[ Vincent Caers ]

Living Scores (LS) Learn - a collaboration with percussionist dr. Tom De Cock - seeks to innovate the practice and performance of contemporary music by developing and improving the accessibility of tailor-made study trajectories in which LS Learn exploits technical possibilities: by the development of specific tools which allow to integrate the results of analysis into the studying practice and by constructing a digital platform which presents the trajectories and accomplishes interaction between different performers. In this way LS Learn lowers the threshold to perform contemporary music for students and performers and leads to an innovative and interactive learning strategy for Schools of arts and Music Departments of Universities and a supporting platform for the current artistic practice. Living Scores Learn was supported by the Flemish Government during 2014-2015 as an innovation project for the creative industries. Next to collaborating on the artistic content, I developed the website and the lsl.clicktrack application. Since the start of the project, it has been invited in different conservatories in Belgium (Leuven, Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp) and across Europe (Tilburg, Detmold, Trondheim, Oslo, Lausanne, Porto, Barcelona, Lyon, Amsterdam, Basel). LS Learn has also been presented at different conferences, such as EAS, BUMA Classical Convention and ORCIM-seminar at Orpheus Institute.

Vincent Caers developed the lsl.clicktrack application for Living Scores Learn. lsl.clicktrack facilitate the translation of the theoretical analysis and research results into practical solutions. The application provides the possibility to rapidly create complex patterns and clicktracks to be used as a metronome in the practice room or in a performance. It can be used in combination with a sequencer and contains possibilities to program your rehearsal session. The application is part of the Living Scores Learn platform. LSL.clicktrack functions in two modes. Metro-mode and click-mode. Metro-mode is similar to a metronome; it plays back one pattern. Click-mode provides the option to define a range of measures - with meter and tempo changes - and play them back as your metronome. You preserve the tempo relations because the tempo will be scaled down instead of changed in absolute values when you want to practice at slower speed. The program window provides shortcuts for setting measures and will greatly improve the time needed to create a complex clicktrack. You can request a login for access to the appplication on the Living Scores Learn website

The cases about Franco Donatoni’s percussion solo’s ‘Mari’ and ‘Omar’ and Philippe Hurel’s ‘Loops II’ were also published as articles in Percussive Notes. If you are a member of the Percussive Arts Society, you can access them through their publications archive on the PAS website or send an email to request a copy. The full cases on both composers are available on the Living Scores Learn website.

Cock, T. De, Caers, V., & Buys, K. Van Den. (2015). An Examination of Philippe Hurel’s “Loops II.” Percussive Notes, 3(May), 44–48. Cock, T. De, Caers, V., & Buys, K. Van Den. (2014). The Solo Percussion Music of Franco Donatoni. Percussive Notes, 2(March), 50–55.