Kids Play Beamz Onstage at Valley View School Assembly

The Beamz had the recent pleasure of meeting with Eddie Gaona, energetic band director of Valley View Elementary School, and the school’s principal, John Wann. Both are keenly on the lookout for innovative, accessible, progressive and inclusive ways to integrate music and music technology accross the curriculum.

After the “intro demo,” the district purchased 13 sets of Beamz for Valley View, to install in their special needs, general music and band classes. The teaching staff of 25-30 gathered for an in-depth orientation and training session with Becky and Jerry (during which, several teachers inquired about acquiring sets for their home use, as well!).

In late February, over 100 Valley View students (kindergarten, first grade, and special-needs kids) and teachers assembled in the school auditorium for an electifying performance demonstration, where Jerry, Eddie and other teachers, and the kids themselves had a great time making terrific music with the Beamz!

The Outreach program provides in-service intro demos, training demos, interactive performances and ongoing support to all local educational, health care, and arts-based organizations in the community. Contact Becky Byrkit at 480-510-3257.

Valley View Band Leader Eddie Gaona and Jerry Riopelle. Valley View is the proud owner of 13 sets of Beamz for its students!

Find out more about the Valley View School and Roosevelt School District: www.rsd.k12.az.us/!

Barbara Reuer of Resounding Joy receives donated Beamz from Outreach Team at AMTA

The Beamz’ focus on meeting the needs of educators and community-based arts and health-care programs extends to national conferences on Music Therapy and Music Education. Recently, assistant Becky Byrkit, inventor Jerry Riopelle, and Management Vice President Al Ingallinera brought the Beamz to the American Music Therapy Association’s conference in San Diego, CA, where they joined hundreds of music therapists, graduate students, and MT innovators.

Beamz were demonstrated and dozens of individuals and organizations became familiar with the system. A set was donated to Resounding Joy of Solana Beach, California. According to Director Barbara Reuer, Resounding Joy provides “supportive and recreational music programming” for community organizations in her area. The hands-on program has been carefully designed to provide “supportive music” to indiviudals contending with chronic pain, anxiety, motor function and cognition; they provide intergenerational involvement and ongoing at-home therapy.

Find out more about Resounding Joy at www.resoundingjoyinc.org.

We hope to see you at future conferences! 

Getting the word out at AMTA!

“The Beamz Interactive Music System was most interesting product that I saw at the Toy Fair, and the funny thing is that I wouldn’t consider it a toy at all. It’s an electronic musical instrument that uses laser beams. You know if it uses lasers, that it has to be cool!”

Julie Strietelmeier, Editor – The Gadgeteer – February 21, 2010
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Best of Toy Fair 2010 – Our Top Picks

“No, it’s not a theremin–it’s better. The Beamz Interactive Music System plays like a virtual harp. Three LED beams span across each of its forks, each emulating a different musical instrument that you select using the accompanying PC software. Start off by playing along with pre-programmed tunes, and then you can move on to create, mix and record your own tracks.”

Corrine Lozzio – Popular Science – February 16, 2010
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Beamz Lets Everyone Play Musician

“OK, forget Rock Band: The Beamz is here. This remarkable device takes interactive music-making to a whole new level. You make music on the Beamz by passing your hands through six laser beams, each of which sets off “a stream of musical notes and sounds.” These can be preloaded sounds or ones you assign yourself. And you can download and use ever-increasing “Beamz Songs” from the company’s site. Someone who’s not adept at playing a musical instrument (like me, for example) can jump right in–it’s incredibly fun and engaging.”

Gearlog – February 15, 2010 – Toy Fair 2010 Review

Visit the Radio & TV page within the Buzz About Beamz section of the Beamz web site to listen to a recording of the broadcast.

TRANSCRIPT:

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

Musicians and music fans gathered by the tens of thousands this past weekend in Anaheim, California. They were attending the Annual NAMM Show, that’s the National Association of Music Merchants. The show is the music industry’s biggest exhibition of new products.

Contributor Steve Proffitt has more.

STEVE PROFFITT: Acres and acres of booths, lots of long hair and soul patches. It seems like anyone whoever thought about being a musician was here. With over 1,500 exhibitors, there was something for virtually every musical taste and budget – at the lower end, apps for the iPhone.

(Soundbite of music)

PROFFITT: This is GrooveMaker, a little app that provides audio loops and beats to let you make your own grooves.

Ms. STAR ACCROMON(ph): GrooveMaker have been on the market for only four and half months now. But it has had over half a million downloads, making it one of the most popular applications on the market.

PROFFITT: GrooveMaker Star Accromon says there’s a version you can download for free.

