london sinfonietta steve reich’s clapping...

November 2015

London Sinfonietta: Steve Reich’s Clapping Music Research & Development Report

Andrew Burke Chief Executive, London Sinfonietta Barbara Palczynski Project Manager, London Sinfonietta Marcus Pearce / Sam Duffy Research Lead / Research Assistant, Queen Mary University of London Alan Martyn Producer, Touchpress

Digital R&D Fund for the Arts

The Digital R&D Fund for the Arts is a £7 million fund that supports collaboration between organisations with arts projects, technology providers, and researchers. The Digital R&D Fund is supported by Nesta, Arts and Humanities Research Council and public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

For more information about its projects and digital R&D stories from around the world, visit Native: Magazine of the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts at artsdigitalrnd.org.uk or connect with us on Twitter @digitalrnd or using the hashtag #artsdigital.

Steve Reich’s Clapping Music 3

Contents

Executive Summary 4

Background 6

The Project 11

Research 27

Insights 55

Future 59

Appendix: Marketing Plan Responsibilities 61

Further Resources 62

Bibliography 63

Glossary & Abbreviations 64

Acknowledgements 65

4 Steve Reich’s Clapping Music

Executive Summary Steve Reich’s Clapping Music was part of the fifth and final cohort of projects funded by the Digital R&D fund, provided by Nesta, The Arts Council of England and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The project was conceived by lead arts partner, the London Sinfonietta, and produced in partnership with Touchpress (the technology partner) and Queen Mary University of London (the research partner).

The project had two main aims; firstly, to examine whether a game based smartphone application (the ‘App’) could motivate users to engage with, and learn to perform, a challenging contemporary classical music piece by the composer Steve Reich, called Clapping Music. Secondly, to see if engagement with the App could lead to further and deeper engagement with Steve Reich’s music, or new music in general. The two research questions posed were: what are the factors that enhance the acquisition of musical skills in the context of a game-‐based app, and can game-‐based musical skill acquisition in an app enhance engagement with the arts?

The App Steve Reich’s Clapping Music was launched on July 9th, 2015. By August 24th, 2015, just 6 weeks after launch, the App had been downloaded over 58,000 times in 93 different countries around the world. There has been extensive media coverage in the press, online and on national radio (BBC Radio 3 and 4) and the App maintains strong community engagement through social media. Evidence suggests that the App is being used by a wide audience, including professional and amateur musicians, teachers, young people and novices alike, but with a bias towards musicians and Steve Reich followers in the US.

Feedback from the research focus group suggests that the App was successful in increasing familiarity with the piece and the composer, but less so with the genres of Minimalism and Contemporary Music generally. However, the difficulties in recruiting participants prior to App launch meant that many people were recruited post App launch, after seeing the research project mentioned in the App. As a result, they were more likely to already have an interest in Contemporary Music and a higher than average level of musical skills and sophistication. Nonetheless, overall, the group enjoyed the game, shared their experiences with family and friends through conversation and social media, and were motivated to progress through the game, to the next pattern.


They also reported a belief that playing the game had improved their rhythmic skills. A small subset emerged of musically experienced users who played the game very competitively, and one focus group member was even featured on the final High Score Competition leader board. However, another small subset reported being frustrated by their lack of progress in the game, and became bored.

There were many learning insights throughout the journey. Key insights included:

• The importance of developing a culture of working together in an interdisciplinary team

• The difficulty in estimating precise launch dates for the iterative development of a digital product, and the challenge this poses for research in an end-‐loaded project

• Not underestimating the time it takes to administer engagement with the public, and to work with a global community

• The importance of setting clear objectives and staying focussed, whilst remaining flexible in your thinking.

The project offers several immediate routes for future development, including outreach in schools, growing the community of world-‐wide users, further research using the existing data collected, additional studies with the App, and new apps based on the same concept, but applied to different music, or even different art forms.


Background At the heart of this project was the desire to explore new ways to engage with the public through a game-‐based smartphone application. Arts organisations are required to advance their engagement with their audiences through digital technology, but the challenge is also to create meaningful arts and learning experiences through such projects. Our aim was, therefore, not only to study the extent to which we could engage our audience through this medium, but also the degree to which we could improve their rhythm and increase their engagement with a particular new music genre at the same time.

The current generation has grown up with digital technology, of which computer and video games are a major part, and has a fundamentally different way of thinking and processing information. Consciously designing games that can function as a vehicle for learning "serious" (i.e. nongame) content motivates learners in new ways (Prensky 2005). The concept of "digital game-‐based learning" has evolved into the field of "Serious Games", the importance of this discipline evidenced by organisations such as the Serious Games Institute1, based at Coventry University. There is empirical evidence that they can promote learning in secondary and higher education, and digital game-‐based learning has already been applied to STEM2 subjects (Meluso et al. 2012), relationship and sex education (Arnab et al. 2013) and medieval history (Huizenga et al. 2009).

The evolution of computing to accessible mobile smart devices has made the development of game-‐based learning applications inevitable. The International Conference on Interactive Mobile Communication, Technologies and Learning (IMCL 2015) will run a special session later this year on Mobile Serious Games for Creativity, Cognition and Innovation (MSGCI)3. As the field of mobile music technology opens up new opportunities (Gaye et al. 2006), new ways to engage audiences with classical music are being explored, such as how to incorporate social media (Crawford et al. 2014). There has never been a better time to develop a mobile game-‐based application to improve musical skills and increase engagement with contemporary classical music.

1 http://www.seriousgamesinstitute.co.uk 2 Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics 3 http://www.imcl-‐conference.org/imcl2015/cfp_special-‐sessions.php#4


The idea for the project originally came from Andrew Burke, the current Chief Executive of the London Sinfonietta. Having performed Steve Reich’s music at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London in the mid-‐1980s, he was captivated by the challenge of performing Clapping Music. In 2012, Burke sketched out the idea for an app and approached Steve Reich and his publishers to secure the composer’s in-‐principle buy-‐in to the concept.

The Digital R&D Fund provided a way to realise that idea. The London Sinfonietta recruited Queen Mary, University of London as the Research Partner, and Touchpress as the Technology Partner, in order to make a viable bid to the fund. The application process for the funding began in 2013. Following three rounds of application and interview, a grant was awarded in July 2014 as part of the fifth, and final, round of the fund.

The Partners

The London Sinfonietta4 is a world-‐leading orchestra in the field of new music. Its mission is to place the best contemporary classical music at the heart of today’s culture, engaging and challenging the public through inspiring performances of the highest standard, innovating and taking risks to develop new work and talent. The ensemble is a Resident Orchestra at the Southbank Centre, London, with headquarters at Kings Place, London.

The technical partner, Touchpress5, is recognised worldwide as publishers of quality apps for Apple iOS devices. They are renowned for tackling difficult subjects (The Waste Land, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, The Elements) and for taking a creative approach to interactive music learning apps (The Orchestra, Beethoven 9).

The research partner, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), is one of the UK's leading research-‐focused higher education institutions and a member of the Russell Group. Dr. Marcus Pearce, the research lead on the project, established The Music Cognition Lab6 there in 2011, within the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). The Lab has strong links with the Centre for Digital Music (C4DM) and the Cognitive Science Research Group at QMUL.

4 http://www.londonsinfonietta.org.uk 5 http://www.touchpress.com 6 http://music-‐cognition.eecs.qmul.ac.uk


The project has been important for each of the project partners in different ways. Arts Council England has encouraged organisations to find ways to embrace new technology in their work, planning and output. The development of an app was already part of the London Sinfonietta’s Digital Strategy, having already identified the need to engage more fully with its audience through digital means, and realise projects for different digital platforms that creatively engaged the audience in new ways.

For Touchpress, this project presented an attractive prospect for several reasons: it was an opportunity to build a game, something which Touchpress had not done before, it would be less content heavy than their previous projects, it would be more interactive with its audience and the integration of educational content was to be presented in a fun and intelligent way.

For the research team, using game-‐based technology to promote the acquisition of musical skills has important implications for music education. For example, the approach may inspire non-‐musicians who are intimidated by musical jargon to learn musical skills in a non-‐didactic and enjoyable way. Using a smartphone app opens the possibility of collecting large amounts of research data on a global scale in a way that would simply not be possible in a lab or classroom setting.

The Potential for Audience Engagement and Research

Digital innovation in the arts could, until recently, have been said to be under-‐evolved. Larger organisations produce significant output, but this is often based on a digital relay of their live experience, for example the Royal Opera House screenings on large outdoor screens7, or the New York Metropolitan Opera’s live cinema screenings (Burton-‐Hill 2015). Medium to smaller scale organisations struggle to produce content because of the time and cost it takes to produce.

Even for a successful and well-‐received project, there is always still the challenge of maintaining and continually promoting it, followed by the question ‘what next?’ This project provides the opportunity, and the challenge, to test whether a smaller arts organisation could produce a successful digital product, which might inform the development of future projects for itself and other organisations of a similar scale. 7 http://www.roh.org.uk/about/bp-‐big-‐screens


Many previous digital arts projects have used websites and apps as an extension of marketing, using digital media, trailers and innovation in ticketing to achieve the primary goal of getting people to attend the live experience. The London Sinfonietta’s ambition has been to test a different paradigm; could a compelling and engaging digital and interactive learning experience be delivered, which was built on and designed for the intrinsic and unique properties of the digital device it was intended for? If this promoted a compelling experience in itself, would this then lead to a greater subsequent interest in the live arts experience, and growth in audiences? If the project was successful in showing this shift in paradigm, it could show other arts organisations a different way to invest in digital projects to engage their audiences. Gamification of other art forms could prove successful in engaging and educating existing and new audiences, transforming them into more informed members of an arts organisation, or an art-‐form’s community.

