Concert Hands -- The Machine That Teaches You to Play the Piano


(YouTube Link)


Concert Hands is a gadget designed to replace traditional piano instruction by controlling the user's hand and finger movements:

The software takes the song file and converts it to a proprietary file system where the controller box distributes the signal to the wrist pilots and finger sleeves. The finger sleeves are placed on all fingers of both hands and the user’s wrists lay gently on the wrist pilots. When the music begins the wrists pilots guide your hands across the piano to a specific location and the finger sleeves receive a pulse to indicate which key to press. The idea is after a period of time the repetitive motions and signals will develop muscle memory within the end user and enable him or her to play their favorite songs on their own.


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It's not typing. It's about the music, not just the movements. This just seems like another example of sucking the artistry out of something in order to make it accessible to the masses. If it was easy to master an instrument everyone would do it.
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@ Andrew Allen (4th from top) - Schumann was trying to strengthen his ring fingers, which are weaker than the others in the sense that one of the tendons is underdeveloped (Curl your fingers into a fist, then try to "flip the bird" using your ring finger, and you'll see the problem). He built some little exercise gadget for this purpose, but it did indeed make things worse, ending his professional performance career.

Piano teachers everywhere, I wouldn't worry too much about this cyber-toy. Anyone remember those cheesy magazine ads from the 1950s and early 60s showing Mr. Businessman at home, grimly playing popular lite piano classics to entertain Mrs. Hausfrau? Supposedly by buying these instruction manuals, YOU TOO could play all these tunes YOU LIKE with VERY LITTLE PRACTICE, just by following these simple directions! Ultimately it boiled down to playing a small repertoire of simplified pieces --- and even though the practice time was small enough to shoehorn around one's 9-to-5 work day, it was still enough of an investment that it was abandoned by those who decided that it was easier to just put a record on the hi-fi.

Professional musicianship will remain the heritage of those who truly desire it and put in the long hours of work. Concert Hands may or may not prove a bit useful in getting a kid started as far as the repetitious finger exercises go; but it will not turn them into the next van Cliburn. THAT is up to the student, and depends on what they do after they take Concert Hands off.
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Sooooo..... your hands are strapped into mind-controlling restraints, forcing you to play music? Sounds like something an evil king would use for punishment.
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