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Accessable Music-Making for Children

Accessable Music-Making for Children

Creating music is more difficult for children to access than many other creative practices. This project explores what gets in the way, how those barriers can be overcome, and how more children can be given a real way into music-making. The outcome is Opus Studio, a collaborative physical-digital system designed to support that path from first exploration to further, more independent creation.

Context

Bachelor thesis at Umeå Institute of Design

Collaborator

Rumtiden Idea Lab

Timeline

10 weeks in 2025

People

Just me

Recognitions

UX Design Award 2026 ↗ New Talent Winner

Keywords

Experience Design, Learning Through Play, UI/UX, Low-Tech, Open-Source, Sustainability

Creating music is its own practice

Creating music is connected to many other musical practices, such as playing an instrument, learning theory, improvising and performing, but it is still a distinct activity with its own kind of experience. That experience is not always easy to access on its own. A child might enjoy inventing music without being especially interested in instrumental performance or theory, but there are few simple ways to find that out.

Understanding childrens barriers to music-making

The research set out to understand what children actually experience when they first encounter music creation, and where those experiences begin to break down. It involved repeated, in-depth interviews with five children, using conversation, drawing and mapping exercises to understand their relationships to music, creativity, making, friends and themselves. Three adults were also interviewed retrospectively to trace how early experiences shaped their relationship to music over time, alongside ongoing input from a researcher focused on music-making tools in Swedish schools. The result was a much fuller picture of the emotional, cognitive and social barriers surrounding music creation.

Children

Adults

Researcher*

*Dr. Jonas Nilsson, researcher at Umeå University, specializing in digital tools for music creation and education in Swedish schools.

How What do I make?

Going into the project, the obvious challenge seemed technical: how can children make music without knowing theory, playing an instrument or using complex software? That still mattered, but the research kept coming back to a different problem. Even with accessible tools, it can be difficult to know what to actually make. A blank page can feel intimidating, especially when the music children know is highly polished and professional. Without inspiration, direction or a clear context for making decisions, it becomes difficult to create with intention.

The Artist in His Studio by Rembrandt (c. 1628)

Creating together generates inspiration and direction while sharing the pressure of coming up with ideas. Children wanted to make music with others, but lacked tools for genuine co-creation. Opus borrows the format of board games as democratic interfaces: shared, visible and open to everyone. The familiar format also makes the new interactions more intuitive.

Finding direction together

Creating together generates inspiration and direction while sharing the pressure of coming up with ideas. Children wanted to make music with others, but lacked tools for genuine co-creation. Opus borrows the format of board games as democratic interfaces: shared, visible and open to everyone. The familiar format also makes the new interactions more intuitive.

Finding direction together

The behavior of the board is decided by the layout of sequence papers. Instead of being met with an endless blank page, the papers gives a clear structure to work within. Different layouts allow for different ways of making music together.

Not a blank page

The behavior of the board is decided by the layout of sequence papers. Instead of being met with an endless blank page, the papers gives a clear structure to work within. Different layouts allow for different ways of making music together.

Not a blank page

Instead of being asked to start creating immediately from a blank page, each new song begins by randomly assigning a musical “loop” to each piece. The first step is simply to explore what you got, listen, compare and react. That playful discovery creates a low-pressure atmosphere for ideas and direction to emerge naturally.

Starting with exploration

Instead of being asked to start creating immediately from a blank page, each new song begins by randomly assigning a musical “loop” to each piece. The first step is simply to explore what you got, listen, compare and react. That playful discovery creates a low-pressure atmosphere for ideas and direction to emerge naturally.

Starting with exploration

Once an idea starts to take shape, users are free to take control. Loops can be regenerated or chosen from ones discovered before, and the templates themselves can be rearranged, extended or swapped out to fit the direction the group wants to follow.

Taking control

Once an idea starts to take shape, users are free to take control. Loops can be regenerated or chosen from ones discovered before, and the templates themselves can be rearranged, extended or swapped out to fit the direction the group wants to follow.

Taking control

Simple tools can become dead ends

The goal is to make music creation more accessible, not to create another isolated way of making music. Many beginner tools are easy to enter, but quickly become limiting: they offer little room to grow in complexity, connect poorly to other ways of making music, and often automate so much that users feel less ownership over what they make. Creating together also becomes harder when people are working at very different levels.

Musicians Returning in the Early Morning through Snowed Landscape by Jozef Teodor Mousson

Loop Stations let users go deeper by creating their own beats, melodies and recordings, while still keeping those contributions inside the shared system. By placing the phone on a Loop Station the music synchs to a physical piece that can be placed and moved on the board, so more advanced contributions stay visible and usable by everyone. This makes it possible for people at different skill levels to keep creating together.

Going deeper with Loop Stations

Loop Stations let users go deeper by creating their own beats, melodies and recordings, while still keeping those contributions inside the shared system. By placing the phone on a Loop Station the music synchs to a physical piece that can be placed and moved on the board, so more advanced contributions stay visible and usable by everyone. This makes it possible for people at different skill levels to keep creating together.

Going deeper with Loop Stations

Audio gives Opus a way to connect with almost any kind of music-making outside the system. Singing, rapping or a newly learned instrument can be recorded directly, while music made earlier at home or in another tool like GarageBand can be uploaded and used. This lets children bring their own musical interests and growing skills into Opus.

Bringing outside music-making in

Audio gives Opus a way to connect with almost any kind of music-making outside the system. Singing, rapping or a newly learned instrument can be recorded directly, while music made earlier at home or in another tool like GarageBand can be uploaded and used. This lets children bring their own musical interests and growing skills into Opus.

Bringing outside music-making in

Anything created in the Loop Stations, or any audio file already on a phone, can be uploaded directly to a loop piece. From there, it leaves the phone and becomes a permanent part of the board alongside the pre-installed loops, ready for anyone in the group to use.

Making it real

Anything created in the Loop Stations, or any audio file already on a phone, can be uploaded directly to a loop piece. From there, it leaves the phone and becomes a permanent part of the board alongside the pre-installed loops, ready for anyone in the group to use.

Making it real

Users can export the song as separate tracks and continue working on it in other music software, making the move to more advanced tools a continuation rather than a restart.

Moving on to other tools

Users can export the song as separate tracks and continue working on it in other music software, making the move to more advanced tools a continuation rather than a restart.

Moving on to other tools

Sustainable and accessable from the start

A physical product intended for children and schools has to be responsible beyond the experience of using it. Sustainability means taking responsibility for the material and technological footprint of something that could be produced at scale. Accessibility also means more than making music easy to approach: the system itself has to be realistically available, affordable and usable in the environments it is designed for. These concerns shaped Opus from the beginning, leading to a low-tech, open and adaptable approach.

Gathering Flowers, Shinnecock, Long Island (1897) by William Merritt Chase

Working with sustainability and accessibility as core tenets became one of the most interesting parts of this project, both in what I learned and in the outcome. Thinking about repurposed hardware, open growth and long-term ownership expanded my view of what sustainable and accessible design means, and I saw how those constraints can lead to a better user experience, not just a more responsible one.