Digital instruments and their uses in music therapy

Accessible Digital Musical Instruments—A Review of Musical Interfaces in Inclusive Music Practice

“…From an embodied cognition paradigm point of view (in which the human motor system as well as gestures and body movements play a crucial role in the perception of music, see [50,51]), technology could be considered an extension of the body; a malleable tool that can be used by persons with restricted mobility or cognitive problems in order to stimulate self-expression, creative composition, and motor rehabilitation. In a recent study [52], Partesotti et al refer to this sensation of control as "creative empowerment": something that occurs when a continuous and cyclical interaction between user and technology is enabled. A person immersed in a DMI-based system can thus express her/himself in a way that strengthens experiences of resilience, while at the same time producing therapeutic benefits.…”

“…The authors also discussed the potential of 100% adaptive instruments, customizable to specific user needs. More recent work includes the exploratory review by Partesotti et al [52], focusing on DMIs based on motion tracking in the context of music therapy. The authors debate how specific features of DMIs could benefit music therapy sessions and propose future lines of research concerned with designing multimodal and empowerment-based technologies.…”

Development and Evaluation of a Novel Music-based Therapeutic Device for Upper Extremity Movement Training

“…Studies have consistently demonstrated that active music playing is effective to train upper extremity movement [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] due to crucial elements, such as the display of real-time multisensory information [54][55][56] and the use of metronome or beat-enhanced music to support movement training [49,62,63], which promote neuroplasticity [39,[57][58][59][60][61] and relevant changes in mood, arousal, and motivation [27,64]. In addition to all the elements involved in active music playing with traditional acoustic musical Beyond representing a new and effective methodology for the analysis of individual treatment goals and patient progress, the implementation of music technologies within the daily practice in neurorehabilitation could be paramount to transform the therapeutic process [67]. In the past years, researchers have acknowledged the relevance of music technology to open the possibility of people without music training to engage in active music playing, to facilitate the access to music-based therapy in different settings, and to increase motivation and client participation, while offering professionals the opportunity to deploy more resources to meet the patient's treatment needs [95].…”

“…Recently, studies have acknowledged the relevance of music technology to increase the availability and accessibility of music-based therapy for patients with neurological disorders in different settings, including hospitals, communities, and home environment [29,[66][67][68]. For example, the use of programmable devices can help patients to exercise independently in addition to scheduled caregiverguided sessions, thus increasing treatment intensity [68].…”

“…Technology may also assist therapists in the implementation of individual therapeutic goals and provide immediate assessment of measurable changes with objective outcome measures (e.g., total movement time, movement variability, force, interresponse interval). Additionally, digital music and sound devices can provide enhanced auditory feedback to kinematic movement components such as velocity and acceleration, range of motion, joint angles, spatial and temporal limb trajectories, even in stages of limited physical movement capability [67,69].…”