Kibo: A MIDI Controller with a Tangible User Interface for

Music Education

Mattia Davide Amico

and Luca Andrea Ludovico

2 a

Kodaly S.r.l., Via Gian Battista Bazzoni 8, 20123 Milano, Italy

LIM, Laboratorio di Informatica Musicale, Dipartimento di Informatica, Universit

a Degli Studi di Milano,

Via Giovanni Celoria 18, 20133 Milano, Italy

Keywords:

Music, Education, Tangible User Interfaces, MIDI Controller, Preschool, Primary School, Special Needs.

Abstract:

This paper presents Kibo, a MIDI controller equipped with a simpliﬁed tangible user interface. Entirely made

of wood, Kibo presents eight geometric extractable solids that can be used to trigger note events and to control

musical parameters. In the framework of the cooperation with the Music Informatics Lab of the University of

Milan, the distinctive features of the device and their applicability to the ﬁeld of music education have been

investigated. Kibo aims to offer intuitive interaction with music parameters and fosters the acquisition of spe-

ciﬁc skills in a non-formal learning environment. Beneﬁts are particularly evident for speciﬁc target categories

of users, including preschool and primary school children and people with both physical and cognitive special

needs.

1 INTRODUCTION

Digital music technology is a broad deﬁnition that

encompasses digital instruments, computer devices,

electronic effects, ad-hoc software, etc., aiming to

produce, perform or record music. In this work, we

will narrow the ﬁeld to a speciﬁc category of digital

equipment, namely musical instruments with a tan-

gible user interface (TUI), employable in a speciﬁc

domain, namely music education. Some considera-

tions will be easily extensible to other contexts, such

as music creativity and computational thinking, where

the binomial music–technology can bring a number of

beneﬁts. For instance, improving music experience

for beginners through simpliﬁed interfaces is a way to

foster early music education by tearing down the wall

of potential frustration and disaffection; and, from the

opposite point of view, an educational initiative that

uses technology-enhanced tools and gamiﬁcation pro-

cesses can draw young users into the sphere of music

creativity, also acting as a springboard to formal mu-

sic education.

The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 will

describe the state of the art concerning digital tech-

nologies for music education, Section 3 will provide

technical details about Kibo, Section 4 will address

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8251-2231

the applicability of Kibo to music learning, in partic-

ular for beginners and people with special needs, and

Section 5 will draw conclusions.

2 STATE OF THE ART

In this section we will review some relevant initiatives

based on digital technologies that can help music be-

ginners and people with disabilities in producing mu-

sic through an embodied approach, with evident ben-

eﬁts (also) for music education.

A research ﬁeld to mention is the one of

technology-enhanced music embodiment. The con-

cept of embodiment implies a corporeal process that

enables the link between music as experienced phe-

nomenon and music as physical energy, or the physi-

cal environment in general (Leman et al., 2008). Such

a concept can be instanced in multiple ways in music

education, ranging from immediate music awareness

to the acquisition of speciﬁc competences. To cite

but a few examples, concerning the former aspect, we

can mention a social music game where two groups of

participants have to collaborate by dancing in a syn-

chronous way (Leman et al., 2009); regarding the lat-

ter aspect, it is worth mentioning a computer-based

approach to teach tonal harmony to young students

who walk within a prepared environment (Avanzini

Amico, M. and Ludovico, L.

Kibo: A MIDI Controller with a Tangible User Interface for Music Education.

DOI: 10.5220/0009805206130619

In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2020), pages 613-619

ISBN: 978-989-758-417-6

613

et al., 2019b).

This kind of approaches is not merely conﬁned

to academic research: there are also commercially-

available and successful devices that foster intuitive

control of music parameters through the detection of

body movements. In this sense, it is worth men-

tioning Microsoft Kinect (Yoo et al., 2011; Kadakal

et al., 2014; Graham-Knight and Tzanetakis, 2015),

Nintendo’s Wiimote (Kiefer et al., 2008; Reed et al.,

2008; Wong et al., 2008), and Leap Motion (Silva

et al., 2013; Perdana, 2014; Barat

e et al., 2019).

