Hyperscore software lets even the untrained express themselves musically through motion, color and texture.

"As a kid, there were no musical toys for me to play with," Joshua Bell tells Alan. "I actually invented my own when I was three or four. I used to string rubber bands on my dresser drawers, open up the drawers and I would create pitches and different tunes because I didn't have anything else to play with."

Despite this early setback, Joshua Bell today is a superstar violinist. Tod Machover is translating Bell's expertise with his Stradivarius into a "hyperviolin," a wired version of a violin and bow that record information about the way Bell plays. The data gets relayed to a computer which translates Bell's skills and subtleties into novel musical sounds.

Superstar Josh Bell lend his expertise with his Stradivarius to Machover's "hyperviolin," a wired version of a violin and bow that produces novel musical sounds.

In "Toy Symphony," Alan gets to sample a few other of Machover's creations, software and machines that let anyone create beautiful music. "Beat Bugs," for instance, created by Machover's graduate student, Gil Weinberg, allow even the smallest child to create and collaborate to make music. Tap out a rhythm on the Beatbug's back, and it plays it back to you. Another Beatbug can't change your rhythm, but it can enhance it by altering tempo or other musical qualities. A group of children equipped with Beatbugs performed their group composition accompanied by the German Symphony Orchestra in Berlin.

The GSO also performed a piece composed by a ten-year-old boy aided by Machover's "Hyperscore" software. Using shapes, colors and textures instead of formal musical notation, Hyperscore lets anyone, including Alan, unleash his or her creativity. It's one more innovation from MIT's Media Lab that allows you to make it on your own.

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HYPERSCORE