Jordan Rudess demos Yamaha’s Tenori-On

Here’s a short video of keyboard player Jordan Rudess playing around with Yamaha’s Tenori-On sound/light synthesiser.

It shows the other side of the Tenori-On (I hadn’t realised the lights were visible from both sides), and while it means you can’t see exactly what controls Jordan is using, it’s still an interesting demo.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Memotron digital Mellotron keyboard with new sound sets

Manikin Electronics demonstrated their Memotron digital Mellotron keyboard at the recent Winter NAMM show.

Here’s Sonic State’s video showing off the system, and getting some info on who’s using it and how much the sample sets cost.

(Via Sonic State)

Popularity: 4% [?]

iVideosongs launches high-def video site for teaching aspiring musicians

iVideosongs is an on-demand, high-definition video service designed to teach aspiring musicians of all skill levels how to play their favourite songs on an instrument.

iVideosongs instruction is provided by the original artists who wrote and performed the songs and also by expert instructors.

“Aspiring musicians want to play complete songs accurately, and that’s exactly what we give them,” said Tim Huffman, CEO of iVideosongs. “We’ve recruited established artists, legendary sidemen and some of the best instructors on the planet to teach rock, pop, blues and country songs. With iVideosongs, aspiring musicians learn the songs at their pace, when and where they want.”

[Read more]

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NowPlayIt.com: interesting but limited piano tutorials from star musicians

VNUNet.com’s Anthony Dhanendran (from Computeractive) has reviewed the online music tutorials web site NowPlayIt.com, which offers musicians the chance to learn how to play the authentic instrument lines from popular songs directly from the band’s musician.

The service offers three levels of video: for £4 (around $8) you get a full ten- to fifteen-minute video featuring the artist explaining the track, working through the track on the instrument, and then showing the music video and note guides in split screen mode.

For £3 ($6) a non-celebrity tutor hosts the video, while the lite version (£2/$4) offers just the chords and video tutorial, with no other commentary.

Unsurprisingly, of the 300 video tutorials currently available, there’s not a huge number to choose from for pianists. That’s probably because the piano is not as prominent as guitar or bass, and a synth line would probably be too complicated to create a short tutorial for.

In general, it looks like a good site, and as they add more songs and artists, hopefully pianists will be a little better served.

Good potential.

Original review at VNUNet.com

NowPlayIt.com

Popularity: 2% [?]

Video: Blues scales explained

Here’s a nice simple introduction to blues scales. Yes, you can argue whether it’s an authentic blues scale or not, but it provides a useful basis for learning and discovery.

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Reactable demo: new synth instrument prototype

Right-Half Chow has found this amazing demo for Reactable:

The following film shows the first demo for Reactable, a new instrument that is being developed by the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. As some of you will know, I’m really interested in interfaces (and musical ones in particular) and this looks like it could be a big hit if it could become commercially viable:

“The reactable hardware is based on a translucent round table. A video camera situated beneath, continuously analyzes the table surface, tracking the nature, position and orientation of the objects that are distributed on its surface, representing the components of a classic modular synthesizer. These objects are passive without any sensors or actuators, users interact by moving them, changing their position, their orientation or their faces (in the case of volumetric objects). These actions directly control the topological structure and parameters of the sound synthesizer. A projector, also from underneath the table, draws dynamic animations on its surface, providing a visual feedback of the state, the activity and the main characteristics of the sounds produced by the audio synthesizer.”

Popularity: 2% [?]

Billy Joel: The Entertainer with Minimoog solo

Here’s a nice recording of a young, big-haired Billy Joel singing The Entertainer and playing piano and MiniMoog (lush sound) from way back when the BBC broadcast The Old Grey Whistle Test. This is just class all round (except for the clothing fashion perhaps but we’ll forgive that)

(Via MatrixSynth)

Popularity: 1% [?]