The Appropriation and Utility of Constrained ADMIs

This paper reflects on players' first responses to a constrained Accessible Digital Musical Instrument (ADMI) in open, child-led sessions with seven children at a special school. Each player's gestures with the instrument were sketched, categorised and compared with those of others among the group. Additionally, sensor data from the instruments was recorded and analysed to give a secondary indication of playing style, based on note and silence durations. In accord with previous studies, the high degree of constraints led to a diverse range of playing styles, allowing each player to appropriate and explore the instruments within a short inaugural session. The open, undirected sessions also provided insights which could potentially direct future work based on each person's responses to the instruments. The paper closes with a short discussion of these diverse styles, and the potential role constrained ADMIs could serve as 'ice-breakers' in musical projects that seek to co-produce or co-design with neurodiverse children and young people.