students perceive and learn music in a fundamentally different manner than do expert musicians. Based on these studies, he suggests implementing high-level musical percepts and constructionist learning schemes in new expressive musical instruments that would provide thoughtful and joyful musical activities for novices and experts alike. The author describes several instruments---the Musical Playpen, Fireflies and Squeezables---that he has developed in an effort to provide novices with access to rich and meaningful musical experiences and recounts observations and interviews of subjects playing these instruments. Gil Weinberg is a doctoral candidate in the Hyperinstrument group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory. He holds an undergraduate degree from Tel Aviv University in music and computer science and a graduate degree in media arts and sciences from MIT. His work, which was recently featured in Ars Electronica, focuses on designing and building networked musical instruments for novices and experts. Weinberg's latest composition, Nerve, premiered in February 2002 with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Gil Weinberg (composer, researcher), MIT Media Laboratory, 20 Ames Street E15-445, Cambridge, MA 02139, U.S.A. E-Mail: .