Quantifying the potential for this project relied on how widely the game could be promoted, and whether this would lead to actual downloads and people playing the game. The London Sinfonietta has a strong social media audience (over 20,000 followers on Twitter and 12,000 on Facebook), many of whom could be expected to engage with a digital offer. Whilst this group were likely to already be somewhat familiar with the genre, this was complemented by marketing by Touchpress, and the QMUL Marketing and PR department. Based on the sales data for their existing apps, Touchpress estimated at the start of the project that 20,000 downloads was a reasonable expectation for a free app, especially if it was featured in the App Store. An additional appeal for teenagers, schools and parents was that the Steve Reich piece Electric Counterpoint is currently featured on the Edexcel GSCE Music Syllabus, and additional content for this piece was always planned to be included in the App. Obviously, the appeal of Steve Reich himself has to be taken into consideration. He has a strong following around the world, especially in the United States, and, in recent years, there have been several festivals and events to celebrate Minimalism, contemporary classical music, and the work of Steve Reich8.

From a research perspective, this project found a natural home in the Music Cognition Lab at QMUL, which focuses on using multidisciplinary methods from computer science, psychology and neuroscience to understand music 8 “Minimalism Unwrapped” Kings Place, London throughout 2015, “50 Years of Minimalism” Kings Place, London (Service 2011); and “The Rest is Noise” a celebration of 20th Century music which featured Clapping Music in 2013 http://therestisnoise.southbankcentre.co.uk/#1


perception, cognition and production. This is the latest in a series of studies run in the Lab, which use minimalist music to study music cognition.

The potential audience for a global App on the work of Steve Reich, based on all of these factors, meant that there was likely to be a good uptake for the App, as well as sufficient interest from players willing to participate in related research to generate credible and meaningful results.


The Project Overall Objectives

The project team issued some overall project aims that guided the development of the App, and it was felt that achieving such aims would demonstrate the success of the work. Those aims were:

• To release an app that worked on its own terms as a compelling and addictive game

• To inspire and motivate people to learn a challenging musical skill • To build a community around the project • To provide additional digital content for young people, schools and

Music Education Hubs that would help motivate learning and skills development in music

• To do something innovative and different within the music sector which would then inspire and inform similar projects for other art forms

• To publish meaningful data that would substantiate the degree to which the research proposition was achieved.

We asked two questions as part of our research proposition:

1 How are musical performance skills acquired through a digital game experience?

2 What impact does this activity have on audience engagement with the arts and attendance at live events?

We will discuss how these questions were addressed in the section Research Methodology, on page 14.

Key Steps

In a project where every step seems to be so important, these were some of the key moments in its development.

Appointing a Project Manager

The Project Manager was an early and necessary addition to the team, given the existing resources of our organisations. Developing a digital project takes


a lot of time, and our Project Manager worked across the project partners to keep the team focussed, whilst setting out clear objectives and deadlines to maintain a steady momentum towards the finish line.

Commitment to Whole-‐Group Working

We set up regular team meetings which, although sometimes time consuming, were very good for the culture of the project. This early investment in getting to know one another was valuable, and missed later in the project when work was completed through remote communication due to time constraints. The Project Manager facilitated Skype meetings where possible, when face-‐to-‐face team meetings were not possible.

Using Audience Feedback in the Development of the App

From as early as December 2014, we convened test sessions for the prototype of the App. There were both hard (prototype software problems) and soft (user experience) learnings from these specially convened sessions. This feedback was fundamental in shaping the App’s development and data collection for research purposes.

Making Several Iterations of the App During the Development Phase

From the outset, we worked through a prototype plan used by Touchpress, developing an Alpha build, a Beta build and then Gold Master. At every step, the project team was thorough in their approach to change, ensuring that every aspect of the App was examined, from its design architecture, right through to its functionality and additional content. The difference in working cultures between the project partners meant that it was sometimes difficult to find the balance between planning an iteration of the software, and ‘just doing it’, whilst ensuring that all of the required features of the App were implemented satisfactorily. What we found along the way was that it is critical to plan in enough detail to know what would be changed and how it would be assessed, whilst also maintaining flexibility in the design process.

Obtaining Digital Marketing & PR Expertise

Having identified a gap in marketing skills across the team, choosing to appoint someone from outside the project with digital marketing expertise, albeit just for 6 days, helped shine a light on how to communicate our project to a mass audience. Their advice was helpful in confirming what we needed to do, but


also deciding what we did not want to do. Not adopting some of their ideas was as important as implementing others. We used Nakama London, a digital marketing agency and our Marketing & PR Consultant had game-‐based experience having worked for Nintendo and PlayStation, as well as experience of arts-‐based projects from working with the British Council.

Marketing Plan

The marketing of the App happened across the team, using the in-‐house Marketing Managers at both London Sinfonietta and Touchpress (see Appendix for a summary of responsibilities). The PR team at QMUL helped with pre-‐launch publicity and recruitment of research participants. Touchpress was responsible for all associated activity required to get the app to the App Store and making it discoverable through optimisation on search engines. London Sinfonietta was responsible for delivering the Digital Marketing & PR strategy written by Nakama London.

Using a combination of factual market research (via App Annie9 and sales figures) and knowledge of our target audience (via Nakama’s knowledge of the gaming and, in particular, of the teenage markets) we learned the importance of aligning app development with marketing priorities. For example, Nakama made us focus on areas of the App that would be marketable, such as the functionality of the ‘share’ feature, or the administration of the in-‐app competition. We also learned how to leverage a strong social media campaign, to maximise the opportunity for ‘free’ marketing.

Until the App launched, a teaser microsite was established where people could register to be told when the App would be available to download, and express an interest in each of the project partners. Over 100 people chose “Tell me more about Music Research at Queen Mary University of London” and were contacted prior to the launch, to invite them to participate in the research focus group. The microsite10 became the overall site for the App, additional content being released in conjunction with the launch.

An online research hub11 was set up using the Queen Mary network infrastructure to communicate the research to potential participants and the general public, and disseminate the results at a later date. Where prize draws 9 App Annie provides analytics services and market intelligence for app developers https://www.appannie.com 10 http://clappingmusicapp.com 11 http://cogsci.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/clappingmusicresearch/Home.html


were used as an incentive for people to volunteer to participate, the results of prize draws were also published on this site. A blog was set up to communicate research-‐based publications, news, prize draw winners and project related events.

The hashtag #clappingmusicapp was used on all official project related tweets and were streamed on the research hub. The research hub and the microsite were linked to each other, with multiple opportunities to click through, and used consistent images and materials.

From the outset, it was proposed to give high-‐scoring players of the App the chance to perform live with the London Sinfonietta, transforming the virtual experience to the real world through workshops and live performance opportunities. This narrative hook was fundamental to inspiring partners and media about the project.

Research Methodology

Three strands of data collection were employed across three different participant groups, known as Research Group1 (RG1), RG2 and RG3, in order to answer our research questions (see page 11). Full ethics approval was obtained for each of the planned and executed studies through the Queen Mary University of London Ethics Committee.

RG1: Game-‐play Data from the Application Itself

This data will allow us to directly address the first research question:

How are musical performance skills acquired through a digital game experience?

Whenever players’ devices were connected to the Internet, their game history including tapping accuracy, playing duration and frequency, use of the training area and progress in the game was sent to a remote server12, where data could be downloaded periodically as a JSON13 file. A separate file recorded a unique anonymous reference code, generated from details of the user and their device.

Users who downloaded and played the game around the world generated this data and formed our first participant group, known as `RG1’ (research group 1). 12 Parse Analytics https://parse.com/products/analytics 13 JavaScript Object Notation – simply a data format, a way that the game play details are collected and stored. We convert these to CSV flat files for analysis using R, an open source statistical programming package.


It was made explicit both in the App content, and on the research hub14, that this data would be collected. Approximately 25GB of data was collected between the date of the launch on 9th July and 31st August 2015 and is stored securely on Queen Mary servers, in line with data protection requirements and with appropriate data back-‐up.

It was planned that analysis of this data for all players would be used to determine the app functionality and playing habits that correlated with progress in the game. For example, were some patterns significantly harder than others? Did spending time in the training area first lead to better game performance? Did progress in the game correlate to time spent playing overall? However, due to the delays in the launch of the App, and the sheer volume of data generated through the popularity of the App, it was not possible to analyse this for all players within the project timescale. There were also problems with identifying every instance of game play, in chronological order for each user, due to users playing on multiple devices (registering the game on an iPad and iPhone, for example), or choosing multiple nicknames, or being reallocated a new unique anonymous reference code if their app crashed and was reinstalled on their device. However, this data has been securely stored, catalogued and processed into an interrogable database, which was used for analysis of smaller groups.

RG2: Short Online Survey

This data will also allow us to directly address the first research question, with the addition of demographic data to determine some of the external factors that might influence progress in the game. Players were offered an opportunity to participate through a pop-‐up window in the game itself, which appeared periodically at the end of a game. The pop-‐up invited players to complete a short 5-‐minute questionnaire, administered through Google Forms, in return for the chance to be entered into a prize draw to win iTunes vouchers. The form asked questions about musical experience and ability, listening habits, genres of music enjoyed, engagement with other game-‐based apps and basic demographic information. To date, we have received over 4,000 questionnaires from over 50 countries, of which 3,000 have been analysed after removal of duplicate and spurious submissions, and 2415participants have won an iTunes voucher in the prize draw from Colombia, Mexico, Canada, France, the UK and the USA. 14 http://cogsci.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/clappingmusicresearch/The_Research.html 15 30 vouchers were drawn in total, 10 at random every 2 weeks from the surveys received and verified in the period, 5 have remained unclaimed.


The unique anonymous reference code generated by the App was pre-‐populated in the form to enable us to link survey responses to the player’s gaming history. This allowed us to consider further factors such as whether musical training, geographic region, playing other games or level of education achieved correlated with success in the Clapping Music App. This group of participants was called RG2, essentially a subset of RG1 who have opted to provide additional demographic information. Despite the difficulties in constructing complete player histories from the data acquired from RG1, it was possible to perform limited game play analysis for the smaller group RG2.

RG3: Focus Group

Group RG3 will specifically enable us to answer the second research question:

What impact does this activity have on audience engagement with the arts, and attendance at live events?

A focus group was recruited to participate in three in-‐depth surveys over a period of 6 weeks. This research group was known as RG3. Three longer questionnaires (taking between 10-‐20 minutes) were administered through Google Forms. It was hoped that sufficient numbers could be recruited (50-‐100) prior to app launch, but this proved difficult. Approximately 30 participants were recruited and completed their first survey prior to launch, but the remaining 70 participants all volunteered once the App had launched as a result of seeing the publicity and downloading the game. These participants were required by our University Ethics Committee to complete an online consent form, also administered by Google Forms, since we would need to contact them regularly by e-‐mail.

In addition to the questions included in the RG2 short survey, the first RG3 long survey assessed the musical sophistication of these participants through the inclusion of questions from the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-‐MSI) (Müllensiefen et al. 2014). They were also asked about their knowledge of Steve Reich, Clapping Music and contemporary classical music before taking part in the project, their listening habits, and their previous and planned attendance at live music events.

The second RG3 long survey was sent two weeks later, allowing participants time to download and explore the app content, and play the game. The group was asked about their experience and enjoyment of playing the App specifically, awareness of the App content, use of the practice mode. They were also asked


again about their knowledge of Steve Reich and Contemporary Classical Music, and their historical and planned music listening and purchases. This in order to see if this had changed since they had engaged with the App. The third survey was administered after a further two weeks and was similar in structure to the second.

Being able to link demographic and survey data to game play data allows us to investigate whether progress in the game is correlated with an increased engagement and knowledge of Clapping Music and contemporary classical Music. In order to make this link, we asked members of the focus group to carry out documented play sessions that we could look for specifically in the dataset for RG1, to be able to identify their unique player reference (which is automatically created within the App). They were asked how many devices they had downloaded the App to, about possible crashes that we could see in their data, and about any alternative player nicknames they might have set up. Despite the difficulties described in constructing complete player histories, a complete set of unique anonymous player reference codes was constructed for 55 of the 59 members of the focus group RG3, allowing us to match their survey responses to their game play history.

It was hoped that a similar sized focus group could be recruited of teenagers, but unfortunately the delays in App launch meant that we could not start recruitment until the end of the academic year. Whilst one school was visited and a class took part in a demonstration of the game, there was not sufficient time to convert this to a focus group. This is something that the research team would still like to do, and funding is actively being sought for this work.

Timeline

The project took place over a 12-‐month period, with an estimated projected launch at the end of month 9, and delivered as follows:

Months 1-‐3

Team assembled and project and app outline scoped. Literature reviews undertaken to support design aspects from a research perspective. Creative brief written, outlining required app functionality.


Month 4

First prototype of the game produced and tested. RG1 data collection requirements refined from analysis of data collected during the prototype test evening.

Months 5 – 6

Feedback on prototype given and Alpha brief written for next round of iterations.

Content scoped for non-‐game areas of app.

Licences agreed with publishers.

RG2 short survey questions written.

Months 7 -‐ 8

Alpha version of the game produced and tested, including RG1 data collection.

Preparation and production of audio-‐visual content including films and recordings underway.

Month 9

Feedback on Alpha version given and Beta brief written for next round of iterations.

Alpha version demonstrated to Steve Reich.

Remaining audio-‐visual content completed.

Recruitment of participants for RG3 commenced.

Month 10

Further iterations of Beta version of game produced and tested in quick turnaround sessions.

RG1 game play data collection tested.

RG2 survey data collection tested.

RG3 long surveys designed, set up in Google Forms and tested.


Ethics approval applied for through Queen Mary Ethics Committee for RG1, RG2 and RG3.

Recruitment of participants for RG3 continues.

Month 11

App launched and RG1 data collection begins.

RG2 data collection commenced.

RG3 online consent processed, survey 1 issued.

Month 12

RG3 focus group surveys 2 and 3 issued.

Procedures and script written to process RG1 gameplay data, safe data archive set up.

4,500 RG2 short surveys reviewed, data cleaned, analysed.

RG2 incentive prize draws take place.

Data collection analysed and results written into report.

Risk Identification and Management

Risks on a project such as this ranged from technical to artistic to scheduling. We were smart in the way we identified the risks but in some cases, despite our best efforts, it was hard to avoid some of the pitfalls associated with digital projects.

Artist Sign-‐off

One of the biggest risks on our project was the uncertainty from the outset around whether the composer Steve Reich and his publishers would give the necessary seal of approval and sign off on the App. To mitigate this risk, we stayed in regular contact with these key stakeholders from the very outset. At every step of the way, we remained true to what we felt was the Steve Reich brand and the artistic integrity of his music. We were aware that the research proposition could be fulfilled using music by another composer, if necessary, but we were confident that Steve Reich would be pleased with delivering his music to a new audience through the App. We also understood the value of


face-‐to-‐face meetings for this aspect of the project. When an app prototype was ready to demonstrate, we invited Steve Reich’s agents and publishers to test sessions, and enabled him to explore the prototype in person. This was a key point: we knew that we had created something fun, because he enjoyed the challenge of playing his own composition through a game, on an iPad.

Latency Within the App’s Gameplay

A technical challenge was the need to implement a very low latency system for tap recognition and audible feedback for users. Any delay would adversely affect user experience and performance of the rhythm. One of the reasons that the iOS16 platform was chosen was that it was thought to be more able to deliver low latency tap detection. Our engineer had already built a lightweight and efficient audio library for a much older version of iOS, and we were confident we could update this to support the latest version. The App was designed to be compatible with the current release, iOS 8.

However, graphic-‐rendering demands, such as the visual feedback of tap accuracy delayed audio processing. In other words, the computing power required to create interactive graphics was slowing down the speed at which taps could be detected. This, in turn, delayed the sound generated to provide audio feedback of the player’s tap. This caused significant delay in the audio playback that coincided with key graphic events, such as the transition to a new pattern. Initially, we tried to resolve this issue through the optimisation of the graphic processes, but audio latency was far more distracting to players testing the prototype than graphic latency, and the only satisfactory solution was to completely isolate audio and graphic processing, so that audio events could be guaranteed priority over graphics. However, the original implementation of graphics in Apple's native Core Graphics17 did not allow for isolated processing of audio and graphic events. The only way to achieve this was to completely re-‐implement gameplay graphics using OpenGL18.

Roles and Responsibilities

It was identified that the working patterns for each project partner, and their unique deliverables, were very different. There was a risk that miscommunication could lead to misunderstandings about roles and 16 The Apple mobile operating system, used for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad http://www.apple.com/uk/ios/what-‐is/ 17 Apple's own proprietary library for graphic rendering. 18 A graphics application programming interface (API) for developing portable, interactive 2D and 3D graphics applications https://www.opengl.org


responsibilities. We identified this issue early in the process and to mitigate this risk, we produced clear agendas for every meeting, with aims and objectives outlined in priority order. We followed these agendas with minutes outlining outcomes, actions and deadlines. These were useful records of what was agreed.

Data Sufficiency

The risk of not having enough app downloads for viable research dominated a lot of our discussions. We mitigated this risk by introducing incentives for participants who volunteered to be part of the research, such as prize draws for Amazon and iTunes vouchers. What we had not anticipated was having larger than expected numbers of users, a happy and unexpected outcome.

We collected approximately 25GB of gameplay data from 45,000 active users19, of whom 3,105 completed the short in-‐app survey. We had planned for 20,000 and 400 respectively. However, this did make handling, curating and analysing the data more time consuming than we anticipated and, as discussed on page 17, within a reduced time window. We had planned for this possibility, utilising our research groups (RG1, RH2 and RG3 as outlined in Research Methodology on page 14) and focused our analysis on RG3 and RG2, allowing us to generate results from surveys and our focus group, despite the larger than anticipated amount of gameplay data. This became even more important when an early bug in the App led to multiple player sign-‐ons, see the following risk.

