This document discusses the design of an iOS app called Drum Loop, which aims to help beginners learn rhythm through intuitive visualizations. It notes that standard musical notation can be difficult for novices to understand rhythm from. The app represents rhythms spatially using a "time unit box system" for clarity. It also uses real drum patterns instead of simple notes to be more engaging. The document outlines various exercises and features the app prototype includes to teach rhythmic concepts in an accessible way through interaction.

1. Designing the
Drum Loop
Advisor:
Dr. Alex Ruthmann
A constructivist iOS rhythm
tutorial system for beginners
by Ethan Hein
December 17, 2013

2. Beginners struggle with the way that standard
notation represents rhythm
The two measures of music above occupy the same
time duration, but it would appear to a novice that the
first is much longer than the second. While there are
valid typographical reasons not to represent rhythms
by their lengths on the page, it makes the symbology
that much more difficult to understand.

3. What is the most
intuitive way to
visualize rhythm?
Here are eight visual
representations of
son clave transcribed
by Toussaint (2013).
The fifth method, the
time unit box system,
is the basis for most
drum machine and
sequencer interfaces.

4. Standard notation as a time-unit box system
Putting notation on a grid matches note durations
to spatial length, making it easier to understand.
"Check the Rhime" by A Tribe Called
Quest, as transcribed by Charlie Hely

5. The MIDI piano roll as a time-unit box system
TUBS are reasonably intuitive. However, it is still
difficult to see the relationship between metrically
related positions in a linear representation.
A drum pattern in Ableton Live's MIDI sequencer

6. Constructivist music teaching
Beginners work best
at the mid-level of
abstraction, with
figures, phrases and
riffs. Real-world
drum patterns are
more intuitive than
musical "simples"
like eighth notes,
rests and time
signatures.
Large-Scale Design
• Motivic elaboration/development
• Sections and sectional functions
• Similarities and differences across
events distanced in time
Beginners
arrive here
Traditional
western music
education
begins here
Mid-Level
• Figures, phrases and functions
• Stability/instability
• Arrivals and departures
Details
• Pitch and metric values
• Intervals and chords
• Notation
Adapted from
Bamberger (1996)

7. Prototyping with
Max/MSP/Jitter
Christopher Jacoby
and I were able to
create a working
Drum Loop prototype
in six weeks using
Max. However, our
standalone app
suffered from severe
performance and
responsiveness
problems.
The Drum Loop.maxpat
model
sequencer
view
controller
drum circle
drum machine
drum wedge
poly drumbuffer
sequence
splitter
presentation
positioning
note on
poltocar
present
drumsamples

8. A breakbeat exercise: The Funky Drummer

9. Visualizing swing by resizing grid cells

10. A usability challenge - maximizing target area

11. Beyond the music classroom: math mode

12. A genre exercise: Four on the floor

13. A compositional challenge: subtractive rhythm

14. A kid-friendly version: the Groove Pizza

15. Other beginner-oriented radial rhythm apps
Propellerhead Figure

16. Casual Underground Loopseque

17. O-music O-generator

18. The Drum Loop's design contribution
• Presents an interface of toylike simplicity
• Uses culturally authentic and significant rhythms as
a springboard to the user’s own musical expression
• Makes clear which events are metrically related
• Reveals symmetries in the music that may not be
immediately apparent to the ear
• Creates an intuitive visualization of concepts like
syncopation and hemiola