Headspace can be described as a virtual instrument as the sounds are created through a computer using synthesised sounds.
If anyone says it can’t be a real instrument, then you must have to look at the similarity between this and a synthesiser. They are very similar in the way they produce sound, the key difference is how the instrument is controlled.
As an accomplished pianist, Clarence will have played a synthesiser many times. Since the accident, he had electronic controls installed in his house that he operates with a blow tube, so a instrument that is like a synthesiser, but controlled by head movements and breath is ideal for him.
“It makes me feel like a musician again.”
The instrument’s inventor Rolf Gehlhaar, who describes himself as a ‘German-born English-resident American’ warns against complacency.
”It is a real musical instrument and like any instrument you need to put effort into practising it”, he says.
Clarence and Headspace
German-born American composer-cum-inventor Rolf Gehlhaar was asked to devise an instrument that Clarence could play. The result was the Headspace Instrument, a computer-based “virtual” instrument, but a real instrument nonetheless. It could be classed as a wind instrument as it is controlled by Clarence’s breath, but is assisted by head movements. ……..
HeadSpace Ensemble
Martin Parker
sound design
Patrick Kenny
trombone, carnyx, conch shells
