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Did you know that rock guitarists will soon be able to control music using their mouth?
Guitarists usually use the wah wah pedal to alter the sound of notes on their electric guitars. The pedal is like a big button that they have to press with their foot and it has to be in a fixed position on the stage.
The mouthesizer is an alternative means of doing this and has been in development in Japan. Not only does it allow you to change the sound of the notes but takes instructions from the shape and movement of your mouth and sends them to a synthesizer.
The mouthesizer consists of a device on the guitar which converts the notes being played into MIDI, the language of electronic music that defines the properties of musical notes like pitch and duration.
This device is combined with a mini digital camera mounted on the musician's head. Its purpose is to detect and monitor the shape of your mouth and send instructions to a synthesiser. The synthesizer than modifies the Midi properties of the note.
Stretching your mouth results in a gritty distorted sound and opening and closing the mouth results in the sort of sound you would expect from a wah wah pedal. The camera picks up a change in the area of shadow inside the mouth and makes sound changes from that.
A group of seven musicians were asked to try out the device and all of them said that it was easy to learn and much more versatile than a foot pedal. The mouth makes a great synthesiser because we have so much control over our facial muscles and are able to make very precise movements.
The creator, Michael Lyons, hopes that the device will eventually be used with other MIDI equipped instruments like keyboards.
Did you know about the new DJ-ing record?
A UK disc jockey has completed a set of a marathon 48 hours and three minutes. In an attempt to get into the Guinness book of records for the longest DJ set, Richard Dolby set up his decks in the Lakota Nightclub in Bristol, England.
One of the regulations of the record attempt was that the club would remain open the entire time. Dolby was only allowed a 15-minute break every eight hours and was not allowed to play the same record twice. The two day set saw him play more than 500 records which is over half of his collection.
Dolby, who began his set on a Friday night, says the hardest times were on Saturday and Sunday morning when there were very few people in the club. The attempt has not yet been confirmed as a world record by adjudicators.
Did you know about The Primitives?
The Primitives were a Czechoslovakian rock group who were known for their audience participation stunts at concerts. They got most attention when they celebrated the element 'water' by hurling buckets of water at the audience then throwing fish over them in what they called 'fish fest'.
Did you know that the Scots did not invent the bagpipes?
The Romans were playing the bagpipes in the first century AD. The first bagpipes were made of sheepskin or cows stomach with some hollow stalks for pipes.
Do you know what the most famous violins are?
Stradivarius violins are thought to sound the best because the wood they were made from was stored in the sea in Venice. The water made little holes appear in the wood and the varnish that was used even had special ingredients in it.
Do you know about the oldest piece of music ever written?
The oldest p[existing piece of music ever written dates back to 408 BC. It was sung by an ancient Greek choir called Orestes and was written by Euripides.
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