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Some musicians in Australia have come up with some rather bizarre instruments that they play by moving their fingers and hands into various positions.
In one composition, moving the thumb to bend its sensor will cycle through available samples. Bending the index finger, or the channel control finger, determines which speaker will play the sound (the group uses about eight speakers). The middle finger allows the user to change the start position of a sample, while the fourth finger can trigger a loop.
The much more interesting thought is here:
The programming is very tricky, because Simon's [the computer engineer] not only programming the sounds, he's programming us as well.
The underlying thought deserves a little more attention. How much does the kind of instrument you play influence what kind of music you play?
Take bass guitar, for instance. It's in most forms of modern music (as upright, as sample, as electric, etc.). Same instrument can be made to fit most kinds of music. Then you have something like a trumpet. While I won't say that you can't have a trumpet in a bluegrass band, it's not going to be very common.
So, at the start of a person's musical career, do they select a musical instrument because they like the sound of the instrument? Or do they pick an instrument because they like the way it sounds in context of a musical setting?
I think it's mostly the latter. We don't spend a lot of time listening to unaccompanied instruments (even in classical music, there's a lot more ensemble pieces than solo), so we develop our tastes within a framework. I know that I started drumming because I liked the beat and impact of the rhythm that I heard while listening to harder rock music.
Posted by Casper at October 13, 2004 04:40 PM