Natural, expressive, and explorative music interaction framework for digital musical instruments using virtual reality on the Malay gamelan bonang

This thesis is concerned with designing and implementing a novel Digital Musical Instrument (DMI) based on the Malay bonang, a traditional musical instrument of the Malay gamelan. DMIs are often designed to compensate for the difficulty of learning musical instruments by simplifying the interaction. Although this provides a steep learning curve and appeals to novices, it diminishes the natural interaction of the instrument. This thesis investigates human interaction on a Malay bonang DMI that is natural, expressive, and explorative to facilitate the learning, performance, and composition of Malay gamelan music. The work presented here represents four phases of user-driven research using methods drawn from Human-Computer Interaction and User-Centered Design. The first phase presents two feasibility studies conducted to gather requirements for the research. The first study was to understand how users interact with existing mobile applications for the bonang in terms of gestures, affordances, and reactions, while the second study involves user requirements in designing the bonang DMI. Findings from this study were used to inform the prototype design, Air Bonang, which was evaluated in the following phase. The second phase presents the evaluation of Air Bonang, where a user study was conducted to evaluate three dimensions of the prototype, which aligned with the research objectives: natural interaction of bonang gestures, controls for musical expression, and affordance of explorative musical interaction. The third phase presents a user study involving the implementation of Air Bonang in a real- world musical setting to investigate its practicality, relevancy, and reliability. From the studies conducted, a conceptual framework for a Natural-Expressive- Explorative Musical Instrument (NEX2MI) is developed for designing a DMI inspired by traditional musical instruments. It highlights three dimensions: natural, expressive, and explorative. This framework aims to offer a practical solution for designing Digital Music Instruments (DMIs) based on the Malay bonang, preserving its authenticity and facilitating access to this unique musical instrument.

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