Musical participation
Groove Pizza
Make a rhythm. See its shape. Explore the ideas and people behind a musical playground.
Play & read the storyNYU Shanghai / Music Experience Design Lab
Music, learning and
creative possibility.
Led by S. Alex Ruthmann, with collaborators worldwide. We design and study new ways to make, experience and learn music.
Explore the labSelected work
View all projects
Listening & experience
Immersive music
Step inside recordings, move between perspectives, and discover a history of spatial listening.
Explore the experiences
Active research & development
Rengongfu 人工夫
AI, practice and musical judgment. Designing tools for the person who is learning.
Read the research directionCourses & toolsFind your way into the music.
Project directory →
Audio Production
Learn production with Peter Gabriel & Clara Berry.
Groove Pizza
Rhythm through shapes, dots and angles.
aQWERTYon
Melody and harmony on your keyboard.
Variation Playgrounds
Musical playgrounds for orchestral music.
Soundbreaking Tech Tools
Explore the tools behind recorded music.
Virtual Piano Duet v2
Improvise with Steve Wogaman. Save your phrases.
Music Theory for Producers
Creative music theory with Soundfly.
Math Science Music
Interactive learning across three disciplines.
Fresh Annotator
Hip-hop, remixing and annotation.
Immersive Recordings
Hear the Aeolus Quartet from inside the music.
About these courses & tools
Audio Production
Learn the creative processes of audio engineers and producers through the music of Peter Gabriel & Clara Berry.
Groove Pizza
Create & play with rhythmic grooves through shapes, dots, and angles. Export to audio, MIDI, and music notation.
aQWERTYon
Create and improvise melodies and harmonies using your computer keyboard. Explore music theory.
Variation Playgrounds
Musical Playgrounds for orchestral music created in collaboration with the New York Philharmonic and Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Soundbreaking Tech Tools
Explore the tools used by audio engineers created in partnership with the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, TeachRock, and Soundbreaking.org.
Virtual Piano Duet v2
Improvise with Steve Wogaman of the Chamber Music Society of Detroit. Track your melodies as piano rolls, save and name phrases in your browser, and replay, export or import melody JSON files.
Music Theory for Producers
Explore music theory using our creative tools created in partnership with Soundfly.com.
Math Science Music
Interactive learning materials integrating Math, Science, and Music in partnership with the Herbie Hancock Insitute of Jazz.
Fresh Annotator
Explore middle school history through interactive hip-hop remixing and annotation.
Immersive Recordings
Experience the Aeolus String Quartet from the performers' perspectives.
Virtual Piano Duet saves melodies in this browser. Export a file to keep or transfer them; no cloud sync or microphone recording. Features & details → Original version ↗
The ideas have a history
Explore the early work.
Recovered pages from Alex Ruthmann’s Michigan website document intonation tools, electronic performance interfaces, composition and musical experiments.
Michigan collection — awaiting verificationCreate with us.
We welcome collaborators in China and around the world to explore music, learning and creative technology.