What Is The Beamz Electronic Musical Instrument?
Imagine a large letter “W” sitting on your desk. Each half of the W has three laser beams point toward the center, creating six trigger zones which can be activated by breaking the laser with your hand or another object. Breaking the beam sends a signal to an attached Windows computer running the Beamz software and the software plays a tone or series of tones depending on how long the beam remains broken. At first glance it seems like a toy but after a little practice and play one finds that it actually is an interesting way to compose unique musical compositions. A player’s performances can be saved as an audio file to be imported later into whatever audio editing software they choose. Where Does The Beamz Electronic Musical Instrument Fit In Music Education? First it is necessary to point out that the Beamz system comes in two forms. The consumer version is $199 and includes the Beamz instrument, software with several dozen musical tracks, and five free downloads of current, popular
