A Case Study in Collaborative Learning via Participatory Music Interactive Systems: Interactive Tango Milonga

Abstract

This chapter investigates design strategies for developing digital musical instruments (DMIs) for participatory music. In particular, we present strategies to enhance collaborative musical skills such as rhythmic entrainment and listening/responding to other participants: building skills of this kind has the capacity to motivate long-term usage and adoption of the DMI by a broad range of communities. The design strategies described here address the problems of developing DMIs for long-term use, both in collaborative, mixed skill level contexts, and in established musical and dance traditions. Interactive Tango Milonga—presented here as a case study—is an interactive dance system allowing social tango dancers to drive musical outcomes in real-time via their dance movement. Motion sensors are attached to dancers, and the signals from these sensors are sent to a computer, where an algorithm transforms them into tango music. The impact of the interactive tango system on the musical listening and response of tango dancer participants is analyzed and discussed.