Tech Column: Back to square one

Mobile technology has long been used to curate global accessibility to many educational subjects (think language learning, maths, and reading comprehension) but equally to programmes that provide wellbeing value (such as meditation, mental health, neuroplasticity). Smartphone usage in the UK has increased to 92 per cent (Statista), and with the UK government committing to increasing broadband access to every person across the country, now more than ever before in history can people access any subject from anywhere.

It's not only inevitable but increasingly necessary to innovate our music educational offerings, and technology is the perfect vehicle. If you wanted to learn music and today was truly square one, where would you start?

Our answer is an active learning gaming mobile app (something that engages both the body and mind), that focuses on the instrument we all carry with us: our voice.

Singing as a wellbeing activity

A staggering amount of evidence shows that singing is good for our mental, physical, and social health. For the mind, singing releases ‘feel-good’ chemicals like endorphins, helping us reduce stress, anxiety, and fatigue, and creates stimulation which has proven to be positive for people suffering with Dementia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. For the body, singing improves our lung health, has been used to help people with long-term respiratory conditions, and is now socially prescribed by doctors for sufferers of Long Covid. In terms of social health, singing bonds us to others more strongly than any icebreaker, and even bonds us in a heightened way to our children.

Why focus on adults?

Think back to your childhood; who was it that supported your engagement with music? Perhaps a really good school teacher, or a parent who either took you to lessons, to choir, or purchased your first instrument. But what if you didn't have either of those things? What if your music teacher was too overstretched to give each of their pupils 1:1 attention? Or you had a parent who either worked too much to support out of school activities, or didn't value music? Where would that adult, let alone child, be left?

Our hypothesis is that by supporting adults to learn their musical foundations from home, we won't just be increasing adult participation in music, but we'll be giving those adults the resources to support their children in their music learning too.

In an effort to remove the barrier to entry to learning music, and to give everyone equal access at the start of their learning journey, we've built a free mobile gaming app for adults called Tchzant (pronounced ‘chant’). Our app enables adults to build their foundational skills at their own pace, from wherever they feel most comfortable, and most importantly, in a way that's engaging and fun.

The approach

We've separated each of the initial core skills of singing into individual games: pitch, rhythm, breath, text, and ear training. All of our user tests and surveys showed that one of the key early ‘blockers’ for people engaging with music was ‘confidence in their abilities’ so we've designed Levels 0 and 1 in the app to focus on the other key skills that would give someone confidence to sing eventually, such as internalising pulse, training up your ear, humming and building your non-tonal skill base.

Positive, stimulating gamification techniques like winning points, badges and trophies have proved to be extremely motivating for our early users, encouraging users to build the daily habit of practice, and building their confidence to continue the journey.

Where are we headed next?

Increasing our in-app music choices, games, and overall curriculum offering is based on the interests and needs of our users. Our focus is building music packages that people want to learn, and songs they can sing in their day-to-day lives – with a child, to clean the house to, to belt in shower and the car – across a diverse offering of genres (pop, folk, jazz, gospel, early music, spirituals, sea shanties, and more). We're excited to see where our users take us in the months and years to come.

thechoralhub.com