The cello is the least popular instrument amongst children to learn and play. However, it also has so much to offer by development of fine motor skills and hand to eye coordination, balance, and just the ability to play some great music.
The cello is truly a classical instrument that is unique with an impressive sound. It is very versatile in the ways it is played in different genres of music.
While speaking to my collaborator Ben, a professional cello player, who has made it his mission to educate future musicians and cellists that there is so much potential in the art of the cello. Most pop songs feature the cello and many of the instrumental beats of very popular songs are built and produced using primarily the cello or strings family.
However, the cello is still the least touched instrument among children. Most children chose violin, guitar, flute, and various other instruments. The cello is challenging for children in many ways and not interesting.
After visiting and interviewing young students and their parents and teachers we identified three main problem areas:
The cello is not built to be user friendly or child friendly. Often times it would break at the base of the neck or there would be too much tension on the strings and striking them would cause them to snap.
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The issue that commonly occurred was that the children would look to the parents to help them with their music homework. Due to the cello's lack of intuitive properties the parent felt helpless in aiding and or repairing the cello.
The cello is not built to be user friendly or child friendly. Often times it would break at the base of the neck or there would be too much tension on the strings and striking them would cause them to snap.
Ideating for durability involved some mechanical solutions, Such as a detachable neck, and a bridge that collapses to relieve tension.
Ideating for Intuitiveness included changing the shape of the body to make it more obvious where to place the hands and how to position ones self.
Ideating for resources was a challenge. The ideal direction was that the cello could be fixed on the fly, so the teacher could spend more time teaching instead of trouble shooting.
First round of prototyping was to test different forms and shapes of the body. The goal was for it to be an intuitive shape, meaning immediately understanding where to place your arms and legs, and how to hold and play the cello. We tested it on cello students as well as professional cellists.
Second round of prototyping was to realize our theories and produce the desired shape, while keeping the sound quality that makes a cello so classical and unique.
First round of prototyping was to test different forms and shapes of the body. The goal was for it to be an intuitive shape, meaning immediately understanding where to place your arms and legs, and how to hold and play the cello. We tested it on cello students as well as professional cellists.
Second round of prototyping was to realize our theories and produce the desired shape, while keeping the sound quality that makes a cello so classical and unique.
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Problem: The cello's neck is considered its achilles heel for one main reason. The base of the neck is adhered to the body by only glue. Therefore, just the right amount of tension will cause it to snap.
Our solution: To make the neck collapsible using a hinged joint. Making it more durable and able to withstand tension.
Problem:The cello's body is clumsy and not intuitive. At first its confusing where to put your arms and how to hold it even.
Solution: To make a cutout that would not affect the sound quality and would make an intuitive visual cue to students learning on how to hold the cello, and give them easy access.
Problem:The strings on cello are constantly under alot of tension. This is the main reason why they snap so easily.
Solution: To make a collapsible bridge that will alleviate the tension when not in use.
Problem: At the base of the cello is usually a place to feed the strings through and secure them. It is quite fragile and can break or split on impact.
Solution: To create a all in one foot storage and string feeder. that stores the foot of the cello inside and secures the strings safely and securely even if impacted.
The following is a storyboard of how the solutions benefit the students' learning and playing capabilities.
The cutaway aids students in understanding intuitively how to hold the instrument and where to place their hands.
The collapsible neck allows for heavy handling without breaking and for relieving tension on the strings when not in use.
The aluminum back is lighter and rounded to help sound quality and make it more comfortable to hold.
The following is a storyboard of how the solutions benefit the teachers.
This will allow the teacher to tune
on the fly with little complications.
Mechanism at the base of the
cello reduces string tension while detaching the neck.
The end pin has a rubber coating
towards the bottom to prevent sliding on surfaces.
Neck has intentional break point for detaching and or fixing for easy repairs.
Hover over images to expose materials.
aluminium
aluminium
stainless
steel
stainless steel
stainless steel
hardwood
Stainless Steel
Harwood
aluminium
harwood
Hover over images to expose materials.
