E-Scape User Feedback

"I felt extremely privileged to be there for the small miracle we could scarcely believe unfolding before our eyes. I can't think of any other experience I have had here at Treloars to equal it. One couldn't look harder for justification of development of this program which allows Ben to work in total independence, creating a piece of music for himself."

Judith Lazell, Head of Music, Treloar School, Feb 02

"We saw two minutes about Drake Music on BBC world yesterday, and was amazed. This is what we have been looking for the last two years!! ... In the music department we have two students with severe CP... just starting their 5th and last year in college. These two students have had composition as a subject for the last two years, but we have all the way missed software that enables the student to do most of the work on their own... E-Scape sounds just perfect to our needs. It would be a huge improvement..."

Elin Skogdal, Kongsbakken School, Tromsø, Norway, Aug 02

"Drake Music ran away with the Ability Award for the best IT application for the disabled community at the Computing Awards for Excellence held in London [Oct 2001] ... It was great to see Drake Music... get the recognition it deserves."

Ability Magazine, Nov 01.

"One of our two students, a red haired girl has never composed before. The teachers has made some attempts before, but if things doesn't happen very fast, she thinks it's boring and don't bother to answer yes or no. With E-Scape she was a big smile! She had just seen "Fiddler on the roof", and loved the ghost. With E-Scape she chose instruments and made some bars with "ghost music". Great!"

Elin Skogdal, Kongsbakken School, Tromsø, Norway, Sep 02

"I think it's great fun writing music with E-Scape!! That you can hear the changes you do all the time is excellent. I'm looking forward to continue my work with this program... The work you have done is amazing!! The menus present such a lot of options! And the service from you has been the very best support I have ever had with a program!!"

Elin Skogdal, Kongsbakken School, Tromsø, Norway, Oct 02

"Dear Tim, First we must thank you for inventing E-Scape. Rhona got a high merit in her initial exam ... Thank you again for giving Rhona such a wonderful opportunity in life to both play and be able to express herself through Music."

Vicky Smith, Trustee, Drake Scotland, and mother of Rhona, Jun 01

"The demonstration [by Drake Scotland] was extremely impressive... E-Scape's immediate musical feedback and subtle prompting as to what to do next were obviously very beneficial in helping this person to get started and get the idea of what he was doing. At each stage it was clear what he had done so far, and what the next action choices were."

Dr Shari Trewin, Accessibility Research Dept, IBM Watson Lab, New York, Apr 01

"E-Scape is the only software I know of that allows them to control every aspect of composition virtually unaided."

Dr Frank Lyons, Training Officer, Drake Ireland, Jan 02

"Wow! Exciting stuff. Just read an article on BBC site about Drake Music. Some of us have been waiting for some thing like this for the PC for ages."

Edgar Broughton, Pro musician

"In Northern Ireland and Ireland, there are adult students who have no other access to independent music making other than E-Scape - it is proving invaluable for independent adult users. The PC version is heavily used in workshops on a weekly basis, and also in our regular residential composition challenge programs... The degree of independence afforded by this software is perfectly in line with our Project mission statement... Using E-Scape, tutors really are 'hands-off' a student's creative process!"

Dr Michelle McCormack, Project Leader, Drake Ireland, Jan 02

"All in all everybody is very happy with E-Scape as it is making workshops faster, more fun and easier, and as the person responsible for the technology within the workshops I feel more confident using E-Scape than past equipment."

Joe Price, Tutor / Technology adviser, Drake Milton Keynes, Jan 02

"Apart from it being used as a teaching aid for Rhona to learn music... and enabling her to pass her initial Trinity College exam (isn't that enough!! ) it has enabled her to express her innate creativity and musicality.... How amazing is that! And it's all thanks to E-Scape and Dr. Tim Anderson."

Sue Dodds, Senior Tutor, Drake Scotland, Jan 02

"In our experience, such software is unique and has made an enormous difference to the lives of individuals who have used it."

Wendy McGee, Head of Music Therapy, Putney Hospital for Neuro-disability