Easier = Not as Good?

pete

pete

Brassica Oleracea
Staff member
Administrator
I don't know what a better title would be. I'll explain:

I was cruising the net the other day and came across this new electric guitar. The idea behind the device is to radically simplify the guitar fingering by removing the strings from the fret board and give you buttons instead. The complaint that some folks have is this guitar isn't a "real" instrument because it's radically simplified. If you listen to it, it sounds like a guitar. It looks like a guitar, minus the tuning pegs. You can play music with it. Sounds like the definition of a "real" instrument to me!

Recently, I've again taken up the EWI: the electronic wind instrument. The main reason I did was because playing a real clarinet or sax makes me feel like me head will explode (arguably a bad outcome). However, is the EWI a "real" instrument? I don't have to worry about intonation anymore -- provided I don't hit the wrong buttons -- and I don't have to have that enthusiastic of embochure control anymore. I'm not going to try to convince anyone that the EWI is a flute or clarinet -- although I can make the EWI sound like a passable clarinet or flute.

I also remember reading about some kid that won an instrumental competition playing on the (forerunner to what became) the Clarineo, which is a simplified clarinet designed for beginners and children. Does "simplified" mean it's not a "real" instrument? I could agree with someone saying that a Clarineo isn't a real clarinet, but I'd have a problem with accepting the argument that it's not a "real" instrument.

So, I guess the question is at what point do you say that the technology to help you play makes what you're playing less of an instrument and more of a record/CD/MP3 player?
 
No one today would say that an electronic keyboard is not a "real" instrument. You may say it is not an "authentic" (acoustic) piano. I think the guitar with the buttons, regardless of how it sounds, is a "real instrument". At the same time it will never be the same as an "authentic" guitar. Perhaps "modified guitar" would be a better name. So long as the human being playing the instrument chooses the pitches, and rhythms of the music in a spontaneous fashion one pitch and note value at a time, I think it will fall in the class of musical instrument rather than recorded music playing device.
 
oops .. possible Yamaha patent violation there. If Yamaha even cares now.

Years ago I bought a Yamaha "EZ-guitar"
their first version had paddles instead of strings (the model I had)
or second version I believe had thick and short "strings" or wires or some type.

The fret board had buttons for the left hand and paddles instead of strings to strum for the right hand (for a right handed guitar).
It was interesting.
I would rank it as a training guitar at best. and it was sold as a "self teaching guitar"
from yamaha site ==> "The EZ-AG is a technologically advanced electronic guitar designed for self-teaching. Simply follow lights to learn songs, without worrying about tuning or strings. Choose from nine realistic guitar sounds, eight bass guitar sounds, banjo, shamisen, and grand piano to make all kinds of music. A built-in speaker means that the guitar is always ready to play, with or without connecting it to an optional external amplifier. Volume, tempo, balance, and capo controls give full control over all sonic options. The EZ-AG makes it easier for everyone to learn to play guitar."

But they tried to evolve that brand of "EZ" instruments to include trumpet as one example.
==> http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musi...lighted_key_fret_instruments/ez_series/ez-ag/
of course, they are discountinued now.
so demand must have been limited.

I think you can thank the game guitar-hero for these instruments since 2005.
But I think the EZ Guitar preceeded that by a few years .. I cannot recall now but the manual for the 2nd version Yamaha EZ-AG Guitar has a 2003 copyright notice on it. THe EZ-EG has a 2002 copyright notice on the manual. I thought I bought mine in the late 1990s but I guess not now.
==> https://www.guitarhero.com/game/controller

this was the model I had
http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musi...lighted_key_fret_instruments/ez_series/ez-eg/

the problem with the lighted fret board is in playing position you could not see the lights. And if you are looking at the lights you aren't looking at the music to correlate what you are doing to the music. I actually would use it in front of a mirror for ease of playing position. I guess if you just followed the lights to memorize the song you are fine, but if want to learn guitar and correlate the notes to the fret/string location then you aren't.

Since then they have evolved into their "Silent" instruments, such as this silent guitar ==> http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical-instruments/guitars-basses/silentguitars/

I know they also have silent violins, viola, cellos, bass. These instruments have sold well.
==> http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical-instruments/strings/silentviolins/

Recently I wanted to try my hand at guitar again and just bought a regular electric & acoustic guitar. Much simplier learning than the EZ-guitar I had. It's kinda like the difference between a sax and a clarinet in covering the keys. The clarinet you have to be exact to cover the tonehole completely. On the sax it doesn't even matter if you press on the keytouch at all, as long as you hit the keycup to close the key you're fine. I found on the EZ you could be more sloppy and strumming feel was resistant, which is probably why they went from the paddles to the strings.

but I can see how being completely MIDI one can control the exact tone that you want, so I can see it's usefulness. though you can add what ever pedal you want to an electric guitar to change tone, etc. plus all the amps options. The MIDI guitar is simply putting the Amp into the guitar and using the now long abandoned Yamaha design.

It's along the line of the Yamaha Arius lines of digital pianos. You can connect the iPad to it and do stuff .. I have yet to figure out how to connect my iPad to mine though.
 
I like to tune the strings on my guitar to different settings based on what I'm playing. (Note, I don't spend much time on the instrument.) And bending a note can have a nice effect for the music. But if it gets another person interested in music, I'm all for it.
 
Gandalfe said:
But if it gets another person interested in music, I'm all for it.
Click to expand...
That's essentially where I'm at. However, I'm still interested in the question of how much "assistive technology" you can use before you aren't "making" music and just "playing" music, because "assistive" is extremely vague. I could get, say, a clarinet with plateau keywork (i.e. covered keys, rather than open hole) and nobody would bat an eye, but people still do consider the EWI as a toy.

Going back to synths, for a moment, I can essentially press a single button and make a synth do anything from playing a full chord to playing a sample of someone else playing something. I can play chromatic runs by properly configuring the keyboard and pressing two different keys on the synth. Am I still a musician or am I a programmer? A little of both?
 
I think it depends upon when your audience starts thinning of whether it matters or not.

A keyboard synthesizer has been around a long time.
Matter of fact all the pedals and amp for guitars are it's synthesizers, and those have been around for ages too.

Just because it's moving more towards wind based instruments makes it no different. Many have been mic'd connected to some syntheziser to modify the tone. Now they are just incorporating it as an instrument.

matter of fact, many keyboards have the tones of sax, trumpet, clarinet, piano, etc etc etc. You don't even need those instruments to kinda sound like one anymore.
 
They're all real instruments. However, an EWI is not a saxophone, or a clarinet, nor is a synthesizer a piano. Therefore, Brian Fan's instrument is not a guitar.
 
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