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Showy, impractical to play, and looks like the 1980s: why we keep falling for the keytar

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/paul-mac-mcdermott-1439419">Paul (Mac) McDermott</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sydney-841">University of Sydney</a> This year, Perth synth-metal band Voyager finally succeeded in their long-running dream of representing Australia at Eurovision. After multiple attempts, they were directly chosen by the post-Australia Decides <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/australias-voyager-though-to-eurovision-grand-final-how-did-they-get-into-the-contest/wancd9kyf">“committious mysterious”</a> and hopped on the long haul to Liverpool. They did not disappoint, making it through to the final. Their song, Promise, was voted ninth by an adoring fanbase. Not bad indeed! But what even is synth-metal? Traditionally, synths in metal, particularly onstage, were generally frowned upon and seen as a sign of inauthenticity. In the 1990s, I swore allegiance to baggy clothes, instrumental techno and synthesisers. The black t-shirt-wearing grunge fans worshipped guitar riffs, screamo lyrics and mosh pits. We kept in our lanes and followed the rules. Voyager’s proud embrace of synthesisers reject this rather 1990s separation and return metal to the melodic pomp of Van Halen’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwYN7mTi6HM">Jump</a> or Europe’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw">The Final Countdown</a>. The band can still rock hard, but like the taco ad says, “Why not both?” If you were coming to the finals fresh, Promise followed the classic Eurovision three-act strategy to maximum effect. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GSoy_mJMlMY?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> Beginning with synthesised staccato pulses playing rich harmonic progressions, it feels like a classic Euro-trance anthem, not unlike the Swedish winner, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE2Fj0W4jP4">Tattoo</a>. We find lead singer Daniel Estrin onstage driving his 1980s convertible, hair half-shaved and half in luscious locks. His mysterious passenger, bathed in neon – a red keytar. <h2>A what? I haven’t seen one of those in ages!</h2> The word “keytar” is a portmanteau of keyboard and guitar. It looks like a keyboard but is hung around the neck and played like a guitar. The first verse of Voyager’s song begins its ascent, “if you haven’t ever done anything like this before then you haven’t been alive”. I suppose not – I really need to get out with my keytar more often, this looks like fun. The keytar stays in its seat as the band rolls through stadium rock, synchronised guitar swings, hard drum hits and distorted guitar stabs. In the second act, Voyager are now death metal. It’s deep growls, drop-tuned power riffs, and scattergun kick drums. The audience’s collective mind explodes. After one more melodic pre-chorus, it’s time for the third and final act. With one boot threatening to scratch the duco of the car, the lead guitar solo lifts us up to melodic rock heaven. But wait. For the second half, Estrin grabs the red keytar and joins in. He throttles its neck and finishes with a lightning-fast arpeggiated flourish that ELO’s Jeff Lynne would be proud of. The finale repeats and ascends until we all rise to metal nirvana. A quick, traditional pyro-pop ends it all. That was truly genius! The power of the keytar is restored. <h2>An instrument of mixed feelings</h2> The keytar tends to be loved or loathed. Created in the late 1970s and popularised throughout the 1980s, it looks like a product of its time. Made of shiny plastic, shaped like the future, it’s showy and rather impractical to play. If you want to play chords, it is easier to play them on a horizontal keyboard, like a traditional synthesiser. The primary advantage of the keytar is portability and pose-striking. Like its distant ancestor, the piano accordion, a player is free to move around, finally free of the horizontal grip of gravity. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6TltAi_XbHY?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> Most guitarists thought of it as a joke, whereas new-wave synth players saw it as a cool accessory to their modern sound and fashion-forward hair. This was the future, as viewed from 1980. One early adoptor was Edgar Winter. His instrumental track <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8f-Qb-bwlU">Frankenstein</a> topped the Billboard chart in 1973. A multi-instrumentalist who played guitar, sax, percussion and keyboards, he took conventional synths and simply added shoulder straps to wear them like a guitar. While this is a cool look, it is not great for the spine. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P8f-Qb-bwlU?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> The first manufactured keytars were released in the late 1970s, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mattson_(synthesizer_inventor)#The_Syntar">PMS Syntar</a> (see what they did there?) being exhibited at Atlanta’s 1979 NAMM show (National Association of Music Merchants). It was a time of extremely contrasting genres that nevertheless all had synthesisers at the core of their sound. More traditional progressive rock acts such as Yes vied with the new vision of electropunk by Devo. Glam metal bands adopted its look, while synth-driven electrofunk artists could overturn conventional rock theatrics. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j_QLzthSkfM?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>The fall and the rise</h2> The new, standardised MIDI language created an ecosystem that allowed musos to access any synth from any manufacturer, rather than being beholden to one. This quickly resulted in cheaper, easier-to-use synthesisers becoming more widely accessible, leading to the home recording boom we all enjoy today. This bastion of the future soon became as passe as the flat-tops, mohawks and mullets of the people who played them. As we moved into the 1990s, the joyous excesses of 1980s pop bands would soon be seen as daggy. Replaced by faceless DJs, flannel-wearing rockers and choreographed dancers, it was time to sell your keytar or put it into storage. But after a couple of decades of respectful silence, the humble keytar slowly began to re-emerge. Lady Gaga led the charge on her Fame Ball Tour in 2009. The keytar does make sense for such a look-driven, 1980s-influenced artist. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PecJgs75RxQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> So all hail the keytarists of the world. Thank you Thomas Dolby, A-Ha and Dave Stewart. Respect to Chick Korea, Herbie Hancock and Prince. To Muse, Arcade Fire, John Paul Jones and Lady Gaga, may you shred in space, without a hair in place. Thank you Voyager!<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205640/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/paul-mac-mcdermott-1439419">Paul (Mac) McDermott</a>, Lecturer in Contemporary Music, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sydney-841">University of Sydney</a> Image credits: Getty Images This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/showy-impractical-to-play-and-looks-like-the-1980s-why-we-keep-falling-for-the-keytar-205640">original article</a>.

