on CNN

Glove Helps You Play Piano Like a Pro

I'm not sure I'd exactly call it playing like a pro.

The quality of CNN reporting is questionable. This is, at least, somewhat better than "Concert Hands"....

Ok, no, its not, it's just as bad.

I watched that when it first aired. Thought, I could show Wolf Blitzer how to improvise in 10 minutes a lot bettter than that.

I prefer a Matrix style instant download to boost my piano ability.

It hurt a little but I only had to dodge a few agents along the way.

Oh, and I know kung fu - on a horse.

If one watches the video in it's entirety one will realize how important inventions like this are for the current use of rehab, and perhaps future uses for teaching technique on instruments, including the piano.

I'm currently reading a book called "The Brain That Changed Itself" which talks about how innovative researchers and doctors devised many different devices and techniques used to basically teach an old (or previously dead) dog new tricks. I wouldn't be surprised if the PHD student has studied the findings of the doctors that the book talks about.

I hope gloves and other inventions like this get to the market sooner than later.

And yes, I also agree that the glove won't turn anyone into a professional pianist any time soon.

Well, the rehab implementation is vital, of course. That's actually what I feel the inventors stressed more about it. I found it amusing how this glove would obsolete piano teachers after the guy played Ode to Joy after half an hour of wearing the glove, while a piano teacher could get you to play that within five minutes.

Matrix download is good, but I'd rather be this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPh53BCJQKE

...who "just discovers" that he can play.

Thanks for the laugh Benpiano and Cebukid!!

I don't get the glove though. How would you know where to start on the keyboard? Or the intervals to play. Just knowing which finger to use seems pretty trivial. Have I missed something???????
I did notice that the news person played a keyboard with a piece of black tape on one of the keys and this looked to be his starting spot for Ode to Joy.

My guess is "play piano like a pro" is the least effective use of the glove.

Now if he'd been able to play the Rach 3 I might have been impressed:-)

haahha Ceb, I love that Black Books! Great show, great episode too!

When I saw this, it struck me as close to finger tapping. Glenn Gould would have probably loved it.

I like how he touts that you can learn to play from muscle memory in about a half hour, like that's a good thing.

Interesting about the rehabilitation thing but the piano aspect of it is a joke as far as I'm concerned. He could have learned to play Ode To Joy the same way he did in the video in about 5-10 minutes with a beginner's learning book, with the glove he learned nothing about actually playing music or reading notes etc. and it took him 45 minutes.

@Rui, read this article on Bill Bailey:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bailey#Music

Apparently, he is blessed with "perfect pitch." OH....such a gift for a pianist to have.

from the Wikipedia page: "Perfect pitch ... occurs entirely at random in about one in every 10,000 of us,...."

it has to be more than that. I have it, my sister, with my coaching, learned it. I think anyone with relative pitch (which anybody who can carry a tune has) can learn perfect pitch---though it's easier if you have "bad ears"---seriously! since different pitches would actually sound "different". I actually had to teach myself----After playing in HS band for a while, I realized I had our B-flat tuning note in my head. So I tested on piano, it was really an A. I did this for a few weeks and it settled down and I could imagine a B-flat, play it, and get a match. Went about 12 years without doing much music, and nearly lost it, but joined a community band, and it came right back---again starting with our tuning note, B-flat.

So, my opinion is perfect pitch is hearing notes repeatedly while knowing what the notes are (like the b-flat tuning note). A good crutch is a piano with some notes that sound funny---recognize them immediately---and with practice you stop depending on the crutch.

pff perfect pitch...

My hearing is very accurate, I can hear tone colors and instrumentations in the most difficult pieces... and I always had difficult/rich compositions in my head.. but my relative pitch... it is really bad. My teacher said that it may come because I hear some notes absolute (but i dont have absolute hearing). He also said that it is common for autistic children like me. When I asked him if I should just focus on learning perfect pitch he told me this:

In music relative pitch is way more useful than perfect pitch since it tells you something about the music, not about the pitch. If you want to compose relative pitch is much more needed than perfect pitch.
In short: with music you are better of knowing the logic behind it rather than the natural frequencies.

*so im now singing to learn relative pitch better and it is hard.. my voice range is verrry little xD

The Ben Bailey video is hilarious, but then there is that guy, I can't remember his name, who was struck by lightning and was suddenly able not only to play piano well but to compose. I think Frank mentioned him in a newsletter, and he's been on TV news shows.

The glove thing seems extremely limited, but I sure like the idea of using piano for rehabilitation, and the glove seems well worth trying. I have some patients with head injuries that would probably benefit a lot.

Elene