“It is this experience of control and emersion in sound, which can be such a powerful tool.” – Welcome to Soundbeam Video

Soundbeam

The most amazing thing about Soundbeam is that is over 20 years old. It was first created in 1989 and has continued to be developed and improved since.

The Facts…

Soundbeam is a interactive Midi system, which picks up movement and translates it to sound. It use’s a sensor to pick up movement and also has the option of foot-pedals to add extra sounds. The current version of Soundbeam offers, an in built sampler, inbuilt synth, inbuilt amplifier and inbuilt mini keyboard and offers a variety of samples.

Soundbeam was originally created to be used in dance as it would pick up on the movements taking place and translate them into the appropriate sounds and tempo. However it has since been developed to be used in schools and music and dance therapies.

 

 

The Implications…

What remains fascinating to me is that Soundbeam has existed for 23 years, granted it has not been used in music therapy for that amount of time but is has been in the area for some substantial time, and yet the further development of technology in Music Therapy still seems relatively unexplored.

For me this is extremely surprising, I’m not knocking Music Therapy as it stands, it is a powerful and life changing thing and theres no denying that the traditional techniques used work extremely well, however using technology’s available to us today we may be able to develop those techniques further or even create new techniques.

It almost seems to be that Music Therapy is afraid to move forward with technology incase these old techniques are replaced, well yes perhaps these techniques may be more effective or perhaps they will not, we will not know until we try them, and surely the main priority should be the development of Music Therapy to help people more, and if technology can help us to do that then great!

I will restate i am not disregarding Music Therapy as it stands, we have needed these traditional techniques and research to get to where are today, however now i think is the time to move forward. Think of it this way, Electronic music is now seen as the future of the Music Business however no one is say that to get to this conclusion we didn’t need The Beatles, The Beatles were crucial to this development. It is important to remember although music has been seen to have the power to heal since Ancient  Greek times, however it has only been a recognised profession for the past 50 years.

To go back to my initial point, Soundbeam shows the start of a exciting future for Music Therapy, Community Music and in fact any type of Interactive Music. With the inbuilt sampler people are now able to record their own sounds, whether it be their voice or them tapping on a table and then manipulate it using the sensors and foot pedals. The enables people who may have never been able to consider making music, the chance to be a music maker. Going back again to one of my favourite points, anyone can be a musician, and it is developments such as this which are helping this to become true.

 

 

Some things that interest me is whether programs such as Logic and Ableton Live could be used with The Soundbeam to enable more manipulation of sounds and perhaps usage of more samples.

I hope that the development of Soundbeam will help to further the use of technology within Music Therapy, but it is clear that it is a step in the right direction!

For more information on Soundbeam visit their website: Soundbeam.co.uk

“We are becoming more sophisticated about the role that music plays in the total development of someone.” – John Gilbert

The Future of a career in Music Therapy

I hope to go into Music Therapy after finishing my degree, but what i particularly want to focus on is the use of technology within music therapy. From the research i have done so far there is a definite lag of technology in the area, this is not me insulting the therapy at all, i believe it has done incredible things but i believe that music therapy needs to start moving with the times a bit more.

The benefits that this could have for music therapy itself could be phenomenal. I believe the use of technology could open many new ways in which music therapy could go, in practice and in science.

The possibilities that programs like Max MSP and Ableton have mean that the possibilities for music therapy could be endless. I am of course at the moment thinking mainly along the lines of the tech but once these programs are designed (and what better way to be designed then by the therapist who know exactly what is needed rather then by a techie who can follow instructions but would have little creative input and knowledge in the area.) they coud be used in a music therapy environment and may increase expression.

Technologies in music therapy are beginning to be explored but i feel that much more of a focus could be put upon them. The creators of The Alphasphere took the instrument to a music therapy centre which cares for severely disabled young children and they said the difference that the music therapist noticed in the child who tried the instrument was incredible. They were able to be more expressive then they had ever been before. However at the moment the Alphasphere is being developed primarily for musicians with hope of going on to develop it for schools and therapy so we may not be seeing these sorts of technologies in these environments for some time.

Another benefit of technology in music therapy is that it will get music therapy notice more by the public which from my research i understand to be a issue that is trying to be tackled. By using new technologies more people will start paying attention to what music therapy is doing.

My time studying Networking Music has made me come to realise that things are changing rapidly not only in the music industry but in the whole world. People are now looking for an experience from music not just some light listening. This is the same matter for Music Therapy, there is so much more that the therapy could do with the development of technologies that allow anyone and everyone to experience a new form of music therapy without concern of their disabilities, age, illness or musical abilities.