Music

New discovery: really good violins make hidden, subtle sounds

What makes a good violin sound so good? According to new research, <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1121/10.0014600" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">published</a> in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, at least part of the reason is extremely subtle extra notes the best instruments sounds out. When two musical notes are played, listeners can sometimes hear “combination tones”: an additional, subjective note that comes from the way the <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/body-and-mind/explainer-cochlear-implants-function/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cochlea</a> processes the two sound waves in the inner ear. Some musical instruments can also make combination tones themselves: called “objective combination tones.” These subtle notes are produced in the instrument, rather than the ear. Not all instruments can make these objective combination tones – but this new research shows the surprising news that violins can. “Up to now, the combination tones generated by the violin were considered too small to be heard, and therefore, of no importance in music,” says study co-author Giovanni Cecchi, of the Università di Firenze, Italy. “Our results change this view by showing that combination tones generated by violins of good quality can be easily heard, affecting the perception of the intervals.” The researchers got a professional violinist to stand in the centre of a musical auditorium and play a series of dyads: two notes played simultaneously. The violinist played dyads on five different violins, all of different ages and qualities, and the researchers recorded the tones. Each violin produced combination tones in all of the dyads. The strongest of these notes was at a slightly lower tone than those of the dyads. Each instrument made the combination tones at different volumes (or amplitude), depending on the instrument’s air resonance. “We found that combination tones were much stronger and clearly audible in good violins,” says Cecchi. “The strongest one was found in an old Italian violin, made in Bologna in 1700 by the famous luthier, Carlo Annibale Tononi. “Combination tones were instead negligibly small in violins of poor quality.” Next, the researchers are investigating more violins to see which part of the instrument causes these objective combination tones. Image credits: Getty Images <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=221273&title=New+discovery%3A+really+good+violins+make+hidden%2C+subtle+sounds" width="1" height="1" /> <div id="contributors"> This article was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/combination-tones-violins/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Ellen Phiddian. </div>

Music

More than a piece of furniture: it is sometimes as if these old pianos have souls

