Musicians...Guitarists....check this out..

[Rman Virgil]

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Know you guys are around & may find this of interest. Discovered it myself just a few weeks ago.

It's a new instrument called the Kitara. Revolutionary in some key ways - and also that fingering touch-screen looks bad a@@ wicked in performance.

Here's the company web page:

http://www.misadigital.com/index.php?ta ... ra&lang=en

And here's the YouTube page with a bunch of vids:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2eiP12h ... r_embedded

I don't see myself giving up my beloved Parker Nite Fly Electric & Rack (or my Yamaha keys) but I am sufficiently excited by the possibilities of the Kitara that I put in a pre-order and am really looking forward to learning to play it... exploring a whole new universe of sounds - especially live..

- Rman.
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[Jorzi]

Slightly unrelated, but kitara is finnish for guitar

An awesome instrument though

[Rman Virgil]

Slightly unrelated, but kitara is finnish for guitar

An awesome instrument though

Didn't know that connection. Interesting. Those connections are meaningful for me. Thanks.

There are some others...

Like the stories of the "Empire of Kitara" out of the Great Lakes region of Africa. Even older - the Ancient Greek mythos surrounding the son of Zeus, Apollo, recognized as a god of light and the sun;
truth and prophecy; medicine, healing, and plague; music, poetry, and
the arts; whose intrument of choice was - the Kitara !! Then, more contemporaneous, the Japanese anime series,"Avatar".

The Apallo connection being the richest in meaning for me.

Awesome, & in particular, because I've been interested in the singular work of a handful of experimental guitarists like the Norwegian Terje Rypdal, They've been getting strangely haunting sounds through pre & post processing that kinda sacrificed improvisational performance... at least for my sensibilities. My hope with the Kitara is that I'll be able to explore that unusual universe of sounds with a lot more spontaneous, improvisational, variety not having to spend all that time in pre & post processing rack set-ups... In any case, that's my PoV at this juncture - we'll see how that notion plays-out in reality.

- Cheers, Rman.

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[Rman Virgil]

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The Kitara just made its official public debut yesterday at the International CES (the world's largest consumer technology trade show) in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was quite a draw from all accounts. Here's some video coverage from the show:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/video/ ... st=2521702

And here's a new article that provides insightful details of just what the Kitara is exactly, how it works and how it really is an adjunct to an electric or acoustic guitar and not a replacement.... much like how a painter will value a fantail for doing some stuff and a palette knife for other type strokes.

http://news.idealo.co.uk/news/9569/misa ... -sale.html

Got my shipping confirmation too. Won't be long now, relatively speaking, to commencing this new journey of creation and mastery.

- RV
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[crunch]

that's freaking cool.
i can just see that coming out for the next guitar hero video game.
yay
im probably the only person out there that's not really in to that game .
id rather play {my} real guitar or bass.

[Rman Virgil]

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I'm sure I won't be giving up any of my other string or keyboard instruments because they are as much a part of me as my limbs and they all have their own unique voices.

Multi-instrumenalists generally add rather than substract ... though they may give one instrument more focus & attention like Julia Fischer did when she decided the violin over the piano. And yet a couple years ago Julia gave a most extraordinary concert. In the 1st part she played the Saint Saens Violin Concerto #3 - demonstrating why she is considered one of the finest violinists of her generation (& a babe to boot). After intermisssion she came back and played a most difficult Grieg Piano Concerto - world class performance as well.

I can see where there may be a much stripped down version for Guitar Hero . Something especially with the striking visual components and requiring little or no musical skills; a toy basically, not a musical instrument to master. Or something of a digital version of the old player pianos that played themselves from inscribed scrolls or cylinders & you did air guitar gesturing for party laughs.

- RV
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[Rman Virgil]

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When I wrote the following I was imagining just how I would use the Kitara.

Awesome, & in particular, because I've been interested in the singular work of a handful of experimental guitarists like the Norwegian Terje Rypdal, They've been getting strangely haunting sounds through pre & post processing that kinda sacrificed improvisational performance... at least for my sensibilities. My hope with the Kitara is that I'll be able to explore that unusual universe of sounds with a lot more spontaneous, improvisational, variety not having to spend all that time in pre & post processing rack set-ups... In any case, that's my PoV at this juncture - we'll see how that notion plays-out in reality.

Well I just found this vid interview from the CES 2011 Show with Michael Zarimis the inventor/designer of the Kitara (he's a guitarist as well) that confirms what I imagined (for my own use) are in fact specifically his actual goals when he set out to create this instrument.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/bl ... tal-guitar

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