Artful, Tuneful, Beatful

Did anyone else catch this news item about a robot conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra? It seems Honda has created an innovative robot that keeps impeccable time.  Of course its not really intended to be a conductor, the performance (of “Impossible Dream”, by the way… is that a commentary on robotics? ) was essentially a publicity stunt.  While the robot keeps perfect time it is of course no substitute for a human conductor when it comes to emotion, interaction or improvisation.  Ironically Yo Yo Ma, possible one of the least robotic musicians I’m aware of, played on the same concert.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jxh9QHfT4JmEgddKQjckerAf-RmAD90LD61O6

DETROIT (AP) — The lights dimmed, the sold-out hall grew hushed and out walked the conductor — shiny, white and 4 feet, 3 inches tall.

ASIMO, a robot designed by Honda Motor Co., met its latest challenge Tuesday evening: Conducting the Detroit Symphony in a performance of “The Impossible Dream” from “Man of La Mancha.”

“Hello, everyone,” ASIMO said to the audience in a childlike voice, then waved to the orchestra.

As it conducted, it perfectly mimicked the actions of a conductor, nodding its head at various sections and gesturing with one or both hands. ASIMO took a final bow to enthusiastic shouts from the audience.

“It is absolutely thrilling to perform with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. This is a magnificent concert hall,” ASIMO said.

Later, cellist Yo-Yo Ma joined ASIMO onstage to receive an award for his efforts in music education. Ma bent to ASIMO’s height and shook the robot’s hand. Ma performed later on the program but didn’t take questions from the media about ASIMO.

Honda spokeswoman Alicia Jones said it was the first time ASIMO has conducted an orchestra, and it may be the first time any robot has conducted a live performance. ASIMO stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility.

ASIMO has its limits. ASIMO’s engineers programmed the robot to mimic Charles Burke, the Detroit Symphony’s education director, as he conducted the piece in front of a pianist about six months ago. But it can’t respond to the musicians.

During the first rehearsal, the orchestra lost its place when ASIMO began to slow the tempo, something a human conductor would have sensed and corrected, said bassist Larry Hutchinson.

“It’s not a communicative device. It simply is programmed to do a sense of gestures,” said Leonard Slatkin, the orchestra’s musical director. “If the orchestra decides to go faster, there’s nothing the robot can do about it. Hopefully, I keep that under control.”

But several musicians also said ASIMO was more realistic than they expected.

“The movements are still a little stiff, but very humanlike, much more fluid than I thought,” Hutchinson said.

Honda has been developing walking robots since 1986. The latest version of ASIMO debuted last year. Honda eventually intends its robots to be companions for the elderly and others in need, such as schoolchildren navigating crosswalks. ASIMO can run, walk on uneven slopes and respond to simple voice commands. It can also recognize faces with its camera eyes.

Honda brought the robot to Detroit to highlight its recent $1 million gift to the orchestra for a music education fund.

At my school we give a performance each month at the PTA meeting, as well as big performances in December and May for all the kids to perform (over three nights.) Our May performance this year is based on a nursery rhyme theme, which has been really easy because the teachers are teaching the nursery rhymes anyway and each class at our school was assigned one at the beginning of the year to perform on the morning announcements (which we do over closed-circuit television.) This means the classroom teachers already have a variety of costumes and props that we can take advantage of without having to reinvent the wheel!

While I was compiling the songs to use in the show I couldn’t find a version of “One, Two, Tie My Shoe” that I liked, so I decided to fire up Garage Band and do it as a rap. It was so successful with the kids that I decided to also do “Humpty Dumpty” and “Jack Be Nimble” this way so that each performance night could have a “rap” finale. The kids are especially tickled once they realize it is my voice on the recording!

It is really a little amazing to see how the kids react when they hear the beat of the song. It is clear that this is the kind of music they hear at home, and you can see why some children’s music is starting to go this way (check out this story from NPR about the album Baby Loves Hip Hop.) My idea to do the nursery rhymes this way has inspired one of our classroom teachers to use Garage Band to create a track to help one of her students learn to spell her name.

Its extremely easy to make your own accompaniments or recordings in Garage Band, especially if you’re using the loop browser. I used the built in mic on my MacBook which I thought was just fine for this purpose (although it does not pick up well if you want to record a group.)

For your amusement (and your use, if you would like) I provide for you my nursery rhyme raps:

Jack Be Nimble

Humpty Dumpty

1, 2, Tie My Shoe