Some months ago I had a conversation with a friend that went something like this: “Wouldn’t it be great if someone would design an instrument that used a touch screen interface to extend the resources that trained musicians already find in traditional instruments”. In other words, using technology to extend and transform our opportunities rather than just replicating them. I think that the misa guitar is one of the first examples of a recent instrument design that genuinely seems to do this.  The background to its design is outlined at the Misa website. A quick read will illustrate why this is an example of how I think we need to be thinking.

In Misa’s own words:

“Guitars by their very nature have limitations…Effects can be inserted into the signal chain, but they are usually foot pedals which makes the experience of controlling effects disjointed from what your hands are doing. Plus, you can only really make use of one pedal at a time…This may be okay if you only use effects occasionally, but when every note you play needs the controls set differently – good luck with that. Electronic music cannot be played effectively with such constraints. In electronic music, the timbre (or colour) of the sound can be morphed in an infinite number of ways…You need to be able to control elements of the sound, such as sustain, pitch, filter cutoffs, contour or any other synthesizer parameter, in a way that has no physical constraints…This was my thought process when designing the Misa digital guitar. There are no strings on this instrument. The right hand doesn’t pluck strings, it controls sound. So don’t compare Misa digital guitars to acoustic guitars or electric guitars. Those are different instruments, for different artforms, for different music. This is electronic music.”

Well said! (and I applaud the amount of detail on the ‘how’ that is on the Misa site).

But before I get too excited (now with my teaching hat on) lets see how much these things cost when they come into production. Also, it’s a little dissapointing that the video demo isn’t a good example of innovative electronic music!

Still…the idea is out there so let’s also see what’s next. If we are to continue to develop musicianship rather than just simplify how we get a ‘nice sound out’ then we have to move beyond the current rather stagnant relience on traditional keyboard type designs or controllers that make little use of existing physical musical expertise.

(Thanks for the email Rod!)

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