W13 CONCEPT PRESENTATION

My current concept is to build a neck of string instrument which can easily combine with daily materials like biscuit box to form a whole guitar-like instrument. There will be marks on the neck to simplify the learning progress. It's aimed to enlighten kids in the impoverished area aged from 11 to 14. I hope by playing their favorite pop songs with this product, they can grow musical sense, get the necessary knowledge and have fun. (Probably build a drum too)

I did my research by reading reports, interview people, and questioner. The first problem of my study is to define my target users and learn more about them. This project comes from an experience of mine. Three years age I went to a remote primary school as a volunteer in Yunnan province. The school there received a plenty donation of sports equipment, but they don’t have a single piece of musical instruments. None of the teachers there knows how to play one. Therefore, the kids there know nothing about musical notation or any other musical knowledge. I went to an orphanage in Sichuan province one year later they have an electronic piano and a drum kit. But still no one knows how to play it. Musical instruments are like useless decoration there. Even in Beijing we have compulsory musical education in public schools most of the kids from floating population don’t have the chance to learn one. The most direct reason is parents in the remote area or parents with lower income don’t think is necessary to educate their kids in music, or they are unable to provide this opportunity. To sum this, kids I met in Yunnan, Sichuan and Beijing they all share the same situation. Can’t get a musical instrument and even they can no one is going to teach them.

I talked to the kids I met in Yunnan province online they pretty enjoy the same pop music as children in other parts of China do. And they can access The Internet by their cell phone they also download pop music from that. Which lead me to other questions. How many kids are there in China sharing the same problem? How is their particular living condition? How I define ‘impoverished’? Because I’ve been there, I know how that place looks like, how their house looks like, but they do have access to Internet and kids have their cell phone. According to National Bureau of Statistic, 45% of our population is from the rural area, which is over 618 million people including 108 million kids. The average disposable income is 1000 pound per year per person the province Yunnan I went is 838 pound. The popularity rate of Internet is 48%. In Henan province, there are only 12.5% of primary school have the skilled musical teacher. To sum it, although I have the problem with getting to know their living condition, the kids I met in Yunnan, Sichuan and Beijing are representative. Those kids are my users. I aim to fix the problem that they can’t get a musical instrument and no one going to teach them. I hope my product will be between musical toys to a proper instrument.

Next problem is I need to find an instrument to base on. I searched online and interviewed two people who played in a symphonic band for ten years to understand different instruments. I tried to learn the construction, turning, notation and price of natural wind, string, percussion and keyboard instruments. I also found many unusual instruments during this survey. Then weighted them in five aspects: stability, learning, making, attraction and notation. I also tried to build DIY musical instruments turns out is not suitable for this case. I talked to two students, two musicians, and one vocal teacher and received feedback of my questionnaire from two other musical teachers. I tried to contact the staff of Landfill harmonica, music adviser to Dundee city council and charity. They gave me plenty advice on teaching method, kids’ motivation and helped me decided my direction. Owing to that information above I found guitar-liked instrument suit this case best. Drum and wind instruments are the second best due to the entertainment and the price.

During my research on guitar-like instruments and the making of them, I found cigar box guitar, Travel Guitar, and DIY ukulele. Cigar-box guitar simplifies the ordinary guitar; it only have three strings and some of them have no frets. Travel guitar takes much smaller space it nearly only has the neck left. And there is DIY ukulele site on sell on the market. Those three instruments and many others inspired me to develop this concept. I build a model to see how a can resonance. Although this is for improvised kids, it should be as exquisite as possible in shape and sound. Speaking of the way people engage with it, the less making progress, the better.

It’s unlikely to build a string instrument that doesn't require tuning a lot; it’s not hard to change the tension of the string. How to teach kids to turn it and the set of fundamental tone is the problem.

How the neck connected with the body is an important issue, it needs to fit verify size and be stable enough. With the aim to reduce cost, there may be traditional methods like tenon-and-mortise, tension, screwing and so on.

Along with my research, I fancy the idea that a neck can turn anything into a musical instrument I came up with. But it requires technology support, which may make it not the best solution for reducing cost. At the mean time, I have had the problem with contact my target users as I’m so far way from my country. I still don’t have valid proof that kids in there will like this product.

I decided to focus on the design part now; meanwhile, I’m going to try to learn my users better. I’m planning to talk to them during Christmas break as I’m going back to my country. Learning pack is also important in design part. As my product is pretty fictional, I don’t think it will have much innovation improvement on technic. Currently, I’m changing my project from user-driven to design part.