A pianist demonstrates the Skywalker project

Changing Music with Technology

Changing Music with Technology

The Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology aims to transform the ways we create and experience music, and to create the next generation of technology for composition, performance, consumption, and education.

About the Center
A collage of different guthman finalists in a gallery setting, ranging from shots of an instrument to users actually playing them.

Introducing the 2021 Guthman Competition Finalists

This year's virtual competition features 29 finalists from 15 different countries. We've compiled videos from all the finalists into a gallery that shows off an impressive breadth of instruments. As you browse through the invention demonstrations, imagine the impact they could have on the future of music.

See and Hear the Instruments
A composite photo of Grace Leslie, Roger Linn, Peter Kern, and Raghavasimhan Sankaranarayanan.

The Path Forward: Creativity in New Instruments

This special Guthman Competition panel addresses musical instrument and interface design. Grace Leslie moderates a conversation with Peter Kirn, Roger Linn, and Raghavasimhan Sankaranarayanan.

Watch the Panel

Prosthetic Drumming Arm Sets Record

Jason Barnes, a one-armed drummer, sets a Guinness World Record with 2,400 beats a minute with the help of a prosthetic drumming arm invented by researchers at the Center for Music Technology. The prosthesis includes two drumsticks: The first is controlled both physically by the musician's arm and electronically using electromyography (EMG) muscle sensors; the second “listens” to the music being played and improvises.

Watch the Guinness World Record Video
A woman plays a modified trombone to a crowd of smiling students.

Join the 2021 Moog Hackathon

Hosted by Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology and the Georgia Tech School of Music, The 7th Moog Hackathon will be conducted remotely from February 12-21, 2021. High school and college students are invited to compete individually or in groups while observing social distancing guidelines. 
 
Moog Hackathon participants will design and build novel musical instruments using Moog platforms and other software and hardware prototyping tools. Entrants will compete for $6,000 in prizes.  

 

Visit the Hackathon Page on the Guthman Website
A woman performs on the drums as Shimon improvises with her.

Inventions Featured on 'The Age of AI'

Gil Weinberg, founding director of the Center for Music Technology, and the Robotic Musicianship group were featured on the YouTube original series "The Age of AI." Hosted by Robert Downey Jr., the first episode highlighted three of the group's inventions: Shimon, an improvising robotic marimba player; Skywalker, a prosthetic hand that allows amputees to play the piano; and the prosthetic drumming arm.

Watch the Episode on YouTube

Making Music with Brain Waves and Heartbeats

Georgia Tech School of Music professor Grace Leslie was recently featured on Science Friday, a program that spotlights entertaining and educational stories about science and technology. In the video, she discusses how she uses her brain and body to compose music, and how she develops new technologies in her research.

 

Our Research

Our research focuses on creating innovative musical technologies that transform the ways in which we create, experience, and learn music.

Robotic musicians perform with humans.

Robotic Musicianship

Facilitating meaningful musical interactions between humans and machines.
Colleagues converse at a dry erase board.

Music Informatics

Designing the next generation of intelligent music software.
Two people conversing at a computer.

Computational Music for All

Seeking to engage a broad and diverse public in creative and collaborative music-making.
A student uses a brain scanner in an experiment.

Brain Music

Combining brainwave data and other physiological measurement techniques with new music technologies.
An image of a musical score and graph to illustrate computational and cognitive musicology.

Computational and Cognitive Musicology

Using scientific methodology to answer questions about how people respond to musical structure and organization.

See and Hear What We Do

Watch and listen to recent work that displays the various ways in which we create and experience the next generation of technology for musical composition, performance, consumption, and education.

Robotic Musician Performance

Skywalker Hand Demonstration

Live EarSketch Demo

Questions?

 
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