UMD Professor creates guitar that allows for easy tone customization
Have you ever experienced the frustration of hearing a certain tone in your mind, but being unable to re-create that same sound when you sit down to play? Like so many guitarists, Bruce Jacob was tired of relying on pedals and amp effects to achieve the ideal tones he heard inside his head. But unlike many guitarists, Bruce Jacob happens to be an electrical engineering professor at the University of Maryland - the type of guy who teaches classes with names like "Electrical Guitar Design." The type of guy who looks at guitars from a unique engineering and mathematical perspective.
Inspired by obstacles in his personal musical quest, Jacob set out with two graduate students to develop a guitar that could be easily adjusted to create a range of sounds by flipping a simple switch on the guitar - the equivalent of automatic transmission for your axe. After a year of study, they finally achieved what they set out to accomplish. Seeing he had discovered something that a lot of guitarists would be willing to spend money on (why buy multiple guitars or pedals when you can just buy one?), Jacob created Coil Guitars LLC. He now sells 4 models of his versatile instrument, each one of them impressive in their own right. Check out some videos at the company web site - pretty cool stuff!
Is music hardwired in us? Bobby McFerrin and the Pentatonic Scale
Check out this interesting clip: With the help of the audience at a recent neuroscience conference, Bobby McFerrin tried to show that humans seem to have a universal capacity to understand some fundamentals of music, namely - the pentatonic scale. Is music hardwired into our brains? There are some very good books on the subject that seem to suggest music and humans have a closer relationship than you might think.
Kaki King performance on TED.com
Check out this inspiring performance by Kaki King, an Atlanta-based guitar player with an extremely unique playing style. Kaki combines fret-tapping and slap-bass techniques to create complicated and emotive sound layers. In February 2006, Kaki King was deemed a "Guitar God" by Rolling Stone magazine, becoming the first female to ever grace the prestigious list. This performance at a TED talk shows why.