PianoArc Paves the Way for Novelty Musical Instruments
SOPHIA BOETTCHER on 7 February, 2014 at 00:00
Lady Gaga’s keyboardist, Brockett Parsons, looks like the scary, wild-eyed brother of the eleventh doctor in Doctor Who, English actor Matt Smith.
Standing in what looks to be an alien’s mouth — or the inside of a kiss — he thrashes on a row of teeth, which are in fact piano keys.
Designed for live-performing musicians, PianoArc is essentially a doughnut-shaped keyboard. Despite featuring pitch bending and IR optical scanning, its straight-up specifications compared to those of other professional keyboards on the market wouldn’t strike a typical pianist as incredibly useful. Take the Yamaha Tyros-5 for instance. It acts as a music production studio, fully outfitted with your own personal backup band.
Besides being circular, what’s so special about PianoArc? For one, a 292-key circular piano is certainly an exciting twist in user interface design. For two, PianoArc drew a lot of attention at NAMM this year. For those unfamiliar with NAMM — it’s the biggest convention for musical instrument developers in the world. If you’re a luthier or synthesizer manufacturer from China, Seville, Spain or Guatemala — NAMM in Anaheim, California is the place to showcase your work and be seen. Needless to repeat, PianoArc proved a big hit at this important event for industry insiders. Indeed, PianoArc is definitely something I think we should keep our collective eye on, or at least the trend it signifies.
“I believe I work for one of the greatest performers of all time, ever. And I was just really inspired to try to make some sort of inspired to create a performance statement,” says Brockett when asked in an interview at NAMM why he developed PianoArc.
Ultimately, PianoArc signals a transformation and popularization of visual kei. Now, visual kei was originally a movement by Japanese musicians characterized by heavy makeup and over-the-top performances. With the rise of the internet, our attention spans have dwindled to basically 10 seconds. The result? Now more than ever, popular music artists and independent label musicians need to capitalize on being eye-opening.
Fotor0206213414Pictured (left to right): Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and male visual kei guitarist Hizeki. It’s clear to see that musicians are trying to stand out, whether that means using bright outfits, makeup or novelty instruments. (Interpolation: Hey kids, how about, you know, playing music)
Sure, PianoArc won’t be as successful or widespread as iPhone or bottle water. The fact it empowers musicians to create shows that are as much visual art as they are performance art, however, is interesting. Just how empowering is a piano that lets a musician run around in circles on stage like dog trying to catch its tail, while still banging on keys and making sounds? As empowering as the musician in question is creative. Moreover, I think we’ll see an upsurge of novelty musical instruments in music.
Partial Specifications:
Style: Circular Controller Keyboard.
Keys: 292 Keys: 3 contiguous eighty-eight note keyboards -1 twenty eight note control section, pitch bend/mod per keyboard section.
Inputs/Outputs: Expression, Sustain. USB MIDI, MIDI IN/OUT.
Action: Custom Hybrid grand/synth action. Sprung (unweighted) wood keys, rocker pivot with PNO scan custom optical sensing. Adjustable key height and key dip.
Size: Approx 6′ outer diameter. Customized to 54″ playing reach for Brockett.
Stand: Tiltable +/- 50 degrees. Height adjustable.
Weight: Really, really heavy.