SoundStrand is a music composition toy. It applies a new paradigm for creating music - "Minimal Freedom Degrees Music Composition". This paradigm makes it possible to compose music through interaction with a tangible interface.
SoundStrand comprises a set of building blocks called Cells, each containing a musical motif. The cells can be connected to each other to create a musical theme.
Cells can also be manipulated individually with three degrees of freedom: elongation changes the rhythmic distribution of the notes; bending changes the direction of the melody; and twisting changes the harmonic context. the following table demonstrates how each manipulation changes a cell's motif:
Changes of one cell's properties propagate throughout the consecutive ones, so that each cell's melodic line smoothly continues its preceding cell's melody. Harmonic changes also propagate, so that the user can express only the desired harmonic tension, without worrying about harmony transition rules.
SoundStrand was the topic of my master's thesis.
Papers about SoundStrand were published in proceedings to the NIME 2012 conference and the Music, Mind and Invention workshop.
Soundstrand's skeleton was designed by undergraduate researchers Anne Shen and Kelsey Brigance