End Loaded Deliverables

Being a very end-‐loaded R&D project was one of the biggest risks for us. Unlike many other R&D projects, our research could only begin in earnest once the App was live and the data started to come in through user-‐play. Vital research administration such as applying for ethical sign-‐off for the planned studies could not take place until the App was sufficiently advanced to be able to demonstrate it to the approving committee, and outline a specific plan.

As a team, we did our best to mitigate this risk by committing to an early launch date of June 1st, 2015, which would give us 3 months to collect data from our three user groups, analyse it, and write up our results. However, the App was launched later than planned on July 9th, and it contained a bug that caused it to 19 Whilst over 60,000 people have downloaded the App to date, some of these are the same users downloading the App onto multiple devices, some are downloads to reinstall the App after crashes and some people downloaded the App, but did not register a nickname, and so had not yet played the game.


crash for large numbers of users (Figure 1), requiring a software update, released on July 19th, 2015. This had two consequences for the research. First, due to the end of the school term, we were unable to recruit teenage users through schools as planned. Secondly, users were reassigned a new unique user identification code (ID) when they reinstalled the App, the only way to recover the game after a crash. Since a single user might now have several different user IDs, we were unable to track individual player performance over time without significant additional work, which was only possible for a limited number of players. This was mitigated by restricting analysis to the smaller research groups, RG2 and RG3; however, it is hoped that if additional funding is secured, the larger RG1 total game-‐play data set can be utilised.

Figure 1: Crash Report from Apple

Late delivery of the App also risked compromising dissemination of the project to schools (within Nesta’s timeframe). Although we were unable to collect data from teenagers as part of the research project, we made extensive contacts with schools and engaged them in the project. We would very much like to see an active engagement with players who do not already have an awareness of the music genre. Teenagers are a very important part of this group, especially since Steve Reich is currently featured on the GCSE music syllabus for at least one major exam board.


Budget

Delivering a high quality app with the desired game experience within our budget was a significant concern. It is difficult to estimate precisely the engineering time required to realise an app design, and to foresee usability issues that may only emerge through prototype testing. To mitigate this risk, we planned the budget very carefully as a team, using our wisdom and experience from other projects. We scheduled regular budget review meetings between the Project Manager and the General Manager at London Sinfonietta. Through carefully balancing spending on different areas, we came in on budget despite spending additional money on engineering and content production. That said, there was a lot of good will from the team to work long hours to deliver the best possible product.

Project Outputs

There have been many valuable outputs from this project, in addition to the Research findings, which will be discussed later (Results page.28), including:

The App – a free, interactive, mobile game for iOS devices that has reached the far corners of the world.

The Partnership – a good working relationship between London Sinfonietta, QMUL, and Touchpress.

Live Events – including a masterclass, workshop and final performance with the London Sinfonietta, including percussionist David Hockings, on August 1st, 2015 at the Southbank Centre (see Figure 2 and Figure 3).

Online Community – we have established an online presence across the different partners’ websites (see page 13). Two weeks before launch, we started to tell the story of the project in the London Sinfonietta blog, allowing users to start the process of actively engaging with the App. Since the launch, there has been steady Twitter and Facebook activity, which has helped us to build up a community around the project. The in-‐app competition has been the hook in the narrative that people have really engaged with. The online community of users ranges enormously with feedback that is both funny and moving, for example #28kclub.

Media Coverage -‐ this has been far reaching with articles in different media across the world in different languages (see Further Resources p.65). The


number of downloads increases every time a new piece of publicity appears, and there have been steady spikes since app launch, as publicity gained momentum.

Representation at Conferences – we were delighted to be invited to present our app at two London-‐based live conferences, including Web We Want, held at Southbank Centre, and London Technology Week, held at Nesta. These were not arts conferences, but rather digital technology conferences, which enabled us to share a platform with other innovative projects, as well as network with other creative, digital developers.

Dissemination to all Music Hubs across the UK -‐ information about the App was sent to all Music Hubs across the UK. This was disseminated widely to music teachers in schools.

Feedback from Industry Professionals – we engaged with colleagues from the world of music, visual arts, cross arts, museum and theatre to explore the extent to which gamification of an art form could translate to different genres. This was done using a Google docs questionnaire and in a live seminar.


Figure 2: Mass Clap, Southbank, London, August 2015

Copyright S.Duffy

Figure 3: Competition winner ‘Wolfram’ performing with David Hockings

Copyright S.Duffy


Budget

It is difficult to quantify precisely the time that each partner spent on the project. We all worked very steadily throughout the year, often dedicating more time to the project than the budget allowed. However, Table 1 outlines how funding was allocated:

Table 1: Budget Allocation

% Funded Activity

41% App iteration, build and distribution via the Apple app store

20% Creation of app audio visual content (also used for marketing)

16% Research

15% Project Management and administration

8% Marketing

Roles and Responsibilities

The core team consisted of the following people:

• Andrew Burke, CEO, London Sinfonietta • Elizabeth Davies, General Manager, London Sinfonietta • Barbara Palczynski, Freelance Project Manager, London Sinfonietta • James Joslin, Administrator and Recordings Officer, London Sinfonietta • Alan Martyn, Producer, Touchpress • James Penfold, Designer, Touchpress • George Keenan, Assistant Producer, Touchpress • Andy Bull, Engineer, Touchpress • Dr Marcus Pearce, Research Partner, QMUL • Sam Duffy, Research Assistant, QMUL


Research Addressing Research Questions

To recap, the original research proposition was to answer two questions:

1 How are musical performance skills acquired through a digital game experience?

2 What impact does this activity have on audience engagement with the arts, and attendance at live events?

This was to be done through data collection with three research groups:

• RG1 – gameplay data from everyone using the App, approximately 45,000 players;

• RG2 – a subset of RG1, approximately 3,000 players of the game who voluntarily completed a short online questionnaire, telling us more about their age, education, country and level of musical expertise;

• RG3 – a focus group of 59 participants who responded to calls to get involved with the research, and completed three longer questionnaires over a six-‐week period, whilst also using the App.

In summary, regarding the first research question, results from RG3 show that 36% of the focus group felt that their rhythmic skills had improved as a result of using the App (Table 10). Furthermore, overall accuracy in the game was highly correlated with self-‐reported musical sophistication (Figure 9), suggesting that previous musical training and active engagement with music were factors for success in the game.

Regarding the second research question, results from RG3 show that using the App increased familiarity with the Minimalist genre and contemporary classical music more generally, as well as specifically raising familiarity with Steve Reich and Clapping Music. Whilst likely concert attendance increased after the first survey, this effect was not sustained (Figure 15).

The demographic data from RG2 suggests that RG3 is a representative sample of users of the App, with the exception of age and education; it seems likely that the sustained nature of participating in a focus group over several weeks attracted older and more educated people.


It was not possible to analyse gameplay data for RG1 or RG2 within the time available due to the delay in launching the App (see discussion of End Loaded Deliverables on p.21). However, we are looking for ways to complete this work (Continued Investment in R&D p.60). We will now discuss the findings to date in more detail.

RG2 Demographics

Demographic information provided by the 3,105 members of research group RG2 provides some insight into the demographics of the players of the game. Whilst we cannot extrapolate to say that this represents the exact demographic spread of players, it does give some idea of the range of characteristics of people playing.

Figure 4: RG2 age demographic

Median age was 28 (full range 9 to 95), with the majority of participants aged between 15 and 35 (Figure 4). 63% of the users were male, 35% female and 2% preferred not to say. Users originated from 126 different countries, and currently live in 106 different countries. More than 50% of users were from the USA, 14% from the UK, 5% from Australia, 4% from Canada, 3% from Japan and smaller proportions from other countries (Figure 5). Participants were, on the whole, highly educated: 36% had an undergraduate degree, 28% a postgraduate degree and 5% a professional qualification (Figure 6).


Figure 5: RG2 geographic distribution

Figure 6: RG2 education demographic


Focus Group: Who Are RG3?

121 people responded to calls to participate in the focus group RG3. Of this group:

• 106 completed the online consent form • 90 completed the first survey (30 recruited prior to app launch) • 71 completed the second survey (29 recruited prior to app launch) • 59 completed the third survey (18 recruited prior to app launch)

It is normal for some participants to drop out of research studies after signing up and this was taken into account when the target group size was set at 100 focus group members. The number of dropouts was managed through regular communication with the group, sending out insights and news about the App, prompting when surveys were due, and giving flexibility for survey issue dates and submission deadlines around individual holidays.

The first survey was distributed in staggered phases between 8th -‐20th July20 with the following aims:

• To establish a baseline for the group’s pre-‐app level of engagement with the genre;

• To ask demographic questions about age, occupation and education; • To understand the groups musical taste by genre; • To document their listening habits and gaming experience, and; • To assess self-‐reported musical skills, expertise and behaviour.

The second survey tested engagement again, and also asked questions about how much of the App content users had discovered, and their initial experience with the game. The final survey tested engagement for the last time, and asked questions about what the users felt they had taken away from the experience of being involved in the project.

The 59 participants who completed all three surveys had a wide age range, but 40% of the group were concentrated in the age range 20-‐29 (Figure 7).


Figure 7: RG3 focus group age at 31/8/2015

They had generally achieved a high level of education, 81% of the group having obtained a higher education qualification. 44% had a postgraduate qualification such as a doctoral or master’s degree and 37% had an undergraduate degree (Figure 8). 29% of the group were still in education, the majority studying for a postgraduate degree.

