It’s easy to make fun of Guitar Hero now that the craze is over, but one thing is for sure: It created a new enthusiasm for the guitar as an instrument, in these days of DJs and remix artists. We’ve seen a rash of startlingly innovative new ways to teach people how to play the guitar, from the Rock Prodigy series to Wild Chords. Those are great, but Tabber could be better.
You will need a set of steel balls to lay down the beats with Alkex Instrument’s unique eight-step sequencer. Forty-eight steel balls, to be exact, which trigger the optical sensors the machine uses in place of physical buttons.
A Chinese violin maker has realised that the resonating chamber that gives the violin its full rich sound could also double as a stylish speaker. So they stuck a driver inside one of their stringed instruments, and dubbed it the iViolin.
Ion Audio definitely had a busy CES. Besides launching iCade Mobile — which adds eight buttons and a D-Pad to your iPhone — they also showcased upcoming instrument learning rigs. Piano Studio is a 61-note keyboard with lighted keys showing you how to play, while Drum Master is a full-size electronic drum kit with six velocity-sensitive lighted pads and cymbals. We also got a sneak peak at guitar apprentice. Video!
I haven’t played a stringed instrument for half a decade, but something as magical as this could bring me back. See, hacker (and admitted non-musician) [magnetovore]crafted a cello that plays music with invisible magnetism instead of a traditional bow.
You really can’t get tired of people going to unexpected places and making unexpected music. Here we have experimental musician Diego Stocco making a crazy percussive opus right in front of us with a dry cleaner’s tools of the trade.