Another approach is based on ﬁducials. A ﬁducial

marker, or ﬁducial, is an object placed in the ﬁeld of

view of an image-recognition system which appears

in the image produced, employed as a point of refer-

ence or a measure. This approach is well exempliﬁed

by the reacTable, a digital musical instrument devel-

oped by the Music Technology Group at the Universi-

tat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain (Jord

a, 2010).

The reacTable adopts ﬁducials to generate and control

music and sound parameters. This device has a table-

top tangible user interface formed by a round translu-

cent table used as a backlit display. By placing blocks

called tangibles on the table, and interfacing with the

visual display via the tangibles or ﬁngertips, a vir-

tual modular synthesizer is operated, creating music

or sound effects. Other frameworks based on ﬁdu-

cials have been described in literature, such as Au-

dio D-TOUCH (Costanza et al., 2003) and TuneTable

(Xamb

o et al., 2017).

Concerning technology-enhanced TUIs for music,

scientiﬁc literature describes a number of theoreti-

cal approaches, prototypes and available products. A

tangible interface – implying something “real”, “con-

crete” – offers a physical way to interact with music

and sound parameters. Most traditional musical in-

struments are played through this kind of interaction,

but the advent of digital technologies paved the way to

innovative and original approaches. To cite but a few,

Paradiso et al. (2001) review TUIs based on mag-

netic tags, Newton-Dunn et al. (2003) describe a way

to controls a dynamic polyrhythmic sequencer using

physical artifacts, and Schiettecatte and Vanderdonckt

(2008) present a distributed cube interface based on

interaction range for sound design. Kibo, the device

the paper is focused on, implements a music-oriented

tangible interface, so this subject will be further dis-

cussed below.

Figure 1: The interface of Kibo.

3 KEY FEATURES OF THE

DEVICE

Kibo is an interactive instrument produced by Kodaly

S.r.l., entirely made of wood, with a simpliﬁed tangi-

ble interface that embeds a number of controls. The

goal of Kibo is to translate musical parameters into

geometric shapes through the development of visual,

tactile, auditive and mnemonic capacities. From this

point of view, the most relevant feature is the presence

of eight geometric extractable solids; in addition, the

interface includes a multi-function rotating knob (see

Figure 1). The device also integrates an accelerome-

ter.

From a technical point of view, Kibo is a

MIDI-compatible controller that can communicate

with other MIDI devices (e.g., synthesizers and se-

quencers) thanks to the MIDI-over-Bluetooth proto-

col (Bartolomeu et al., 2006). MIDI, standing for Mu-

sical Instrument Digital Interface, is a standard and

well-documented communication protocol that sup-

ports the connection of a wide variety of electronic

musical instruments, computers, and related audio de-

vices for playing, editing and recording music.

Kibo triggers MIDI events through its tangibles

and knob. Speciﬁcally, each tangible object gener-

ates Note On and Note Off messages sent over the

base channel of the device. These messages are pro-

duced both when tangibles are inserted into / extracted

from the base, and when they are pressed / released

if already in place. Besides, after the activation of a

note, each tangible is able to recognize pressure vari-

ations, transformed into Polyphonic Aftertouch mes-

sages. The rotating knob can detect: a prolonged

pressure, used to turn Kibo on/off; a single click, asso-

ciated with Control Change 119; a double click, asso-

ciated with Control Change 118; clockwise and coun-

terclockwise rotations, mapped onto step-by-step in-

creasing and decreasing values of Control Change

CSME 2020 - Special Session on Computer Supported Music Education

614

117 or sending Program Change messages.

In this

way, the knob is a multi-function control that allows

to scroll among different choices, set and conﬁrm val-

ues.

Kibo can be used also inside a standard music

class, namely in conjunction with traditional musi-

cal instruments, given the availability of a MIDI syn-

thesizer. This aspect is not particularly limiting, as a

PC or even a smartphone can host a dedicated app to

parse MIDI messages and produce sound.