The group were already largely involved with music in an educational or professional context. 27% gave an occupation (or subject area if they were still in education) that involved music. 69% currently play a musical instrument and 27% don’t currently play, but have played an instrument in the past. Only 2 out of the 59 focus group participants did not, and have never played a musical instrument.


Figure 8: RG3 focus group education

Focus Group: Musical Sophistication

The Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-‐MSI) is a way to assess self-‐reported musical skills, expertise and behaviour (Müllensiefen et al. 2014). A series of statements are put to participants, who are asked to indicate how strongly they agree or disagree with them, for example “I often pick certain music to motivate or excite me”. The questions are designed to address factors of musical sophistication including:

• Active engagement in music; • Perceptual abilities; • Musical training and; • Emotional response to music.

The test was administered by incorporating the questions from the index into the first focus group survey. The scores were normalised from 0.00 (no musical sophistication) to 1.00 (perfect score) for each of the factors tested, and an overall score created for each participant.

The 59 adults who completed all three surveys exhibited a wide range of overall musical sophistication (index scores in the range 0.38-‐0.96 with an average of 0.76). However, some participants with a summary score lower than the


average for the group, showed higher than average scores for individual factors. For example, one participant had a lower than average overall score of 0.55 but a higher than average score of 0.88 for self-‐reported emotional response to music.

We compared the overall musical sophistication score to tapping accuracy in the game, for the 32 focus group members that we had been able to construct game play history for. Looking at their total game play (excluding practice sessions in that area of the app), at all levels of difficulty21, there was correlation between the Gold-‐MSI Summary score and Average Tap Accuracy of 0.76 (Figure 9, p<0.01).

In other words, players who scored higher on the Musical Sophistication index tapped the patterns more accurately, and so probably performed better in the game. Multiple regression suggests that this is largely due to musical training, rather than other factors, but we would like to do further work in this area. At the very least, we hope to extend this analysis to all 59 members of the focus

21 There are three levels in the game: easy, medium and hard.

Figure 9: Musical Sophistication versus accuracy for RG3


group once their game play history has been constructed and verified. We would also like to link the individual factors of musical sophistication of this group to their gameplay, as well as the overall score, in order to see which factors specifically influenced success in the game.

Are RG3 Representative?

Although RG3 are not representative of the general population (for example, 66% are male, 44% have a postgraduate degree and 69% play a musical instrument), the question of interest is whether RG3 are representative of the users of the App. A way of addressing this question is to compare the demographics of RG3 to RG2, a much larger group consisting of over 3,000 users, and therefore more likely to be representative of players of the App (Figure 10).

The gender balance is very similar between RG2 and RG3, in both cases suggesting that the App appealed more to men than women, though it is worth noting that a third of our users were female. This may reflect the appeal of gaming or the appeal of Steve Reich, or both of these factors. The proportion of people playing musical instruments is also quite similar between RG2 and RG3, suggesting that the App appealed to individuals with some musical experience. The results suggest that about 5% of users had never played a musical instrument (over 200 individuals in RG2). Note, however, that this does not imply that 95% of users were musicians or had extensive musical training. The Gold-‐MSI results discussed above show a good spread across a wide range of levels of musical training within RG3.

RG3 are, on average, older and more highly educated than RG2. We believe this reflects the more challenging demands of the focus group, compared to completion of a short survey. RG3 were required to complete three detailed questionnaires over several weeks of playing the App (see project insights p.56). We also believe that the focus group attracted people who were interested in the research and who may, as a result, be older and better educated. This effect may also have influenced the population who voluntarily completed the much shorter, single RG2 questionnaire; hence RG2 may not entirely represent the demographic of the total playing population. Therefore, we expect that RG3 (and to some extent RG2) are not representative of users of the App in terms of age and education.


Figure 10: Demographic mix RG2 vs. RG3

Engagement with the Game

Overall, the RG3 group found the game intuitive and easy to understand. In response to the statement “I understand how to play the game Clapping Music”, the 59 participants responded as follows:

• 56% strongly agree • 36% agree • 3% neither agree nor disagree • 5% disagree • 0% strongly disagree

In response to the question “I enjoy playing the game Clapping Music”, more than three quarters of the group enjoyed the game, and between the second and third survey, the number who strongly agreed with the statement increased slightly (Table 2). However, by the third survey, the number who agreed with the statement decreased, and the number who disagreed increased.


Table 2: Statement: I enjoy playing the game Clapping Music

I enjoy playing the game

Clapping Music

Second Survey Third Survey

responses percentage responses percentage

Strongly agree 24 41% 27 46%

Agree 27 47% 19 32%

Neither agree nor disagree 6 10% 7 12%

Disagree 1 2% 6 10%

Strongly disagree 0 0% 0 0%

Total 5822 59

This trend was also reflected in the response to the question “Once I start to play the game Clapping Music I don’t want to stop” (Table 3).

Table 3: Statement: Once I start to play the game Clapping Music I don't want to stop

Once I start to play the game I

don’t want to stop




Agree 9 16% 17 29%


Disagree 13 22% 15 25%


Total 5823 59

22 One person overrode the response choices and wrote “sometimes I enjoy, sometimes it gives me a headache”. The ability to override the agreement scale was disabled in the third survey, but more space was made available for participants to expand on their responses. 23 One person overrode the response choices and commented “Sometimes I'm frustrated because it doesn't work when I ‘clap’.”


The number who strongly agreed with this statement decreased between surveys. Only 7% of people agreed with the statement “I am bored with the game Clapping Music” in the second survey, but by the third survey this had doubled. In the second survey, no one strongly agreed with the statement “I am no longer playing Clapping Music”, and only 2 people agreed. This had increased by the third survey with 4 people strongly agreeing, and 6 people agreeing. By the third survey, it seems that 10 people, or 17% of the focus group, were no longer playing the game.

Two small subsets seem to be emerging from the general group: those who became more and more engaged with the game, and those who became frustrated with it. In the open comment field “Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your experience of playing Clapping Music?” some of the participants shared their frustrations;

“I have been a full-‐time professional musician for over 35 years and for some reason I just haven't been able to feel it and get into it...”

“Something is missing for those like me who don't get it...no duffers feedback loop. I really wanted to like it and do well, but there was clearly a fundamental misunderstanding on my part of how to change when the pattern changed.”

“I am not bored, just frustrated and confused about the accuracy of the taps and the scoring behind them.”

However, the main body of the group seemed to remain engaged with the game. More than half of the participants consistently responded that they disagreed with the statement “I am bored with the game Clapping Music” on both surveys (Table 4). More than 50% of participants disagreed with the statement “I am no longer playing Clapping Music” in both surveys (Table 5), implying that they were still actively playing the game. In the open comment field “Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your experience of playing Clapping Music?” the motivation for some to keep playing was evident.

“My playing of the game has waned but I am not finished playing. I really want to do the whole piece on the highest level.”

“It is a great app; my wife frowns wearily when she catches me trying to improve my skills...”


Table 4: Statement “I am bored with the game Clapping Music”

I am bored with the game

Clapping Music




Agree 4 7% 9 15%


Disagree 30 51% 31 53%


Total 59 59

Table 5: Statement “I am no longer playing Clapping Music”

I am no longer playing Clapping

Music.




Agree 2 3% 6 10%


Disagree 27 46% 26 44%


Total 59 59

In summary, despite a small group of participants becoming less engaged with the game between the second and third surveys, overall the majority of the group continued to enjoy and play the game. Next, we will look at the factors that motivated them to keep playing.


Motivation to Progress

Clapping Music is made up of 12 different pattern combinations. In the App, transitioning from the first pattern to the second pattern and so on is equivalent to progressing through levels in a game. When all 12 patterns have been completed in sequence, without a break, the player returns to the first pattern and has then completed the game. This can be achieved at the easy, medium or hard level (difficulty is increased through tempo and required tap accuracy). The player is only offered the opportunity to transition to the next pattern when their tap accuracy has met a pre-‐determined threshold, for the pattern they are currently playing. The player must maintain a high level of accuracy to be able to complete all 12 patterns, and so the game. If accuracy falls below a certain level for a period of time, the game is over. This is reflected in the height of the dots representing the current pattern on the screen. They descend gradually if accuracy continues to be low, until they reach the bottom of the play area and the game finishes. It was hoped that these elements would make the game compelling, and perhaps even addictive.

When asked whether they were determined to finish the next pattern or level, more than 40% agreed and 30% strongly agreed, across the second and third survey (Table 6). Getting to the next pattern was clearly motivating players.

Table 6: Statement “I am determined to finish the next pattern or level”

I am determined to finish the

next pattern or level




Agree 27 48% 23 40%


Disagree 4 7% 4 7%


5624 5824

24 Comments, rather than selecting a response option, included “I have completed in hard mode, which was my main motivation. Now I want to get on the leader board”


In response to the statement “I am determined to complete the whole piece at the hardest level”, the group still agreed overall but to a slightly lower extent (Table 7). This may be because for some – this was currently felt to be an unachievable target – completing the game at the hardest level was less motivating than simply progressing from their current level. This can be interpreted as a positive outcome, since it is those players who cannot immediately do well that we want to encourage, and this implies that the game is enjoyable, even for those people who find it challenging at easy and medium levels. We hope to be able to prove this more conclusively with further analysis of the gameplay data.

