Why Music?
- Music is an inherent part of us as human beings. Its a form of expression that most people enjoy according to the genre of preference.
- It is believed that early man, during the tool making process, would bang stones together and scrape sharp stones on shells to create rhythms that they would enjoy. Since then music has come a long way in development and man has created more complex and intricate instruments.
- AI in this new age has taken over several areas in our daily lives, including music. In this case though, music comes up with melodies all on its own on various AI softwares without too much human intervention.
- This has created a disconnect between humans and AI when it comes to music as well as phasing out the need for our once treasured musical instruments.
By integrating AI into our musical instruments, I hope to create a balance between human intervention and Artificial Intelligence assistance. How will this work? AI Assisted Learning!
- These musical instruments will have in-built learning tools and lessons so that upon acquiring the instrument, the user can start learning without needing to look for a tutor.
- This is better than looking for videos online because it is the actual instrument teaching you how to play it according to the capabilities it has.
Performance Enhancements
- AI can be integrated into a musical instrument to improve the sound quality and variety all in one instrument.
- It can also be used to enhance the visuals in performance through projections.
AI GUITAR
This image above is from the project for the Introduction to Product Design class taught by Ms. Esther Kute. It shows a model of the Artificial Intelligence enhanced guitar. The model is makeshift and is made from forex board and strings of different colours to show some of the features of the guitar. The design of this guitar includes a modern sleek design that resembles a modern electric guitar. The guitar will have automatically tuning strings that stretch and relax to ensure the guitar is always in tune when one wants to play it. It also features frets and strings that light up to assist in learning. This is also aided by a holographic projector that allows the AI to simulate an actual learning instructor that can help the learner. The guitar also has an in built screen that displays the various AI features.
Thomas M Matsalia Njuguna
I am currently a student of the Technical University of Kenya pursuing the Bachelor of Technology in Design specialising in Product and Industrial Design. My research interests: In one of our previous semesters this year, we were tasked to conduct research and develop concepts on how Artificial Intelligence can be integrated into a number of selected fields. Upon review of the fields, I chose the field of music due to previous interest in the field and decided to focus my research on how we can integrate music into our musical instruments to create ease of learning as well as create performance enhancements for the already existing instruments.