K-Bow at Maker Faire

Kids love K-Bow!

Two weekends ago Keith McMillen Instruments set up at Maker Faire in the electronic music section, with many of our friends from CCRMA, CNMAT, Sound Arts, and other individuals and organizations in the Computer Music Zone, set up by Noah Thorp of BArCMuT. People were delighted with our K-Bow, a Bluetooth sensor bow for string instruments with an integrated sound processing package, and our booth was packed all day.

In particular kids love playing with the new sonic possibilities that our K-Bow system makes possible. We are really looking forward to the educational possibilities of this bow, both for pedagogy and for interesting students in string instruments that normally wouldn’t be excited by the traditional repertoire.  The amazing thing about young people playing with the bow is that they get the concept almost immediately. The idea of a gestural sensor bow controlling sound via a computer seem almost natural to them, and their main obstacle is in technique on the instrument, not the conceptual barrier of how the sound is being made. Here’s to a new generation using traditional instruments for electronic music!