In this article, Matt De Cesare and Homer Wang of Wharton University of Pennsylvania write about how music consumers and makers can use augmented and virtual reality. There were two ways mentioned that caught my eye. I consider this to be a worth while post because the authors give many current and future examples of music and the AR/VR experience. Furthermore, they include a number of studies, and I found their vocabulary used helped me with keyword searches.
One way is an audience interactive concept using their mobile device. The example they use is that an audience member can point their device at the stage during a Christmas concert and snowflakes falling would be appear on the screen with the performance in the background. Coming from an operatic background an interactive audience really increases the performance experience. One experience I had watching was everyone in the audience was encourage to rub their thumb and fingers together during a particular scene to give a sense of rainfall; it really heightened the drama because it gave everyone the sense that we were there watching it unfold. I found an article studying this by Oliver Hödl from the Journal of New Music Research.
The second way is for music creators, amateur or professional, to use this technology for ideation. They authors say that a possibility of the AR is having the user touch notes in front of them to see which notes are recommended. I see two great potentials of this. For the amateur when creating a melody the recommended note possibility can be shown. For the professional, a visual of four part harmony can recommend the proper voice leading (how to create a line of music that harmonically fits in the context of the three other parts.
I found an excellent example that is available now using the HTC Vive called Playthings VR. It takes you to tropically place with where there are hot dogs and gummy bears and you strike them with the stick to create a musical sound. I can see the potential of this in the elementary school music room where students can play and make music. It seems very intuitive to use as well. See the video below: