DulciMR - MR Hammered Dulcimer

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  Splash screen.

Inspiration

The hammered dulcimer is a uniquely American instrument with rich connections to our shared history but several challenges facing it's preservation. Instruments are expensive and difficult to locate, instruction typically must come from scattered internet resources or dated textbooks, and a historically oral tradition has left little in the way of written sheet music besides hymns and Christmas music. Even when written music is found within the range of diatonic hammered dulcimers, there is often no audio preview due to the extreme age of many tunes.

An app for the Quest HMD could solve these issues and help save this cultural artifact from obscurity by providing cheap access and instruction/preview for a diverse song library.

What it does

This app allows users to use either controllers or their hands to place a hammered dulcimer in their space and play it.

The user can either use passthrough camera to play the hammered dulcimer in their own mixed reality space or toggle one of several fully animated VR spaces (like a Christmas-land, a rainy NYC street, an Atlantian ruin, etc).

The app contains a song tutor system that will teach the user how to play 75+ songs from 12 genres by highlighting the next string to hit bright green and labeling the musical notation in a heads up display.

This song tutor menu also has a preview system, which presents a unique chance to hear often obscure or medieval tunes prior to learning.

The hammered dulcimer can be tilted on it's axis to adjust striking angle or raised up and down. It can also be replaced in the room entirely if needed.

How we built it

First, I modeled a 9/8 diatonic hammered dulcimer in Blender before importing it into Unity where the rest of the programming work was completed.

Challenges we ran into

The hammered dulcimer is a diatonic instrument and thus has a limited note range. The app uses .abc files for song tutor rather than .midi because there is a greater volume of music available within the hammered dulcimers diatonic note range online in .abc than .midi which tend to use many chords and sharps/flats.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Many songs available in this app may have never had an audio preview associated and so, in addition to this app preserving a simulacrum of the hammered dulcimer itself, it may also represent a unique audio archive.

What's next for DulciMR - MR Hammered Dulcimer

There are many options for expansion. More songs and in-app recording could help to foster a community of virtual dulcimer players to rival the small remaining community of physical players in volume. There are gamification options in hammer/instrument customization and shopping. The idea of jam sessions (prevalent in bluegrass) could introduce multiplayer or even more advanced instruction/simulation if used for lesson content. Incorporating lessons from prominent players or models from manufacturers could hold commercial promise.

Built With

• blender
• unity