Exciting New Music Tech Explored!

Students from Year 11 to Upper Sixth had the amazing opportunity to explore the future of music technology in a workshop with ROLI, a music technology company specialising in innovative musical instruments and software. Their products have been used in films, such as Oscar-winning La La Land, and by artist Stevie Wonder. So, it was great for our students to engage with the music industry this way, whilst accessing the latest technology.

Year groups were introduced to the basics of the instruments before being set free to discover the software and see what they could create. The light up keyboard that uses a camera to recognise gestures when playing was a particular highlight for our students. Especially as it could adapt and help you learn by tracking real time hand movement both on and off the keys!

Daniel Fisher Wienesen, Head of Music Technology & Sound, reflected on the whole day: “I think it’s a big stigmatism within music tech, that when people create music with computers it’s very robotic. But now that you can use your hand, which has over 20 sensory points, to compose as you’re playing is revolutionary. The students are finding it a lot of fun, and they all recognise they can add quite a personal expression to their music with this. It’s very rare to access this tech so it’s super fun for our students to explore it, and I can even see their smiling faces as we’re talking. So it’s definitely having an impact!”

And having fun they were, as Taylor (Lower Sixth) enthused: “The blend of technology and the traditional keyboard is very interesting! With this technology we can expand our view of music knowledge, and it’s a lot easier to compose and find inspiration by making music more accessible.”

Holly (Upper Sixth) felt the same: “I think for someone who wants to learn the piano, the app would be pretty cool! For people who learn best with colours and pictures, that’s a really good way to help as well.”

Elise (Upper Sixth) thought: “It’s really interesting to see how technology is developing in the music industry and especially looking back on music tech’s development. It’s not only interesting to think, but to see as well where the industry is going.”