Interactive performance for musicians with a hearing impairment

Musicians with a hearing impairment often use the vibration of their instrument, or the surface to which it is connected, to help them feel the sound that they create. Well-known musicians who have used this approach include Beethoven with the piano and Dame Evelyn Glennie with percussion instruments. There are different degrees of hearing impairment so in some cases the sound may still be perceptible to the musician. However, profoundly deaf musicians tend to rely on vibration. This can limit the type of musical instrument that can be played and the other musicians with whom they can play. When musicians with normal hearing play together they have access to a wide range of cues that facilitate musical interaction. These include the sound from their own instrument and other instruments, as well as visual or verbal contact with other musicians or a conductor. During a group performance, hearing-impaired musicians don't have access to all of these cues. This significantly limits the potential for musical collaboration.

This interdisciplinary research in the arts and humanities reaches out to the science of sound and vibration. It is concerned with understanding, enabling and enhancing musical interaction between hearing impaired musicians playing classical, pop, jazz, folk, or any other kind of music. It seeks an understanding of the musical cues needed by hearing-impaired musicians to facilitate group performance, and a technological solution based on vibration to provide the required cues. The research will look at the potential for using individual vibrating performance decks on which each musician can stand or sit, as well as vibration pads that can be attached to the body, and arrays of vibrating bars that transmit vibration signals from the different instruments. The research will give insight into how vibration signals can be tailored to suit different musicians and different types of music. In most cases the vibration signal will be a combination of the sound from other instruments. Sometimes this will include an electronic timing device such as a metronome. For improvisation sessions, the vibration of the deck/pads/bars might also be used to attract the attention of other musicians, or to facilitate communication between musicians when sign language or lip-reading during a performance is not possible.

Research into the tactile perception of music in this proposal makes use of art- and psychology-based insights into musical performance combined with a science-based insight into vibration. The research outcomes will be relevant to current and future generations of hearing impaired musicians and allow them to create music and collaborate interactively with a wide range of musicians. It will also open up pedagogic possibilities for teaching music to hearing impaired children. For charitable organisations, the research will help develop new strategies for music education as well as integration of the hearing impaired into mainstream education.

The outcomes of this research will benefit current and future generations of hearing impaired musicians. It will help them to create music and collaborate with a wide range of hearing and hearing impaired musicians. This will enhance quality of life, musical creativity and musical performance.

This research has the potential to have a positive impact on music education. In schools for the deaf and for charitable organisations such as Music and the Deaf it will open up possibilities for the teaching of music to hearing impaired children. The findings will therefore help in the development of new strategies for music education as well as the integration of hearing impaired children into mainstream education.

Researchers in the field of music psychology will gain greater insight into the collaborative performance of music for both hearing and hearing-impaired musicians. Acousticians, musicians and sonic artists will benefit from the development of novel methods for converting music to a vibration signal and transmitting it to the human body. In the future it is hoped that this will inspire artists to consider and exploit the medium of vibration in communication and the arts using a range of media, including music.

Dissemination and communication of the project findings will take place through conference papers, a one-day meeting at RNCM, academic journal papers, magazine articles, media interviews and demonstrations. These give the opportunity to disseminate the project findings to musicians, charities, researchers and artists. They also allow discussion on implementation of the research, directions for future research, and possibilities for commercial production of the technological solutions.

All the above benefits and outcomes of this research relevant to hearing impaired musicians, music psychology, music education, art and creativity are realisable within the next decade.