wax&wires

Creepy “Concert Hands” Teaches You To Play Piano… via Electrocution

I thought it was bad when I had to balance pennies on my hands to develop good finger technique!

The Concert Hands system teaches users how to play piano using a 10-finger feedback system that hooks onto your hands, sending a small pulse to the fingers that should play, and current to your wrists to guide your entire hand up and down the keyboard.

It supposedly can read any MIDI file, and operates under the idea that repetition will develop your muscle memory. The problem in that, as my old band instructor used to say, “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes permanent!” There’s no way to have proper technique with that bulky thing on your hand, so you’ll be creating muscle memory for poor form.

It’s kind of like a cross between Puppet Master, Electric Chair, and Stage Mom. None of which are any good… for children.

Some of the best comments I’ve seen on it so far:
“Less certain is if there’s an evil teacher mode that turns up the voltage when you misbehave.” – Danny Allen @ Gizmodo

“You can do this at home without worrying about electric shocks or any additional costs.
Every time your daughter misses a note, punch her in the face.” – OMG! Ponnies!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 4:51 pm. It is filed under wires and tagged with gadgets, piano, terrible. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.