15 year old Trinity Academy Pupil Chris Jacquin has made history by sitting the music performance module of his Standard Grade exam using an instrument which he plays with his facial muscles and brainwaves.
His journey to the exam was recorded by his music tutor David McNiven who describes the many obstacles, from physical access to other people’s attitudes, which Chris successful surmounted to achieve his A grade pass.Chris (15) who has Cerebral Palsy, decided he wanted to make music when he was in primary school in Fife, Scotland. He would not be able to take music at the secondary school in his catchment area so his family moved to Edinburgh.
Enrolling at mainstream Trinity Academy, Chris learned the basics of music on a one-to-one basis with me for his first two years of school because as a wheelchair user there was no access to the music classrooms, which were on a mezzanine level without a lift.
Chris chose Music as a grade subject at the end of second year. In order to achieve this he would have to attend the regular classes with myself as Learning Assistant. This choice presented us with several difficulties, the first purely physical. His solution was to learn to walk with the use of a walking frame.
The second problem was within the structure of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) exam system. Music exams consist of three modules - Listening (music concept recognition and identification), Invention (composition/song writing) and Performance. The first two posed no problems. Chris listens to a wide spectrum of styles and was already a competent composer using music technology by means of a joystick connected to his laptop. The Performance module requires pupils to sit exams playing a first and second instrument.
With somewhat naïve optimism I submitted Chris to sit his performance exams on Laptop and Djembe - we had regular African drum sessions. He uses one hand only but never dropped a beat. He was also creating complex music sequences on computer. The response was negative. The only ‘single drum’ acceptable in Scottish music exams is the pipe band snare drum using both drumsticks. Laptops were a major no-no.
Undaunted, we enlisted the help of Drake Music Scotland who provide music facilities for people with special needs. After an in-depth session at Drake Scotland’s studios in Craigmillar, Edinburgh, they gave us copies of Notion software. Notion is a composition/performance programme which allows music notes to be selected from a pallet and dragged onto an on-screen score using a joystick connected to a laptop or desktop. The piece can then be performed by tapping a large switch which plays the notes on the score as your read the music.
Chris quickly became adept with this programme using it to compose, perform and complete class notation exercises. Drake also introduced us to Brainfingers. This cyberlink ‘mindmouse’ system, the creation of Dr. Andrew Junker allows computer control from sensors in a headband connected to an interface in a control module then into a laptop. The user can perform on screen tasks by ‘brainwaves’, or facial muscle movement depending on the signals the module is set to receive.
In 2009 we invited two members of the SQA to come along to hear Chris’s compositions and watch him perform two pieces on his laptop. We played two of his songs on CD, Diego Armando Maradona and Cara. Chris performed Over the Rainbow and Raindrops on Loch Katrine (his own composition) using switch and laptop. It was then agreed that he could sit his Intermediate 1 Music grade exam performing with Notion as his first instrument. He would also be able to sit a MIDI Sequencing module in place of his second instrument.
Chris had always expressed a strong desire to use Brainfingers to perform his music by clicking his teeth. His parents had banned him from drumming on the car headrest with his fist in time to the music on the car radio. He substituted this practice by secretly playing complex rhythms by ‘dental drumming’ in time to the music. However Brainfingers was still not able to control Notion software and it looked like it might never happen.
On May 7th 2010 I had a home visit from Rick Bamford, Music Technology Officer and resident percussionist with Drake Music Scotland. They had received a new version of Brainfingers hardware and a new version of Notion (Notion 3).
The two systems were compatible. Would Chris like to use them to sit his performance exam? Yes! The catch? Rick was only available on May 12th-the exam date. All the setting up of parameters and rehearsals would have to be done in the morning and hopefully I would record Chris’s performance in the afternoon.
At 9am on May 12th Chris (wearing headband), Rick and myself sat looking at an X-ray of Chris’s skull, his brain in bright red pulsing within, and his Alpha/Beta waves dancing along the bottom of the laptop screen. We were all aware of the deadline. If we failed to get the system up and running Chris would fail the exam.
Much adjustment was needed to eliminate signals coming from other muscles in his face, head and latterly his whole body. Fortunately Rick was able to give Chris a crash course in yoga, enabling him to relax from the neck down, and we finally received the signals from his jaw muscles alone at 2.30pm. At 3pm I hit the record button and Chris’s two performance pieces were complete.
Since then Chris has had an online tutorial in Brainfingers with Dr. Andrew Junker in Yellow Springs, Ohio before using it to record with Drake’s in house band Audability.
August 5th 2010 Chris was awarded a Grade A pass in his SQA Music Exam.
David McNiven
Music Practitioner
August 2010
Footnote
Chris Jacquin is also Scottish Champion of the Paralympics sport Boccia and has played tournaments throughout the UK and Canada with teams from around the world.
I am very impressed with the professionalism and attitude of all the young people involved in this project. The young musicians from City of Edinburgh Music School are enthusiastic and talented players and they have responded really well to the challenges in the score. Chris (playing Notion 3 through Brainfingers), Stephanie (Skoog) and Antony (Soundbeam and Roland Handsonic) have never had the opportunity to be part of an ensemble before and they are quickly learning to follow a conductor and play their own part in the piece.