While restructuring a collection of historical keyboard instruments at the ANU School of Music, I’ve been led to ponder the mysterious significance that pianos can have in the human psyche. Due to limitations of space and funds for maintenance, a decision was made to limit the university’s collection to the most valuable instruments. “Value” was considered on the basis of an instrument’s historical uniqueness, its practical utility for research and overall condition. Yet “value”, as we know, can be understood in different ways. <h2>Vehicles for musical expression</h2> Pianos still proliferate in music schools, despite predictions about the decline of acoustic music. Instruments that are used day-to-day need to be relatively new and in excellent working order. Given the rate at which they are played in busy schools, they are typically replaced every 10 to 15 years. Many pianists view pianos like tools, as vehicles for musical expression. Like a driver searching for a faster car, less responsive models can be dispensed with little thought. Unlike an immaculately handcrafted violin from the 17th century, the sound of a piano typically does not improve with age. Yet there is much that a piano student can learn from older instruments. Our collection includes a French piano built around 1770, and it can still sing if gently coaxed. As my fingers negotiate the uneven and primitive collection of levers, shafts and felts that comprise its inner action, I wonder how many musicians long-departed have listened to its voice. It is a sad fact, though, that homes can be hard to find for old pianos, especially uprights. While grand pianos still signify status, and square pianos have a curiosity value (also doubling as small tables), upright pianos of the Victorian era are now unloved. According to a local piano removal company, two to three upright pianos from this period can be delivered to landfill in any week. Partly, this is due to their ubiquity in earlier generations. It used to be the case that every home had an old piano, often passed down through family lines. Frequently of German origin and built on massive solid frames, these instruments are not timeless. Their mechanisms wear out, their felts become infested and their tuning blocks lose structural integrity. They can no longer hold their tune. If you paid to restore one, the sum would be greater than the cheap new instrument which would always outperform it. The worst thing to do would be to buy a dilapidated piano for a budding student, who might presume the clunking responses to be a sign of talent-less activity. Yet it is sometimes as if these old pianos have souls. It tugs at the heartstrings to see an instrument that has weathered over a century of faithful service get carted to the tip, or “piano heaven” as insiders say. Often there are rich memories, such as when grandma played and the family gathered around in song. <h2>Members of the family</h2> The inner connections people make with musical instruments are widely known. Indeed, pianos can seem like members of a family to some. How do we account for this unusual anthropomorphism? I was recently touched by a story of an elderly lady, an exceptionally fine pianist and teacher in her day. She had purchased a large grand piano of Viennese design, a concert instrument of the highest order, but was now at the point of moving to residential care. Of all the considerations that beset her family at this difficult time, finding a “home” for the instrument was of the highest concern. It was more than just a piano: it was a living part of her life. In another instance, I was asked to help rehouse an upright piano. Shiny, relatively new and still receptive to many hours of rigorous playing, the piano’s owner was happy to give it away. But not to just anyone – it needed to be the right person. “I will always be grateful for the beautiful black piano that became a vehicle not only for my lifetime wish to learn to play, but also to make music with my son”, she wrote. “My longing to make music with him was fulfilled before he finished school and left home.” It’s easy to see why pianos are often more than a piece of furniture. They can embody the dreams and memories that propel us through life, sanctifying the moments in which we are united through beauty and art. In a world which seems increasingly weighted toward the quantifiable, the measured, and the physically real, music still can catch us in its sway. Through the process of reordering our collection, one instrument has remained. In all respects, it is neither unique nor outwardly special. Yet it carried a plaque, in loving memory of someone’s mother. Perhaps it’s because her song still resonates within, I’ve made no plan to remove it. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-a-piece-of-furniture-it-is-sometimes-as-if-these-old-pianos-have-souls-185777" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Music

Playing music as a child leads to sharper mind as we get older

A new study claims to have found an unusual link between having a musical childhood and sharper thinking as we get older. According to a research paper from the University of Edinburgh, people with more experience of playing a musical instrument as a child showed greater lifetime improvement on a test of cognitive ability than those with less or no experience. Researchers found that this was the case even when accounting for their socio-economic status, years of education, childhood cognitive ability, and their health in senior years. Despite the results of the study, professor emeritus Ian Deary, formerly director of the Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology at the university, said, “We have to emphasise that the association we found between instrument-playing and lifetime cognitive improvement was small, and that we cannot prove that the former caused the latter.” “However, as we and others search for the many small effects that might contribute toward some people’s brains ageing more healthily than others, these results are worth following up.” Out of the study’s 366 participants, 117 reported a level of experience with playing an instrument between childhood and adolescence. The most commonly played instrument was the piano, with other participants having experience with the accordion, guitar, violin and even bagpipes. The participants were tested on a series of mental and physical functions, as well as retaking the standardised cognitive ability test each took as an 11-year-old as part of the Scottish Mental Survey of 1947. The university said the findings provided fresh evidence that playing an instrument is associated with small but detectable cognitive benefits over a lifetime. Judith Okely, now a lecturer in psychology at Napier University, said, “These results add to the evidence that activities that are mentally challenging, such as learning to play a musical instrument, might be associated with better thinking skills.” Image credits: Getty Images