Table 7: Statement “I am determined to complete the whole piece at the hardest level”

I am determined to complete the

whole piece at the hardest level in

the game




Agree 7 13% 17 30%


Disagree 6 11% 8 14%


Total 5425 5726

Sharing High Scores and Achievements

The wider sharing of gaming experience with the App was largely consistent during the period of the focus group. In the final survey:

• 32% talked about their high scores with family/friends; • 10% shared their scores and achievements on Facebook, and; • 5% shared their scores and achievements on Twitter.

This did not vary significantly from the second survey. Participants also mentioned that they had sent their high score via email from the App to family 25 Comments included “I already have” and “I am determined to complete the game at higher accuracy!” 26 Comments included “I was very determined to finish it, but I still enjoy playing it since completing it and joining the 28k club”


members, texted their score to friends who were also playing the game and submitted a high score for the competition run by the London Sinfonietta. The hashtag #clappingmusicapp was automatically added to all high scores tweeted directly from the game, and adopted for general discussion about the App on Twitter and Facebook (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Typical example of a High Score tweeted directly from the app

However, in response to the question “I am playing competitively against family/friends to beat their score”, only 4% strongly agreed (2nd and 3rd survey), and 7%-‐11% agreed (11% 2nd survey, 7% 3rd survey). It appeared that a small group of players were playing very competitively with both their own community, and with the wider App community via the high score competition organised by the London Sinfonietta27.

27 One focus group member, ‘Thies D W’, came third on the final High Score Competition leader board


Nonetheless, the larger part of the group did not seem to be engaging competitively in the same way. Indeed one participant commented “I play against myself” whilst another reported:

“It was really fun to start but the scoring was not motivating enough to continue playing when it got difficult.”

A number of participants responded that whilst they did not share their scores on social media, they did talk about their experience in the game with friends and family. Engagement with progress in the game, either through completing each level or pattern, or all of the patterns to complete the piece, was high.

The ‘28k’ club

Focus group comments revealed an interesting term created by the community, the ‘28k’ club. Sharing of the high scores on Twitter, and publication of the London Sinfonietta’s High Score Competition leader board (Figure 12), led to the community deciding that a high score of 28,000 was something to aspire to. One focus group participant commented:

“Once you get into the late 27,000 early 28,000 it very much becomes a 'oh I was out by a smidge on that repetition, better quit and start again rather than waste 5 mins' as you know you can't beat your last score with a mistake.”

Figure 12 High Score Competition final leader board


A score of 28,000 could only be achieved by completing the whole piece at the hardest level with a high overall level of accuracy, evidenced by the High Score leader board. There were repeated comments about this ‘club’ on e-‐mail and social media when the hashtags #28Kclub and #28kclub started to appear, for example see Figure 13 and Figure 14. The sentiment expressed by player ‘Fuera’ in Figure 14 echoes the view expressed by several other participants, that once they had completed the piece and achieved a score greater than 28,000, their motivation to continue decreased, or they simply stopped playing. This is not necessarily a problem since an aim of the App was to improve people’s rhythmic skills. Players who quickly become a member of #28kclub, probably benefit less from the App, apart from enjoying the challenge.

In further iterations of the App, the community effect could be capitalised to increase long-‐term engagement by awarding players who achieve this status with a special badge, or icon on their player profile. Maintaining a public “Hall of Fame” for players in the “28k club” could also help to keep momentum.

Figure 13: The 28K club (upper case)


Figure 14: The "28kclub" hashtag (lower case)

Engagement with the Genre

Focus group participants were asked to evaluate statements about familiarity with the piece, genre and composer in all three surveys. The first survey aimed to set a baseline for knowledge of the genre prior to exploring the App, the second and third surveys explored whether playing the game changed participants’ familiarity.

A high level of familiarity with the genre was reported in survey 1. 73% of the group reported that they were already familiar with the piece Clapping Music


(strongly agree 49%, agree 24%). This reflected the self-‐selecting nature of the group, in that people who were already fans of Steve Reich were more likely to be aware of the App’s imminent launch and contact the research team to participate in the study. Many participants had studied Steve Reich and Minimalism, and some had even performed Clapping Music, at college or university. This was reinforced by general comments made in the open sections of the surveys, for example:

“I have performed Clapping Music and regularly perform and compose contemporary classical music.”

“I have previously performed, and coached groups of students to play Clapping Music”

“I tried to perform a simplified version of Clapping Music during my time at University.”

Similarly, there was a high level of familiarity with Steve Reich (78% were already familiar with the composer).

However the 14% of participants who strongly disagreed with the statement “I am familiar with the composer Steve Reich” decreased to 2% in surveys 2 and 3. At the start of the study, 17% of participants strongly disagreed with the statement “I am familiar with the composition Clapping Music”. This fell to just 2% by survey 2 and 0% by survey 3. This suggests that engagement with the App increased awareness of the composer and the piece.

When participants where asked specifically about their knowledge of the piece, composer and genre prior to taking part in the focus group, and throughout the study, we saw an improvement. The number of participants who had never heard the piece Clapping Music, not heard any other compositions by Steve Reich and never listened to any Minimalist music decreased with each questionnaire (Table 8).


Table 8: RG3 participants unaware of piece, composer or genre

Survey 1 Survey 2 Survey 3

I have not heard the piece Clapping Music 7 0 1

I have not listened to any other compositions by

Steve Reich

11 10 6

I have not listened to any Minimalist music 7 5 2

I have not listened to any contemporary classical

music

3 2 1

We asked participants how likely they were to attend a live music event featuring the music, genre or composer.28 Participants indicated that they were on average, slightly more likely to attend a performance of Clapping Music, or a concert of Minimalist or contemporary classical music, after they had started to use the App (Figure 15).

28 A 5 point Likert scale of 5=Strongly Agree, 4=Agree, 3=Neither agree nor disagree, 2=Disagree and 1=Strongly disagree, was used throughout the RG2 and RG3 surveys.

Figure 15: RG3 likely concert attendance


By survey 3, participants’ likelihood to attend an event had decreased, with the steepest decline for the piece itself. The surveys were issued at two-‐week intervals. It seems that using the App had a quick impact, but that it was not sustained.

Engagement with the App also had a significant effect on familiarity with Minimalism or contemporary classical music. The average level of familiarity was already high to begin with, but then increased from Survey 1 to Survey 2 (though less steeply than for familiarity with Clapping Music and Steve Reich). Although familiarity with contemporary classical music increased between surveys 2 and 3, familiarity with Minimalism actually dipped a little. Comparison of the measures of familiarity is shown by the average score of the Likert scale responses, for each statement, for each survey (Figure 16).

Figure 16: RG3 mean familiarity with piece, composer and genre


Engagement with the Music

Whilst familiarity with the piece increased, enjoyment of listening to the piece Clapping Music did not seem to be significantly affected by the App. Combined measures for enjoyment of the piece stayed at 81% in surveys 1 and 2, only increasing slightly to 86% in survey 3.

The statement “As a result of using the App Steve Reich's Clapping Music, I have a greater appreciation of the Minimalist genre” was included in the final survey. 12% strongly agreed and 32% agreed. Whilst 14% (8 participants) disagreed and 2% (1 participant) strongly disagreed, some participants made us aware that this is because were already very familiar with the genre. For example, the participant that strongly disagreed explained:

“I perform, compose, and teach Minimalist and contemporary classical music. I am a trained percussionist and have performed Clapping Music.”

It was also found that participants who did not gain a greater appreciation of the Minimalist genre had not engaged with the additional content in the App. In survey 2, participants were asked if they had watched the interview with Steve Reich, or read the biography of Steve Reich, that could be found within the additional content section “About the Music”, from the main menu (Figure 17). Of the 8 participants that disagreed with the statement “As a result of using the App Steve Reich's Clapping Music, I have a greater appreciation of the Minimalist genre”, 6 reported that they did not look at either piece of content.

Engagement with Additional Content

Engagement with additional content was explored in the second survey, after participants had downloaded the App and had time to explore it. The engagement with additional content was mixed. In addition to the video interview and biography of Steve Reich already mentioned, there was a video with London Sinfonietta percussionists demonstrating a performance of the game, with overlaid graphics that showed how each part corresponded to the representations in the App (Figure 18). 33 participants watched this once and 7 more than once (68% of the group in total). However, 8 people chose the response “I was not aware of this content” and 11 said that they had never watched it.


On average, RG3 members who had watched the video thought that this content was helpful in understanding the piece Clapping Music. Children responded strongly to the video when it was shown during a school visit, clapping along to the patterns as they were displayed spontaneously, without being asked. What was slightly more surprising was that the response was closer to neutral when those that had watched the video were asked if it was helpful in understanding how to play the game. It seems that understanding the piece Clapping Music is different to understanding how to play the game.

Figure 17 App main menu


Figure 18: In-‐app video performance of Clapping Music

Response to more additional content that could be found by scrolling further down this menu, and using sub-‐menus, was weaker. Overall, more than half of the group found the content about Steve Reich and watched it at least once (Table 9), but around 20% reported that they never found it.

Table 9: Focus Group response to additional content

I watched the video interview

with Steve Reich

I read the biography of Steve Reich

More than once 4 7% 2 3%

Once 26 45% 33 56%

Never 16 28% 12 20%

I wasn't aware of this content 12 21% 12 20%

Summary

Generally, familiarity seems to have increased with the piece and the composer during the period of engagement with the App, but there was much less of an effect for the genres ‘Minimalism’ and ‘contemporary classical music’.


