Ride N' Rhythm, Bike as an Embodied Musical Instrument to Improve Music Perception for Young Children

TL;DR

This paper introduces Ride N' Rhythm, an interactive bike-based musical instrument for young children that enhances music perception by linking body movement to musical elements, grounded in embodied cognition and pedagogical theories.

Contribution

It presents a novel interactive system that connects children's body movements to dynamic music changes, fostering intuitive musical understanding in early childhood.

Findings

Design of a bike-based musical instrument for children

Mapping body position to music volume and speed to tempo

Based on Embodied Music Cognition and Dalcroze Eurhythmics

Abstract

Music plays a crucial role in young children's development. Current research lacks the design of an interactive system for younger children that could generate dynamic music change in response to the children's body movement. In this paper, we present the design of bike as an embodied musical instrument for young children 2-5 years old to improve their music perception skills. In the Ride N' Rhythm prototype, the rider's body position maps to the music volume; and the speed of the bike maps to the tempo. The design of the prototype incorporates the Embodied Music Cognition theory and Dalcroze Eurhythmics pedagogy, and aims to internalize the 'intuitive' knowing and musical understanding via the combination of music and body movement.