Music

Cry-olin: musical instruments convey human emotion by mimicking speech

<div> <div class="copy"> Singers can convey a lot of emotion in the tone of their voices: a trembling sound might denote sadness, and a voice can also “smile”. But new research shows that non-vocal instruments can also use these tricks to convey emotion. Described in a paper <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2020.0396" target="_blank">published</a> in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, a team of French researchers have identified three different vocal manipulations that convey similar emotions in instrumental music. The researchers, who are based at Sorbonne Université, France, used computer models to simulate three different vocal inflections that are associated with emotions. These manipulations were: <ol type="1"> <li>Smiling, which “modifies the shape and length of the vocal tract, shifting its resonating frequencies” according to the researchers’ paper</li> <li>Vocal tremor, which is associated with anxiety and negative emotions, and</li> <li>Vocal roughness, which is associated with screams</li> </ol> The researchers then digitally applied these inflections to music tracks that contained either solo singing, singing with a musical accompaniment, or violin with a musical accompaniment. They played these tracks to 60 people (29 of whom were musicians and 31 of whom had no formal musical practice), and asked them to rate the emotional intensity of each sound. Both the musician and non-musician participants identified the emotions the researchers were hoping to convey, in both the vocal and non-vocal tracks. “Even violins can cry, or at least sound more positive and aroused when smiling, more negative and less aroused when trembling, and more negative when screaming,” write the researchers in their paper. They add that this study adds further evidence to the idea that music can trigger emotional reactions by copying expressive voice inflections. However, the researchers also stress that this isn’t necessarily the only way that people read the feelings of music, saying there are likely other cognitive and cultural factors at play. “It is now important to understand how these mechanisms interact with each other to shape our emotional musical experiences,” write the authors. Image credits: Shutterstock  <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=171340&title=Cry-olin%3A+musical+instruments+convey+human+emotion+by+mimicking+speech" alt="" width="1" height="1" />  </div> <div id="contributors"> This article was originally published on <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/social-sciences/musical-instruments-can-mimic-speech/" target="_blank">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Ellen Phiddian. </div> </div>

Music

You have to hear this orchestra using vegetables as instruments

Carrot, capsicum, zucchini, pumpkin… No, we’re not listing stir-fry ingredients, but rather instruments! Yes, there’s an actual orchestra whose members sell out shows performing music with humble veg. Das erste Wiener Gemüseorchester, or The First Vienna Vegetable Orchestra to us non-German speakers, is an Austrian group of musicians, artists, writers and sound poets founded in 1998. They use everything from artichoke to zucchini to create some of the most unique instruments you’ll ever hear – and you might be surprised to find out just how good they sound. “A pumpkin works very well on its own as a bass drum, and you can make all sorts of instruments – like flutes, recorders and xylophones – from carrots,” orchestra member Jörg Piringer told <a href="https://www.citylab.com/life/2016/09/vegetable-orchestra/502256/" target="_blank">CityLab</a>. “Rub two leeks together like they were a violin and a bow, and you get a sort of squeak that can be really very loud. Onion skins rubbed together also make a nice maraca-like rustle.” See how they find the right veggies and have a listen to the final product below! <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hpfYt7vRHuY" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> Image credit: The Vegetable Orchestra/Facebook.

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Showy, impractical to play, and looks like the 1980s: why we keep falling for the keytar

New discovery: really good violins make hidden, subtle sounds

More than a piece of furniture: it is sometimes as if these old pianos have souls

Playing music as a child leads to sharper mind as we get older

Cry-olin: musical instruments convey human emotion by mimicking speech

You have to hear this orchestra using vegetables as instruments