In the 19th century the piano occupied a prominent place in the American home and was a means of enabling amateur music making. (N.B. The term ‘amateur’ didn’t carry the same slightly negative connotations back then.) In the 1920s, during the height of the Vaudeville era, there was a full-blown saxophone craze mostly as a result of the dazzling playing of Rudy Weidoeft. Later in the 20th century, Leo Fender changed the course of music history with the electric guitar. Are mobile phones going to be the 21st century’s ‘game changer’?
I read this NY Times article back in December about Ge Wang’s Mobile Phone Orchestra at Stanford, so I knew that people were embracing this technology and its music making potential, but it wasn’t until I saw Steve Layton’s post over at Sequenza21 that I realized how much of a trend this was becoming.
Is the mobile phone the electric guitar of the 21st century?
Have you played in a mobile phone bandsemble?
If you’re not a ‘trained musician’ does a mobile phone bandsemble enable ‘participation’?
Would you be more likely to ‘check out’ a new music ‘show’ if you played in a mobile phone bandsemble?
How smart does your smart phone have to be to audition for a mobile phone orchestra?
Who will be the most important mobile phone artist of his generation?
Do u txt while driving?
Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra
Michigan Mobile Phone Ensemble
RedNoon
Samson Young’s iPhone Orchestra
