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Playing rich, expressive music with LIFT Music doesn’t require any knowledge of playing music at all, all it needs is your guidance – through gestures!
Here is a brief guide to using it, and a few pointers on how to get the best out of your musical collaboration with LIFT.
There are three things that will happen the first time you open LIFT:
- LIFT will ask you for permission to use the device camera; LIFT uses the camera to track your movements and cannot work without that permission.
- LIFT will ask you what name to call you; this can be any nickname you like.
- You will see a short video showing you how to set it up. You can view that again by going into the Settings page and choosing Show me the instructions again.
The music won’t start until you tap the Play button.
As long as you can see your shoulders, elbows and hands on the screen, the app can track their movements.
If you move your hands outside the screen, LIFT will just keep doing whatever it is doing until it can track your hands again.
If you wish to set the range of movement before play starts, see Setting the Frame below.
Controlling the Music
Tap the Play button.
Slowly raise and lower one arm to hear how that gesture affects various qualities of the music.
Trying the other arm will affect the music differently.
You can use one arm, or both, you can cross your hands, have one arm high and the other low, or in the centre – whatever you do, LIFT will follow your gestures and compose the music accordingly
And now explore what you can do!
If you have enabled Use Adaptive Frame in the settings screen, LIFT app continuously adjusts to the range of movement available to the participant.
This means that even with only small movements, you can reach the full range of variation that LIFT provides.
Before you begin playing
It is useful to give LIFT an idea of the range of movement before play begins (so that the adjustment precedes the start of the music).
Tap the Set Frame button; the screen is slightly dimmed, and as you move your arms you’ll see a brighter window expanding with your range of movement.
During play
LIFT continues to monitor your range of movement, so if you go beyond the original range of movement during play, it will adapt automatically.
You can reset the frame during playback with the Set Frame button.
If the app is logged in with your account, you will see the Clients button below the Play button.
Each style button has a picture of three music notes.
LIFT is able to generate music in a number of styles, which are broadly grouped together by colour.
Tap any button to explore that particular flavour of music.
Colour Groups
Although many people – the developer writing this guide included – have strong associations of music and colour, the choice of colours for each style is pretty arbitrary
People with colour synesthesia rarely agree on the colours anyway. A good friend of mine claims Mondays are red when they are quite clearly dark green. Friday is red. Obviously 🙂
So here a broad guide to styles and colours:
- Green: Folky, acoustic, rarely gets intense, very relaxing
- Yellow: Orchestral, from light to dramatic
- Red: Beat-orientated, bass and drums at the ready!
- Blue: Small ensembles and duets, stays calm and quiet
- Purple: Very simple two-instrument combinations with limited variation, intended to help some users understand how LIFT works (maybe don’t enable Evolve on purple)
You can open the Settings screen by tapping on the gearwheel icon below the Set Frame button
Background Colour
Tap any colour to set the background colour of the app
Background Type
There are two alternatives to seeing your own image on the screen:
- The Animations screen shows you an ensemble of animated musicians that move with the music
- The Colour screen shows a plain background in whichever colour you select under Background Colour
Enabling the Evolve feature
LIFT can leave the progression of the music entirely to you, or it can join in the fun and slowly let the music evolve with time
If you activate the Evolve switch, you’ll hear how the music changes both with your own movements, and with the passage of time, giving you an experience much closer to listening to much composed music
You can also allow LIFT to vary the Intensity of the music and combination of Instruments – but be aware, you might find yourself and LIFT competing for control of the orchestra 🙂
Adapting to your physical situation
LIFT can adapt to your physical situation, such that if you don’t have use of both arms, or if you are lying down rather than seated, for example, the gestures that you do have available can be more richly interpreted, to enable you to access as much of LIFT’s expressive range as possible
If you find the options do not cover your situation, please do let us know, and we will fix it if we can.
Keep your hands visible on screen – and don’t be afraid to move back from the screen if you find yourself too constrained.
Use a stand if you can, or prop up the device against something; holding the device by hand will lose the stability the app needs to measure the body gestures.
Make use of the Set Frame button so that the app can calibrate how much movement to expect.
Remember you are directing the musicians to play your piece, rather than playing an instrument directly:
- Fast momentary movements can get missed; imagine asking a musician to suddenly play loudly and then immediately quietly – that musician might not even have a note to play in that instant
- Holding a gesture for a length of time gives LIFT time to adapt in a musically satisfying way, though whether you make large and sudden changes or slow and graceful ones is a matter for you – the composer!
- Not moving is also a gesture; an orchestra doesn’t stop playing when the conductor stands still for a moment
The Evolve feature is a great way to increase the amount and range of variety in the music, but the Intensity and Instruments switches vary some of the same qualities as you are doing yourself, so you may want to leave those switched off.
Why doesn’t the music stop when I stop?
For many reasons, but mainly because putting your arms down is an instruction to the app to be quiet – not stop.
Putting your hands down is also an instruction to the app – hands down isn’t a default zero. It’s loud, it’s quiet – neither of these things mean stop. This is a continuous flow of music that you can change and improvise with, you stop and start it by ending the session, not through gestures.
This is also to encourage participation, we have found that many people will sit there with their arms down. We want to encourage people to make music, we’re not going to do that by switching it off every time they put their arms down 🙂
Why isn’t the music responding to my movements?
Keep your hands in view of the camera – if you can’t see your hands on the screen, the app can’t see them either.
The music reacts to the position of your hands on screen, so a fast motion up and down (for example) will produce a change that is too transient to be noticeable.
You can reset the frame during playback, which helps if you have inadvertently made a movement that goes beyond the range of movement you are using to control the music.
Can I use LIFT in Split View and Slide Over mode on an iPad?
LIFT needs the whole screen to work fully; using it in split screen mode and such on an iPad will interfere with the camera tracking.
Can I use LIFT in Landscape mode
Landscape mode is due for release May 2026.
What about Android?
LIFT is available for use on iPhone, iPad, and Android.
To help you get the most out of LIFT, we’ve put together a list of accessories that work well with the app — things like stands, speakers, and cases.
We’ve used Amazon affiliate links here, which means if you choose to buy through these links we may earn a small commission. There’s no extra cost to you, and it helps support our work.
Of course, you’re welcome to purchase these items wherever you prefer. The links are just suggestions to make it easier to find what you need.
Oldest compatible iPad (needs an A12 processor…):
– iPad 8 gen
– iPad Air 3 gen
– iPad Pro 3 gen
– iPad Mini 5 gen
To check that on your device, open Settings, tap General → About, look for Model Name. Compare that to the list above – if it’s the same or newer, your device is compatible.