However, a characteristic particularly relevant in

the ﬁeld of music education is the possibility to con-

nect up to 7 Kibo devices to the same receiver, thus

supporting collaboration within the same musical per-

formance. If a single Kibo in itself would be sufﬁ-

cient to achieve cooperative performances by letting

multiple users act on different tangibles (see Figure

2), this aspect opens new scenarios, such as creating

a Kibo ensemble and playing different parts on up to

7 federated Kibos (see Figure 3). The limitation of

maximum 7 independent devices is due to the limited

bandwidth supported by MIDI-over-Bluetooth, espe-

cially in a context where MIDI choking is a serious

risk.

In order to make Kibo a ready-to-use instrument,

it can be directly connected to an iPhone, iPad or a

Mac thanks to a dedicated app, thus creating a min-

imal controller-synthesizer MIDI chain. In addition,

the app provides a fast way to conﬁgure some mu-

sic parameters (e.g., the current timbre, the musical

scale associated to tangibles, etc.) and set the operat-

ing mode (see Section 3.2).

3.1 Tangibles

The main control over music parameters in Kibo is

realized through a set of 8 easily-recognizable tan-

gibles, shown in Figure 4. Each object has a differ-

ent shape ﬁtting in a single slot. From a physical

point of view, tangibles present symmetry properties

so that they can be rotated and ﬂipped before being

inserted in their slots. They have a magnetic core,

consequently they can be also stacked one on top of

the other.

The body of Kibo contains a multi-point pressure

sensor that allows to detect the insertion and removal

of tangibles. The characteristics of the sensor make

the instrument both extremely sensitive and very re-

sistant. Concerning the former aspect, it is sufﬁcient

Details about the MIDI protocol and a complete ref-

erence guide for its messages are available at https://www.

midi.org/.

MIDI choking occurs when MIDI data are sent at a rate

exceeding what the channel is capable of transmitting.

Figure 2: Multiple users playing the same Kibo.

Figure 3: Distributed performance over different Kibos.

to bring a tangible closer to the body to trigger a re-

action; similarly, the gentle touch of ﬁngers over an

already plugged tangible is recognized as a pressure

variation. Concerning robustness, Kibo has been de-

signed to tolerate strong physical stresses, like ﬁsts

and bumps.

A distinctive feature, supported by the MIDI pro-

tocol since its birth but uncommon in MIDI con-

trollers, is the possibility to detect pressure variations

over tangibles.

Potentially, different colors can further remark the

difference among tangibles and reinforce connections

with pitches or musical instruments. It is worth men-

tioning that color has been often employed in music

Kibo: A MIDI Controller with a Tangible User Interface for Music Education

615

education for beginners (Rogers, 1991; Kajs et al.,

1998; Poast, 2000; Oshima et al., 2002; Kuo and

Chuang, 2013). In some cases, color information is

so useful that even traditional instruments embed it to

help musicians in identifying pitches. A well-known

example is provided by the harp, whose strings are

color-coded for quick reference: all C strings are red

and F strings are black or dark blue.

3.2 Operating Modes

As mentioned before, Kibo is basically a MIDI-

compatible controller. Consequently, its operating

modes can be extended through ad-hoc applications

that associate MIDI messages launched by the device

to music and sound production.

In origin, tangibles have been conceived as event

triggers, and the knob as a scrolling selector. Such a

vision has inspired three operating modes, so far:

1. Advanced Keyboard. — In this scenario, appar-

ently the most obvious one, tangibles are mapped

onto pitches. Associations between shapes and

notes can be customized. In this way, the device

is not limited to the C-major scale but it support

key changes, other scale models, unusual note po-

sitions, etc. Through software processing of MIDI

messages, a single pressed key could also pro-

duce custom chords or arpeggios. The metaphor

of a keyboard controller is further extended by the

availability of the aftertouch effect, namely the

possibility to change the pressure on the key af-

ter the note attack;

2. Percussive Instrument. — As a variation of the

previous scenario, tangibles are mapped onto sin-

gle percussive instruments. The pressure sensor,

resistant but also extremely sensible, allows ef-

fects ranging from hard mallet beats to delicate

brush rubbing. From an educational point of view,

such an operating mode limits the number of mu-

sic parameters to be managed (e.g., there is no

note release and no melodic contour), thus mak-

ing the performance more intuitive for beginners;

1/2/2020 Risorsa 10

file:///C:/Users/micio/Desktop/CSEDU 2020/kibo/originali/kibo_logo.svg 1/1

Figure 4: The shapes of Kibo tangibles.

