When we redesign instruments, everyone becomes a musician | Richard Cooke | TEDxMileHigh

As a child, Richard was baffled to discover that playing music is much harder than it looks; there are wrong notes, complicated hand and arm movements, and the seemingly insurmountable obstacle of reading music. Years later and with a Grammy under his belt, Richard wondered if there was way to make playing music accessible to all. It just might come down to a radical redesign.

Richard is a Grammy award-winning musician who has created a family of instruments that give everyone a way to play beautiful music simply. These instruments have become permanent fixtures in parks all over the world. Richard spent several years sailing the ocean and doing coral reef research with the Biosphere Foundation. A former member of the city council of Moab, Utah, he now makes his home in Durango.

[carolynviola]

Thank YOU Richard for your inspiration through your own struggle to bring playing music accessible to ALL! I soared as a vocal major in college because I so loved to sing, yet not having been an instrumentalist  I struggled with my piano proficiency exam in order to graduate. Over my 30 years of teaching and performing, finding world instruments that use pentatonic scales and drones, where there are no wrong notes, was really helpful in allowing me to musically express and accompany myself and to model and facilitate others to do so as well. The exceptional tone quality of your instruments available in such variety of scales helped me to go even further. To those that too quickly judged you here without really hearing you play from your heart: I remind them that encouraging one of any age to take time daily to express themselves artistically, that is to put what they authentically feel into their music, adds not only to their well being as individuals but especially aides in their enjoyment and understanding of those virtuosos and gifted artists that have mastered their scales in their head, and hands, and also in their hearts. No mater what skill level the listener becomes the player and the player the listener, they are in connection and that resonates globally! Quite a masterful accomplishment! BRAVO RICHARD!

[lynnmiller]

I love what Richard is saying. His instruments make music accessible. I love the concept of music is for everyone. Reading music is not the only way to make music.

[hannamusicpicture]

"I like to compare it with how we learn language as infants. We start just by making sounds, and then gradually we imitate the speech patterns around us. We are not handed a dictionary first." -Richard Cooke

[reinaldomartinez]

as a musician myself this guy has a point, diving into music is difficult

[ashleyweiss]

Richard is the best!! We love him, great teacher and speaker. His passion for music is contagious

[paigeboyd]

I know Richard personally, and I have been to his property where it's filled with these instruments and gongs and other weird instruments. His parties are fun because people get to play these instruments in his yurt without having to learn an instrument to enjoy the party. He's a down to earth guy and I am glad that I was able to experience his world of musical creation.

[skywriter]

You have helped me solve my problem's w/ my grandson! ...Thank you!

[ModisChrisha]

As a music composer I found his invention interesting, yet his ideas are not new, but he has a good point. On the other hand I did not see or hear the problem solved of how to get the music inside of me out. I think he confuses composing with playing an instrument, with simple creating sounds, with expressing inner feelings/emotions, with playing a certain sequence of tones

[lavaking]

I absolutely love this video. It's just incredible.

[alexandrosgoulas]

I have been studying music for more than half of my life: violin, piano, music history, harmony, solfege.. but even if I got to know pretty well the "elite" music, and I got to a point when you clearly see how hard is to produce high quality works of this art, I really enjoyed what he said at the beginning, talking about his past experience and explaining the purpose of his project.
I like to think that, since we all are different to each other, everybody can produce kind of a personal and unique music, and if non-musicians feel like they would enjoy creating music and art there's nothing wrong in trying to allow them to do that.
But I got really disappointed when he started to explain what he had done with those instruments: putting just together keys that "sound good with each other", caring more about the desing of the instrument than of any kind of rational organisation, he created a soulless instrument, on which you just have to hit the keys randomly, producing something that doesn't come neither from you mind nor from your heart. Okay, that does never sound wrong, buy that does never sound yours, neither. I don't think that a "notes salad" allows you to express yourself in a fulfilling way :)
I apologise for my inaccurate English, I had to express very intricate concepts!

[ColleenLoehr]

Wow - what an inspiring talk! Thank you Richard.

[Citiesinmotionplayer]

As a professional percussionist this video had me mentally reeling.

[paigeboyd]

To address the comments about the xylophones being locked in C Major, Richard actually has some instruments that are chromatic.

[Holobrine]

He basically reinvented the child's glockenspiel.

[Natethesandman]

This is why I bought Rocksmith. It makes learning guitar really fun!

[donaldhobson]

"challenging subjects like science and math" they can be playful but are made unnecessarily tedious in much the same way music is.

[Colombiamusicalacade]

dont speak inglés, pero lo que entendí es que son instrumentos, que se pueden poner en lugares públicos para que las personas interactúen a través de la música y que son fáciles de tocar , me gustaría saber cómo está configurada el orden de afinacion

[nikolatesla]

Wow, you reinvented the xylophone. Good for you...

[maisylover]

"This sounds so good!" *hits tritone on yellow keyboard* only musicians will understand this meme

[treffermedia]

Are there parks in europe already? Amazing! just amazing