Table of Contents
Gloves That Manipulate Music Through Gestures
Imogen Heap’s Mi.Mu gloves is one kickass wearable music kit.
It allows musicians and performers to manipulate music with gestures and movements (orientation, posture of hands, direction) rather than fiddling with faders, knobs, buttons and keyboards.
The aim is to break down barriers between musicians and tech as well as performers and audiences.
The tech inside the gloves consists of an accelerometer, gyroscope, haptic motors, a programmable LED, Wi-Fi and flex sensors over the knuckles.
Sensors That Let You Make Music by Tapping Your Body
What if your heartbeat provided the drumbeat to a song? And what if waving your arm created the melody?
The idea of Sound on Intuition (by Pieter-Jan Pieters) is to commercialize a set of new instruments that don’t require any traditional training. Rather, music is created purely from the motion of your body. Read more about it here.
Vibrating Metronome
An accurate inner sense of rhythm is one of the most important characteristics of a skilled musician!
Everyone from our music teachers to world class players tell us to use a metronome if we want to become a great musician. But regular metronomes are annoying to use, take the passion out of making music and haven’t improved in 200 years!
The Soundbrenner Pulse is a wearable that can be worn on your wrist, your upper arm – say, for guitarists or pianists – or around your ankle which would suit drummers.
Drumpad T-shirt
ThinkGeek’s fully-playable t-shirt-based 808 drum machine that allows you to makes beats on the go.
Not only do you get 9 different drum kits at your disposal, you can create your own drum loops just like a professional drum machine.
Simply tap the drum pads on the front of the shirt to create a rhythm. Once your loop is created, layer additional beats on top to build up a complex rhythm.
You can make loops up to 3 minutes long and you’ve got unlimited tracks to play with.
_____________________________________________________________
James Hill is a veteran of the music industry. He first worked at Warner Reprise Records then later joined Interscope/ Geffen Records where he managed producers and songwriters and got his first platinum record for Keyshia Cole’s The Way It Is. He is now helping indie artists with branding and manufacturing through his company Unified Manufacturing, a CD/DVD, custom vinyl records and merch company in LA.