Increased Rhythmic Skill

We were most interested in players who might benefit from playing the game to develop their rhythmic awareness and skills in coordinating play with others (ensemble skills). At the workshop/ live event organised by the London Sinfonietta (see Figures 2 and 3), a player of the App, who had made it to the final High Score Competition leader board, told the research team that they felt that their rhythmic accuracy when playing acoustic instruments such as guitar and piano had increased since they began to play the game. As a result, we included the statement “My rhythmic skills have improved since playing Steve Reich's Clapping Music” in the final survey. More than a third of the group agreed (Table 10), and whilst this is self-‐reported rather than independently assessed, it could at least be suggested that playing the game has made some people more aware of their rhythmic performance.

Table 10: Statement “My rhythmic skills have improved since playing Clapping Music”

My rhythmic skills have improved since Clapping Music Third Survey

responses percentage

Strongly agree 3 5%

Agree 18 31%

Neither agree nor disagree 31 53%

Disagree 6 10%

Strongly disagree 1 2%

Total 59


Consultation with Industry Professionals

In addition to the research findings outlined, 85 Industry Professionals were recruited to complete an online questionnaire and/or to attend a live seminar. We were interested to know the extent to which other professional colleagues working in the arts would find the App engaging, and the extent to which they might find gamification of an art form something that would potentially increase their own audience engagement.

Owing to the timing of the launch of our app, at the start of the summer holiday period, the drop out rate was relatively high and only 1 in 4 of the participants recruited completed the survey or came to the live seminar. However, the findings were felt to be an accurate representation of the anecdotal feedback received from the industry at large since the launch. Our findings from this exercise were as follows:

Current Understanding of and Engagement with Digital Practices

The Industry Professionals group came from the visual arts, theatre, music, cross-‐arts and museum backgrounds. There was good awareness of the ways in which developing digital projects can bring in new audiences, build on existing audiences and remove barriers for those audience members who, for whatever reason, cannot access the live experience. There was a shared belief that a ‘live’ element to a digital project in the arts can both support and enhance both the digital and live experience, and promote awareness of the digital resource or opportunity. This currently exists in a number of different ways:

• Filming and subsequent streaming of a live event into cinemas. For example, the National Theatre Live, Glyndebourne Live. The digital experience cannot exist without the live performance, but the close up techniques and additional content make it part live stream, part film, part documentary; the experience becomes different, and more than just a live theatre experience.

• Digital experiences can drive live audience. For example, the Philharmonia Orchestra’s iOrchestra allows you to ‘sit next to a virtual orchestral player’.

• Digital engagement plus competitions drives live events. For example, the competition element in our Clapping Music App translates from an isolated digital experience to a participatory, live performance experience.


• Digital resources can support real music making. For example, the Aldeburgh Festival’s Friday Afternoons provides the materials and builds the digital community, but it is the ‘live’ in-‐class workshop that promotes the use of these resources.

Despite awareness of the benefits of digital practices, our colleagues conferred that undertaking digital projects is expensive and as yet, there are no real models of successful monetisation for such work, not even from large players such as the Berlin or Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras and their streaming concert service. It takes large amounts of staff time to make and maintain such digital projects, which are then hard to keep alive on all platforms or media, when the technology and networks are changing so much and so quickly.

So is a shift in attitude to our art forms required to truly engage many more people? Different digital platforms and experiences, like gaming, may provide a key to accessing new audiences, and everyone agreed that gaming, in particular, translated well to our younger audiences. However, we may need to be prepared to present our cherished art-‐forms in a more popularist and less ‘highbrow’ way.

The amount of sustained, innovative digital practice across the sector is still very low and for the reasons outlined above, it is difficult to do well. All organisations, large and small, face the challenges of how to continue or complete their existing initiatives, or how to begin them. We heard the same story, repeatedly; the main obstacles to developing work in this area are money and time.

Gaming as a Metaphor for Developing New Digital Projects Needs to Build on a Core Experience that Everyone Can Share

Steve Reich’s Clapping Music seems to encapsulate this aspect very well. The original piece (about clapping) maps very well onto the technology platform (which asks people to tap). The gamification works well because it builds on this core experience that everyone can share; everyone can relate to clapping and rhythm. In a similar way, our visual arts colleagues believed that an art-‐based app could potentially work from the perspective of encouraging people to draw. However, our theatre colleagues felt this was more challenging. For example, a quiz based knowledge game about Shakespeare’s Sonnets, may be quite limiting as it would promote and assume too much of high level cultural ‘elitist’ knowledge, rather than people’s existing communal experience of writing,


storytelling and poetry. So for gamification to be successful, the concept and functionality of the game would need to draw on a fairly simple and shared experience.

Very few of the Industry Professionals consulted had undergone any formal R&D work in this area.


Insights Our team learned many different things working together on this project. Listed here are some of the ones we regard as most important.

Developing a Culture of Working Together and Value Working in Person

We spent a lot of time in conversation between the three project partners at early project meetings, defining, and refining, what we all meant in our understanding of the project. Even after the detailed application process in which we all participated, it took a long time for us all to begin to talk the same ‘language’ on the project, let alone reconciling our different working practices on making something new like an app.

For example, we had to balance the idea of scoping and planning the detail of each prototype of the App with the different working approach of building iterations of the App as quickly as possible, and react to what is made. Another example which took a lot of time for us all to fix as a common understanding was defining exactly what we meant from the people who would form the different prototype and testing groups for the App, or understanding exactly the parameters that are required by the research partner to make their work output meaningful.

It is really valuable working with other organisations outside your own field. Your assumptions are always being challenged, but to allow a healthy conversation you need to invest time in shared understandings. The more time spent understanding exactly what each partner needed to achieve – and writing it down -‐ was always repaid.

When we were in the final stages of building the App, and an extensive amount of editing, refining and altering needed to happen, it became clear that the best way for this work to happen, at this stage, is together, in person.

And yet, keeping all the work moving within the busy diaries of many people, meant that it was vital to work out which part of the project could be best progressed in parallel (with each partner developing its work unilaterally) and which parts of any process like this can only realistically be done with people in a room together.


Recruiting Participants

Ideally, we wanted to recruit participants for the focus group (RG3) prior to app launch, so that we could be sure that they had not yet played the game or seen any of the app content. Despite extensive engagement with social media, utilising both the London Sinfonietta and Queen Mary University of London’s PR departments, and demonstrating at undergraduate open day events, only 30 participants could be acquired before the App officially launched. Once the App had launched, we were inundated with requests to participate in the focus group, but it became clear that these were requests from people who were already playing the game and often already had an interest in Steve Reich. We recruited a further 70 participants as their data will still be of use, but we have separately identified them from the 30 participants recruited prior to app launch, so that we can consider this during analysis.

Ideally, we wanted to recruit a parallel RG3 focus group of participants under the age if 16. The preparatory work involved contacting schools, gaining the additional ethics committee sign off required and implementing additional parental online consent for children participants. However, the delay in app launch meant that we could not complete recruitment activity until late in the summer term. As for the adult group, interest was more likely when the actual app could be demonstrated. Music teachers were the most likely to respond, but by the time the App was ready, they were very busy with end of term performances and other activities such as Sports Days. One school was visited and an app demonstration was enthusiastically received, but no children signed up to take part in the study as a direct result. We would like to find a way to engage with schools in autumn 2015.

Be Prepared to be Flexible in Your Thinking

Some of the most important moments in a project such as this one are where you are required to make some key decisions, which might be in the best interest of the project, even if not necessarily what you originally set out to do.

One example of this was to consider the size or weight of the App. Apple has set a limit of no more than 100MB for apps to function over a non-‐Wi-‐Fi connection i.e. over the air. We wanted people to be able to maintain their immediate interest in the App, and be able to download it without delay, without the need for a Wi-‐Fi connection. Therefore, we needed to try to keep it as small as


possible. The only way to achieve this, given that we wanted to include a lot of video content, was to stream the video content into the App from another platform (YouTube or Vimeo) which then enables you to watch the films if you have a fast enough Internet connection. We originally anticipated having all the video content in-‐app but in the end, we streamed it, and this was the right decision.

The Importance of Setting Clear Objectives and Remaining Focussed

All parties need to agree what the key objectives are and set clearly defined goals. We were lucky that we found this quite easy, otherwise we would have struggled to make good compromises. If you can clearly identify at every stage where the responsibilities lie, you will avoid situations where the ball gets dropped.

For this, you absolutely need a Project Manager, someone who can make sure that all parties are communicating properly and can align their schedules. Touchpress said that they found it hard to maintain the high level of communication that was required, so the PM role was best served by trying to keep things summarised constantly, reducing everything to just what needs to be said. To do this, you must always have a clear set of priorities, so you know what is most important to discuss. A good PM will keep the team focussed and in sync.

Administering Your Engagement with a Global Audience Takes Time

The success of the App meant that we are now actively engaged with a global community on many levels. We have learned that this takes time and it does not happen without its headaches.

We have been overwhelmed with the response to our Clapping Music App competition, receiving on average upwards of 82 entries a day from all over the world including amateurs, teachers, professionals and children. We anticipate being able to host competitions now all over the world when the orchestra goes on tour, following the same format that we had in London i.e. a masterclass with top 10 competition entrants, a workshop with the general public and a live performance with competition winners and London Sinfonietta percussionists.