3. DJ Console. — The third scenario consists in us-

ing Kibo as a controller for already available mu-

sic loops. In this case, tangibles are associated

with independent but synchronized tracks within

a multi-track environment. When tangibles are

inserted, the corresponding tracks are activated;

when they are removed, tracks are muted (but

still running, so as to preserve global synchroniza-

tion). This is a completely different form of inter-

action with music content, particularly suitable to

engage users who are not able or do not wish to

create their own music.

Thanks to the adoption of MIDI, possibilities are end-

less. Other operating modes could be easily imple-

mented via software, by reading MIDI messages and

giving them other meanings, even extra-musical ones.

Examples may include the use of tangibles to select

and rearrange the sections of a score, to quickly pro-

vide answers in a musical quiz, or to animate an object

or a character in a music-oriented video game.

4 APPLICATIONS FOR MUSIC

EDUCATION

Kibo is a hardware device which has potential appli-

cations in multiple ﬁelds, from pure entertainment to

music creativity. In this context, we are particularly

interested in scenarios dealing with music formal and

non-formal education, a category that ranges from in-

troductory courses for preschool children to the in-

clusion of people with disabilities in music perfor-

mances.

4.1 Music Education in Preschool and

Primary School

A ﬁrst scenario where Kibo can present advantages

with respect to traditional approaches and methodolo-

gies is early music education.

Kibo allows to investigate basic music parame-

ters, one by one or combining them in multiple ways.

For example, the keyboard mode allows to explore

melodic (pitch, intensity, scale models, etc.) and tim-

bral aspects; the percussive operating mode encour-

ages rhythm awareness (tempo, note lengths, accents,

etc.); the simultaneous use of multiple tangibles al-

lows to explore harmonic aspects as well. Thanks

to suitable settings or ad-hoc software applications,

user experience can be customized in order to respond

to speciﬁc educational needs. For instance, several

methods aiming to develop musical skills and teach

CSME 2020 - Special Session on Computer Supported Music Education

616

theoretical concepts to very young children empha-

size the adoption of the pentatonic scale, which plays

a signiﬁcant role, e.g., in Orff, Kod

aly, and Waldorf

methodologies at an early stage (Landis and Carder,

1972). In this context, Kibo tangibles can be mapped

onto the pitches of the pentatonic scale, moving to-

wards major/minor scale models at a more advanced

stage.

Another application, linked to the use of clearly

recognizable shapes to identify pitches, is the intro-

duction of an alternative music notation for preschool

or primary school beginners. Scientiﬁc literature

describes many initiatives, including binary systems

(Bukspan, 1979), LEGO building blocks (Barat

et al., 2017), 3D printed models (Avanzini et al.,

2019a), and a number of graphical notations invented

by children themselves (Upitis, 1990). Kibo’s shapes,

potentially reinforced by color associations, let the

facilitator describe music tunes through drawings,

which is particularly useful for children unable to read

or affected by cognitive impairments.

Finally, Kibo can be applied to the development

of computational thinking, thanks to the use of pat-

terns whose musical meaning is made explicit. By

associating pitches, or note sequences, or chords, or

instrumental patches to speciﬁc tangible layouts, a re-

lationship among shape, position and musical mean-

ing can be established. Such a structure, after a suit-

able explanation by the facilitator, can be practiced

alone (individual exploration, self-regulation, etc.) or

in group (cooperatively, in a peer-to-peer review con-

text, etc.). Moreover, associations can be modiﬁed, in

order to foster reasoning and abstraction skills.

For the sake of clarity, let us present a simple use

case. With Kibo working in the keyboard operating

mode and conﬁgured to follow C-major grades, the

sequence of tangibles can be altered with respect to

the ascending diatonic scale (C, D, E, F, G, A, B,

C), so as to associate the same (transposed) interval

– e.g., a third or a ﬁfth – to vertically paired tangibles.

