The Brain Opera and the Origins of Guitar Hero - Tod Machover

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/07/02/Transforming_Music_Tod_Machover

Composer, inventor, and professor Tod Machover describes his Brain Opera project, which allowed people with no musical training to participate in creating an opera. Two students that worked on the project went on to create Guitar Hero.

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Tod Machover, composer, inventor, and professor of music and media at MIT, discusses the many ways in which technology is transforming music. He describes his work in making music creation more accessible to everyone, as well as upcoming projects ranging from a robotic opera to musical tools to track Alzheimer's disease. - Aspen Institute

Tod Machover is a composer and inventor, as well as professor of music and media at the MIT Media Lab, where he also directs the Hyperinstruments/Opera of the Future group.

Machover has composed five operas and helped to develop many groundbreaking musical technologies, including Hyperinstruments, a technology that augments musical expression for both virtuosi (from Yo-Yo Ma to Prince) and amateurs, and Hyperscore, software that allows anyone to create sophisticated, original music by using lines and colors.

Many of Machover's principles about "active participation" in music are exemplified in Guitar Hero, which grew out of his lab, as well as through the recently launched Music, Mind & Health initiative. Among his current projects is a new opera, Death and the Powers, complete with a musical chandelier, animatronic walls, and an army of robots.

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[murich1989]

you are also "horable" at spelling

[JustificationNation]

They need to come out with a real guitar type game, that judges you based on actually playing the actual chords and notes/pitch. I'd settle for a keyboard/piano game, which I KNOW is already completely possible...

[AndrewKulcsar]

You guys see this as laziness, but for me this is wonderfull! I could never play a real instrument because frankly I'm horable at keeping time. However these inovations allow people like me to take 15 minutes out of their lives and create something that could be wonderful.

[FinkKid]

It's actually simpler than that: laziness. The game is WAY easier than real guitar (but still hard enough to give a sense of accomplishment.

[Hopeful71]

Makes us old(er) people wonder why spending days learning the technique to play those games is more entertaining then acutally learning how to play the real instrument.

Perhaps it is that the game gives them emotional protection from criticism that learning a real instrument wouldn't ("dude, you suck at that game" versus "dude, your music sucks")

[jalgjalg]

INFANTILE!