The Marketing department at the orchestra are managing this aspect, but it will take additional time and resource to administer, something which the Orchestra are committed to delivering.

Similarly, we chose to offer iTunes vouchers as a prize incentive for the research participants, since it was likely that people with an iOS device would have an iTunes account, and the App was available globally, so we needed to administer a prize electronically. We publicised three separate draws, to encourage new players to complete the online survey. However, when we made the first draw, it became apparent that Apple would not allow iTunes vouchers purchased in one region to be redeemed in another currency in another region. Our first 10 winners were from the UK, USA, Mexico, Canada and Indonesia. Apple would not allow an account to be opened in another region with a UK based credit card and address. As an alternative, Amazon was chosen to administer prizes to non-‐UK winners, as they could offer this service. However, this had to be communicated to winners who had already been notified, and not every region was potentially covered by an online Amazon store. This difficulty in administering prizes as an incentive to participate in the research from a global audience had not been anticipated.


Future There are several general areas where outputs may be applied or further developed.

Planned Activity

Dissemination of Project Success and Findings – the project partnership will now turn its attention to talking about the project and ensuring that the things that have been learned from it are made available to as many interested people as possible, as outlined in our proposal. Research results will be disseminated via the QMUL Research website29.

Exploit ing the Possibi l it ies for Education – the most likely next project initiative around the App will be developing the work in schools. This could lead to an in-‐class, in-‐person workshop model that uses the App as the catalyst for rhythmic skill development, leading to more creative compositional exercises using the musical ideas of the piece.

Developing the Clapping App Community – the London Sinfonietta will sustain its work with the community of people who are engaged with the App in two ways. Firstly, by running more competitions, culminating in live performance opportunities. Secondly, by inviting people who enter the competitions to attend other London Sinfonietta concerts.

Future Development of the App

The project team will need to find a way to maintain the App and ensure it is still available for any new versions of the Apple software, the immediate challenge being ensuring the App is compatible with the new Apple operating system, iOS9, planned for Autumn 2015.

The current app iteration could be developed to fix remaining technical problems, and to make the most of the existing material. For example, a survey of users from other art forms reinforced the focus group findings on page 48, that not many people drilled down into other App content, such as the summary of Steve Reich’s music and the analysis of Electric Counterpoint, so navigation could be improved. 29 http://cogsci.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/clappingmusicresearch//Home.html


Future Development of the Concept

In conversation with Touchpress, London Sinfonietta has identified that there is the potential to build more apps, which retain the successful elements of Steve Reich’s Clapping Music. For example, an obvious next step would be to keep the Steve Reich rhythm focus, but introduce different pieces, or explore different repertoire that retains the interactive rhythmic character, and can be realised as a game based experience. Finding the right factors to continue into the next project will be key.

We believe that the gaming paradigm is something that can be applied to digital engagement in other art forms. During a round-‐table discussion with industry professionals with digital and marketing experience, they agreed with this proposition with one qualification. Clapping Music App was seen to be a success, because the challenge was for people to develop a skill that everyone already has to some degree, i.e. their sense of rhythm. It was this common human attribute that was being engaged, not focussing (by contrast) on a specialised knowledge area of a particular art form. For example, it was questioned whether a game based on recognising all the different works by Picasso would depend heavily on an already existing interest for that art form or subject area, or could feel more like cultural learning for its own sake.

Continued Investment in R&D

The project confirms the potential for collecting large amounts of useful research data through engagement with game-‐based learning of musical skills. Our on-‐going research plan is to continue analysing the gameplay data and linking it to the data acquired from RG2 and RG3 to address our research questions. We also believe that engagement with schools, which the delayed launch of the App prevented us from doing during the lifetime of this project, will yield interesting results from an audience who are likely to be less familiar with Minimalism (and contemporary classical music more widely) and may be more motivated by the game-‐based metaphor. Naturally, the success of this project leads us to pose a more general hypothesis to be tested in future researches: that game-‐based skill development can help to engage new audiences with other musical styles and even different art forms in which rhythm plays a role (e.g. dance, poetry).


Appendix: Marketing Plan Responsibilities Key areas covered in the marketing plan:

• Press Release • Social Media campaign (Twitter, Facebook) • Blog https://londonsinfonietta.wordpress.com • Identifying key stake holders to keep the message alive with

#clappingmusicapp • Online and live launch • Advertising on social media • Attendance at Digital Events e.g. Web We Want festival, London

Technology Week • Live Performance Events at Southbank Centre • London Sinfonietta website to create a community webspace • Dissemination of information about the App to all UK schools • Creating T-‐shirts, banners and mugs for the team brand • Creating video content for Touchpress to use in the App and their

marketing • Producing microsite • Producing Video preview (30 seconds) • Producing Video trailer (60 seconds)


Further Resources The London Sinfonietta has produced a Business Model for the project, which is available online at:

http://clappingmusicapp.com/assets/Products/Documents/Business-‐Model-‐Clapping-‐Music.pdf

Project Online Resources

http://clappingmusicapp.com

http://londonsinfonietta.org.uk/clappingmusicapp

http://cogsci.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/clappingmusicresearch/Home.html


Bibliography Arnab, S. et al., 2013. The development approach of a pedagogically-‐driven serious game to support Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) within a classroom setting. Computers & Education, 69, pp.15–30.

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Chafe, C., Gurevich, M. & Leslie, G., 2004. Effect of time delay on ensemble accuracy. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Musical Acoustics.

Crawford, G. et al., 2014. Is there an app for that? A case study of the potentials and limitations of the participatory turn and networked publics for classical music audience engagement. Information, Communication & Society, 17(9), pp.1072–1085.

Gaye, L. et al., 2006. Mobile Music Technology: Report on an Emerging Field. In NIME ’06: Proceedings of the 2006 International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. Paris: IRCAM—Centre Pompidou, pp. 22–25.

Huizenga, J. et al., 2009. Mobile game-‐based learning in secondary education: engagement, motivation and learning in a mobile city game. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 25(4), pp.332–344.

Meluso, A. et al., 2012. Enhancing 5th graders’ science content knowledge and self-‐efficacy through game-‐based learning. Computers & Education, 59(2), pp.497–504.

Müllensiefen, D. et al., 2014. The musicality of non-‐musicians: An index for assessing musical sophistication in the general population. PLoS ONE, 9(2).

Prensky, M., 2005. Computer games and learning: Digital Game-‐Based Learning. Handbook of computer game studies, 18, pp.97–122.

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Glossary & Abbreviations ACE -‐ Arts Council of England

AHRC -‐ Arts and Humanities Research Council

Influencers – in Marketing terms, these are the people who could grow your social media campaign exponentially through their celebrity status for example, with many thousand followers

Latency -‐ the delay between an event and related response or feedback, usually caused by computer processing time. Any computing process takes time to be carried out, and for most scenarios it is negligible and goes undetected. However we are very sensitive to delays between sound and visuals that we know should be concurrent. Delays have been found to affect the ability to maintain tempo when clapping a simple rhythm with another person (Chafe et al. 2004). Minimising this delay is crucial for Clapping Music, since tapping accuracy in ensemble with the static pattern is fundamental to doing well in the game.

Multipliers -‐ in Marketing terms, these are the key stakeholders involved on your project who you can rely on to keep your message alive through their social media

Nesta -‐ National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts

Pattern transition -‐ the transition from one 'pattern' to then next. With 'pattern' being one of the 12 unique rhythmic patterns defined by Reich in Clapping Music original score.

QMUL -‐ Queen Mary University of London


Acknowledgements The project team would like to thank the following people for their work on Clapping Music:

London Sinfonietta

Andrew Burke, Barbara Palczynski, James Joslin, Elizabeth Davis, Theresa Veith, Amy Forshaw, Siân Bateman, Sarah Tennant, Natalie Marchant, Ed Marsh, Sean Watson, Shoubhik Bandopadhyay

Queen Mary University of London

Marcus Pearce, Sam Duffy

Touchpress

Alan Martyn, James Penfold, Andy Bull, Joseph Thomson, Greg Felton, George Keenan, James Sims-‐Williams, Tom Williams, Nick Herrmann, Oscar Swedrup, Louise Rice, Theodore Gray, John Cromie, Sam Aspinall, Matt Aitken, Fiona Barclay, Sam Holyhead, Alex Johnston, Tom Weightman, Max Whitby, Selam Zeru, Richard Zito

Musicians for app videos and live performance

David Hockings, Toby Kearney, Mats Bergström, Olly Lowe, Louise Goodwin, Tim Palmer

Clapping Music by Steve Reich

© Copyright 1980 by Universal Edition (London) Ltd, London with kind permission of Universal Edition AG Vienna

Electric Counterpoint by Steve Reich

© Copyright 1987 by Hendon Music Inc by permission of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd, an Imagem company

Performance filmed and edited by 59 Productions

Sound engineering by Floating Earth

Steve Reich interview filmed by Urbancroft Films

Kings Place, London for performance filming and prototype testing


Southbank Centre, London for use of space for live events

Mika Wilson, Publicity and Communications Officer, School of Electronic and Engineering and Computer Science, QMUL

Fusun Fidan (Nakama London) for Digital Marketing consultation work

Maija Handover (soundUK) for PR assistance

Alex Urquhart and the Year 8 Music Class at Fortismere School, London.