In this way, the user learns to associate an interval

model to a physical layout, and simultaneously devel-

ops harmonic awareness. After a number of training

sessions, the associated interval can change: on one

side, the palette of known intervals is extended; on

the other, the action “press two vertically-aligned tan-

gibles” is no more linked to a predeﬁned interval, but

means “repeat the current interval model on another

scale grade”, or, in other terms, “transpose the current

interval”.

4.2 Music Education for People with

Special Needs

In literature, the term enabling technology identiﬁes a

technology that alleviates the impact of disease or dis-

ability. Four categories of enabling technology were

pointed out by Hansson (2007):

• Therapeutic — Restore the original biological

function that has been lost or prevent further

losses;

• Compensatory — Fully or partially replace a lost

biological function by a new function of a general

nature;

• Assistive — Allow users to perform a task or an

activity despite an uncompensated disability or

lack of function;

• Universal — Intended for general use.

When focusing on education, Kibo can be consid-

ered an assistive technology from multiple points of

view. It becomes therapeutic when used in a reha-

bilitation context, for both cognitive and physical im-

pairments. In this case, music expression can be seen

as a way to push the limits, e.g. as an engaging goal

to achieve through embodiment. The attribution of

a physical identity to music parameters eases the use

of the instrument for visually impaired people as well

as people with dysfunctions like autism. The educa-

tional aspect may concern both the acquisition of mu-

sic awareness and the improvement of extra-musical

abilities, such as motor or cognitive ones.

Kibo can also be a compensatory enabling tech-

nology, since its ﬁne sensing capabilities let it detect

even small movements. For instance, it is possible

for a quadriplegic user to hit drums by slight pressure

variations on tangibles. Similarly, the unique shape

of each tangible make it simple for a blind or visually

impaired (BVI) user to trigger music events, whereas

many traditional instruments are not accessible with-

out ad-hoc additions. In music education the avail-

ability of a simpliﬁed, but expressive music interface

is a key aspect to engage this category of users.

Finally, Kibo is also an assistive enabling technol-

ogy, since it fosters creativity and encourages partic-

ipation in musical performances also in case of un-

compensated disabilities and disorders. For example,

the “DJ console” operating mode is a way to produce

potentially complex musical structures and interac-

tions even in case of serious physical or cognitive im-

pairments.

Kibo: A MIDI Controller with a Tangible User Interface for Music Education

617

4.3 Advanced Music Education

Among potential applications in the educational ﬁeld,

it is worth mentioning the use of Kibo as a simple

but powerful device to study and put into practice a

number of concepts typical of sound and music com-

puting.

Since Kibo is a MIDI controller, a ﬁrst case study

is learning the theoretical principles and practical

rudiments of the MIDI protocol, with the possibility

to deepen non-trivial aspects such as distributed mu-

sical performances, articulated MIDI chains, MIDI

choking in presence of ﬁne-granularity continuous

controllers, etc.

Moreover, even if Kibo is basically a controller,

sound production is demanded to a synthesizer, which

in turn can be controlled via Kibo. Exploring different

MIDI programs, i.e. instrumental patches and sound

banks, can stimulate the study of sound-synthesis

models, such as sound sampling and table lookup

methods. Other advanced subjects can be explored,

such as the SoundFont technology that uses sample-

based synthesis to play MIDI events.

Finally, the features of Kibo can arise exquisitely

technical discussions, concerning issues such as the

resolution of MIDI choking and MIDI-over-Bluetooth

bandwidth limitations, or the characteristics of a pres-

sure sensor capable of detecting ﬁne variations and

withstanding strong stresses as well.

Needless to say, this kind of approach is suitable

mainly for students with a musical and technological

background.

From a pedagogical point of view, it is pos-

sible to frame Kibo-based activities in the context

of the Think-Make-Improve model (Martinez and

Stager, 2013), by recording students’ performances,

e.g. through a MIDI sequencer connected to Kibo, and

inviting them to self-reﬂect about their actions.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Kibo is a MIDI controller presenting a simpliﬁed tan-

gible interface that conjugates research in the artis-

tic, scientiﬁc and social ﬁeld in order to foster music

expression and creativity. When properly integrated

within a pedagogical method, Kibo can promote mu-

sic education through technology so as to facilitate

cooperation, social inclusion and cultural exchange.

Concerning future work, Kibo requires a thor-

ough experimentation in speciﬁc educational con-

texts. From this point of view, we are planning ad-

hoc educational labs in cooperation with Fondazione

Clerici Milano, addressing speciﬁc user categories,

speciﬁcally BVI people and learners with cognitive

special needs.

REFERENCES

Avanzini, F., Barat

e, A., and Ludovico, L. A. (2019a).

3d printing in preschool music education: Opportu-

nities and challenges. Qwerty - Open and Interdis-

ciplinary Journal of Technology, Culture and Educa-

tion, 14(1):71–92.

Avanzini, F., Barat

e, A., Ludovico, L. A., and Mandanici,

M. (2019b). A computer-based approach to teach

tonal harmony to young students. In Lane, H., Uho-

moibhi, J., and Zvacek, S., editors, Proceedings of

the 11th International Conference on Computer Sup-

ported Education (CSEDU 2019), volume 1, pages

271–279. SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology

Publications, Lda.

Barat

e, A., Ludovico, L. A., and Malchiodi, D. (2017).

Fostering computational thinking in primary school

through a LEGO®-based music notation. Procedia

Computer Science. Knowledge-Based and Intelligent

Information and Engineering Systems: Proceedings

of the 21st International Conference, KES 2017, 6-8

September 2017, Marseille, France, 112:1334–1344.

Barat

e, A., Ludovico, L. A., and Oriolo, E. (2019). Inves-

tigating embodied music expression through the Leap

Motion: Experimentations in educational and clinical

contexts. In McLaren, B. M., Reilly, R., Uhomoibhi,

J., and Zvacek, S., editors, Computer Supported Edu-

cation - 10th International Conference, CSEDU 2018,

Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, March 15–17, 2018, Re-

vised Selected Papers, volume 1022 of Communica-

tions in Computer and Information Science, pages

532–548. Springer International Publishing.

Bartolomeu, P., Fonseca, J., Rodrigues, P., and Girao, L.

(2006). Evaluating the timeliness of Bluetooth ACL

connections for the wireless transmission of MIDI.

In 2006 IEEE Conference on Emerging Technologies

and Factory Automation, pages 46–53.

Bukspan, Y. (1979). Introduction of musical literacy to chil-

dren by means of a binary system of music notation:

An experimental study. Bulletin of the Council for Re-

search in Music Education, pages 13–17.

Costanza, E., Shelley, S. B., and Robinson, J. (2003). Intro-

ducing audio D-TOUCH: A tangible user interface for

music composition and performance. In Proc. of the

6th Int. Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFX-

03), London, UK, September 8-11, 2003.

Graham-Knight, K. and Tzanetakis, G. (2015). Adaptive

music technology using the Kinect. In Proceedings

of the 8th ACM International Conference on PErva-

sive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments,

pages 1–4.

Hansson, S. O. (2007). The ethics of enabling technol-

ogy. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics,

16(3):257–267.

Jord

a, S. (2010). The reactable: tangible and tabletop mu-

sic performance. In CHI’10 Extended Abstracts on

CSME 2020 - Special Session on Computer Supported Music Education

618

Human Factors in Computing Systems, pages 2989–

2994.

Kadakal, Y., Kivrak, H., and Kose, H. (2014). Kinect

based interactive music application for disabled chil-

dren. In 2014 22nd Signal Processing and Commu-

nications Applications Conference (SIU), pages 453–

456. IEEE.

Kajs, L. T., Alaniz, R., Willman, E., and Sifuentes, E.

(1998). Color-coding keyboard functions to develop

kindergartners’ computer literacy. Journal of Com-

puting in Childhood Education.

