J-Play is an easy-to-use instrument that offers a unique access to digital music creation.
Having already attracted many users, the multi-instrument is now finding its way into institutions. It brings an interactive dimension to the cultural experience, encouraging creativity, learning and community involvement.
For institutions, there are many reasons to integrate J-Play into their environment:
Broaden the range of cultural activities offered by the library, attracting an ever more varied public.
Position themselves as an innovative space by integrating interactive music technologies
Create a community of music lovers within the library through workshops, thereby strengthening social connections.
Diversify access to fun, intuitive music-making through instrument loans.
Some media libraries have already made the move to J-Play. This is the case, for example, of the Médiathèque départementale de Gironde, which supplies J-Play to the department's libraries.
In order to integrate the instrument into their institutions, some fifteen managers from various libraries in the city of Bordeaux came to explore its possibilities with us.
Starting with a quick tour of the people attending the session, we confirmed an overall trend in everyone's relationship with music: an interest in musical practice, but also the difficulty of mastering classical instruments (such as the guitar, the world's best-selling instrument, which nine out of ten people give up within a year).
Some of them have already led workshops with young people aged 11 to 16, and also in EHPAD with senior people. This enables us to interact with them on the techniques needed to run a successful workshop, depending on the audience for which it is intended.
For young people, a first "discovery" cycle, in which they explore the various functions of the instrument and its dedicated application, lays the foundations for a second session in which they are encouraged to create freely, and each one leaves with their own musical loop. Older people, on the other hand, are invited to concentrate on the sensory and emotional aspects of the playing interface, and not to dwell on the digital recording functions.
The J-Play can be used to run a variety of workshops:
Interpreting a famous track in less than an hour without any musical theory, with the aim of giving participants a simple and fun introduction to musical practice. In just one hour, participants with no prior musical knowledge are able to reproduce the melodies and rhythms of a song.
Use a track from the covers catalog provided in the app to keep the percussion and add your own melodies and vice versa (find out more about remixes here) to create your own track.
Experiment with the basics, pad by pad, to tackle different musical notions, from rhythm to chords.
Municipal libraries contribute to leisure, information, education and culture for all. By integrating innovative technology like the J-Play, through workshops and lending, libraries can expand their role as dynamic and inclusive cultural centers.