MoreMusic

Inspiration

Our inspiration derives from the common belief that musical expression should be universally accessible. Within our team, music has played a central role in each of our lives. As kids, we had access to music lessons and instruments that could often be prohibitively expensive for underserved communities. As we’ve grown, music has stuck with us as a source of creative expression, emotional release, or a form of meditation. We believe that all individuals should be able to experience the life-changing benefits of musicianship. Since instruments can often be extremely unaffordable, disadvantaged children might never have access to the resources necessary to become musically proficient. As we considered this problem, we realized many, if not most, privately owned instruments are rarely played. For experienced or professional musicians, it is common to have multiple instruments that have been replaced by newer equipment or that have simply lost the user’s interest. Instead of keeping these instruments as display pieces, our platform will allow owners to loan their instruments out to youth musicians who might not otherwise have access. Our owners are then compensated not with money, but with periodic updates/progress reports of the music student’s growth. The instrument owner will have the opportunity to hear back from the students who are using their instruments, as our platform will allow the students to submit videos/audio of them playing the owner’s instrument. This way, the owner now has the satisfaction of knowing their donation has spread their own love of music to those who’ve never before had the opportunity.

What it does

MoreMusic allows owners of instruments to lend or donate their instruments within their local community. Students from anywhere around the world can borrow these instruments and learn to play the instrument. Students are encouraged to submit performances and progress with their instrument with the owner to form a lasting bond and create the most inclusive global music community.

How we built it

We used Node.js with React to program the front-end and Python flask and CockroachDB for the back-end. We host the front-end from Vercel, and the backend in Google Cloud.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into many problems when setting up the database. First, connecting the CockroachDB with sqlalchemy took us many hours, and our choice of using the database through ORM was quite risky, especially knowing that we didn’t have previous experience with it. Also, linking the front-end with the back-end was a challenging obstacle as none of us had used Flask with react before.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

While there is still much work to be done on our project, we are happy with our progress in developing the main functions of the website. Specifically, we successfully created three pages: the landing page, which shows the variety of instruments available to be lent, the individual instrument page, which shows the listings of a specific instrument of interest, such as a guitar, and finally the About page, which explains to users our primary goals and values. Additionally, we are happy with the aesthetic of our website, which emphasizes a simple yet clean design. Finally, and most importantly, we’re especially happy with the overall idea of our project and our ability to work as a team in discussing new ideas and potential changes as we work.

What we learned

Working with a team on a time-sensitive project is what software engineering is all about, and we certainly made the most of this opportunity. Working on a diverse team of international and U.S. students, Duke and UNC alike, we embraced the chance to learn more about one another and form friendships that will last beyond HackDuke. Additionally, and more obviously, we all learned important technical skills while working on this project, which will surely help all of us in the future. Finally, and most importantly, we learned to work through common team difficulties, such as distributing work evenly and debating conflicting ideas, which will certainly prove beneficial in any career path we each decide to pursue.

What's next for MoreMusic

HackDuke is just the beginning. We truly believe MoreMusic will provide a unique educative and enjoyable experience for underprivileged kids throughout America and the world. Our next steps include finishing the website, forming partnerships with schools, and forming a social media platform.