Kiefer, C., Collins, N., and Fitzpatrick, G. (2008). Evalu-

ating the wiimote as a musical controller. In Proceed-

ings of the 2008 International Computer Music Con-

ference, ICMC 2008, Belfast, Ireland, August 24-29,

2008.

Kuo, Y.-T. and Chuang, M.-C. (2013). A proposal of a color

music notation system on a single melody for music

beginners. International Journal of Music Education,

31(4):394–412.

Landis, B. and Carder, P. (1972). The eclectic curriculum

in American music education: Contributions of Dal-

croze, Kodaly, and Orff.

Leman, M., Demey, M., Lesaffre, M., van Noorden, L., and

Moelants, D. (2009). Concepts, technology, and as-

sessment of the social music game ”sync-in-team’. In

2009 International Conference on Computational Sci-

ence and Engineering, volume 4, pages 837–842.

Leman, M. et al. (2008). Embodied music cognition and

mediation technology. MIT press.

Martinez, S. L. and Stager, G. (2013). Invent to learn. Mak-

ing, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom.

Torrance, Canada: Construting Modern Knowledge.

Newton-Dunn, H., Nakano, H., and Gibson, J. (2003).

Block jam: a tangible interface for interactive music.

Journal of New Music Research, 32(4):383–393.

Oshima, C., Miyagawa, Y., and Nishimoto, K. (2002).

Coloring-in piano: A piano that allows a performer to

concentrate on musical expression. In Proceedings of

the 7th International Conference on Music Perception

and Cognition, Sydney 2002, pages 707–710.

Paradiso, J. A., Hsiao, K.-y., and Benbasat, A. (2001). Tan-

gible music interfaces using passive magnetic tags. In

Proceedings of the 2001 conference on New interfaces

for musical expression, pages 1–4.

Perdana, I. (2014). Teaching elementary school students

new method of music performance with Leap Motion.

In 2014 International Conference on Virtual Systems

& Multimedia (VSMM), pages 273–277. IEEE.

Poast, M. (2000). Color music: Visual color notation for

musical expression. Leonardo, 33(3):215–221.

Reed, A., Dons, K., Thompson, M. R., and Tervo, T. (2008).

Wiimote music–towards an intuitive gestural interface

grounded in a theory of learning schemas. In 3rd In-

ternational Haptic and Auditory Interaction Design

Workshop, pages 16–17.

Rogers, G. L. (1991). Effect of color-coded notation on mu-

sic achievement of elementary instrumental students.

Journal of Research in Music Education, 39(1):64–73.

Schiettecatte, B. and Vanderdonckt, J. (2008). Audiocubes:

a distributed cube tangible interface based on interac-

tion range for sound design. In Proceedings of the

2nd international conference on Tangible and embed-

ded interaction, pages 3–10.

Silva, E. S., de Abreu, J. A. O., de Almeida, J. H. P., Te-

ichrieb, V., and Ramalho, G. L. (2013). A preliminary

evaluation of the Leap Motion sensor as controller of

new digital musical instruments. Recife, Brasil, pages

59–70.

Upitis, R. (1990). Children’s invented notations of familiar

and unfamiliar melodies. Psychomusicology: A Jour-

nal of Research in Music Cognition, 9(1):89.

Wong, E. L., Yuen, W. Y., and Choy, C. S. (2008). Design-

ing Wii controller: a powerful musical instrument in

an interactive music performance system. In Proceed-

ings of the 6th International Conference on Advances

in Mobile Computing and Multimedia, pages 82–87.

Xamb

o, A., Drozda, B., Weisling, A., Magerko, B., Huet,

M., Gasque, T., and Freeman, J. (2017). Experience

and ownership with a tangible computational music

installation for informal learning. In Proceedings of

the Eleventh International Conference on Tangible,

Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, pages 351–

360.

Yoo, M.-J., Beak, J.-W., and Lee, I.-K. (2011). Creating

musical expression using Kinect. In Proceedings of

the International Conference on New Interfaces for

Musical Expression, 30 May - 1 June 2011, Oslo, Nor-

way, pages 324–325.

Kibo: A MIDI Controller with a Tangible User Interface for Music Education

619