(Soundbite of music)

PROFFITT: At the other end of the scale, the Eigenharp Alpha. It’s a $6,000 digital wonder made in Britain.

(Soundbite of music)

PROFFITT: Four inches wide, maybe three feet long, the Eigenharp has 128 programmable, touch-sensitive keys.

(Soundbite of music)

PROFFITT: Of course, it can do techno pop, but it also has a breath controller: a pipe the player blows in. This can help create some highly nuanced musical sounds.

(Soundbite of music)

PROFFITT: Eigenharpist David Kemp says having this instrument means he can perform live. Before it, he’d have to layer together sounds one by one using racks of equipment and computers.

Mr. DAVID KEMP (Musician): You’d have a bank of faders and you would be sitting behind a laptop, but now you can improvise a bit and it’s – kind of makes it a little bit more fun and spontaneous.

PROFFITT: The Eigenharp could easily take a lifetime to master. Fortunately, there are simpler and cheaper alternatives like the Beams.

(Soundbite of music)

PROFFITT: This thing looks like a big W. You put it on a table, you move your hands around in each U and laser beams trigger different sounds. At 200 bucks, the price was right for show attendee Joe Parker(ph) of La Jolla, California. He picked one up to take home.

Mr. JOE PARKER: I think it’s a great educational tool. And I’m looking forward to trying it out, having my daughter try it out. She is three and a half. I think this is a lot of fun.

PROFFITT: So, wait a minute. Did you buy it for yourself or for your three and a half year old?

Mr. PARKER: Yeah, the official story is it’s for my daughter, but everyone knows it’s for me.

PROFFITT: While it’s digital technology that seems to drive both sales and imagination, at least one item demonstrates there is still room for innovation in a product that has no LEDs or microchips.

(Soundbite of song, “Those Were the Days”)

Mr. MIKE STUART(ph): This is like a show that’s mostly about technology, but here you have an instrument which is completely analog. It’s the size of a child’s recorder. It’s a remarkable instrument. It has a reed upon it. And so, when you play upon it, you sound like you’re playing upon a reed, which is a rather remarkable sound indeed.

PROFFITT: That’s Mike Stuart playing the pocket-sized Pocket Sax: Fifty-nine bucks, batteries not included, batteries not required.

(Soundbite of music)

(Soundbite of laughter)

Unidentified Man: Pretty good, pretty good.

PROFFITT: For NPR News, I’m Steve Proffitt.

SIEGEL: This is NPR.

Written by Rich McComas

Beamz Makes Anyone Musical

Absolutely everyone dreams of making music — it is in our soul, but only a small number of us are truly gifted. That is where Beamz comes in, because this little device can make absolutely anyone musical, because the melodies are already preprogrammed and all you have to do is “conduct” the musicians.
When I was a child, I was in the marching band, the orchestra, and the guitar club. Quickly, however, I learned that while I could technically learn to play any instrument, I was simply NOT gifted. My teachers and band leaders didn’t need to tell me — it was obvious. I would play a piece flawlessly, and then another student with much less experience but who had “the gift” would play the same piece and it would speak to my soul.

Over my life, I revisited the piano maybe a half-dozen times, hoping that the music was somehow deep inside of me waiting to get out, and while I could use a keyboard to play any musical piece or even any instrument, there simply was no music there.

Then along comes Beamz, a musical instrument that makes me a musical conductor. Programmed into each of the six beamz of light is a different melody for each stanza for a different musical instrument. If I block the beam during the entire stanza the melody plays through quickly. But, if my fingers dance through the beamz, I control the pace and rhythm of the melody, orchestrating beautiful music in a way that speaks to me. I can flutter my fingers and create a syncopated rhythm, or just dance with the background rhythm and allow my hands to roam freely through the beamz. What I end up creating is an original piece of music that uses the same melodies as the original, but which emenates from my soul.

Next step — bring the Beamz to a party. First a MUCH more talented musician takes a stab, and he tweaks the program a bit, and then begins to use Beamz to create entirely new piece of music. Then, a self-described “musical misfit” starts to play, and after about one minute of discovery, the rhythm inside takes over and “music” comes out of the Beamz machine. Finally, a child, someone who knows know boundaries, decides to prove that it is indeed possible to create musical discord, and so he randomly and non-rhythmically runs his hands up and down both sets of beams as quickly as possible — it is obnoxious, and brings a smile to his face, but makes the rest of us who had a successful experience feel like we actually did create music.

Beamz is an amazingly simple device, just six laser beams, three for each hand, and when you break the beam, it creates a musical note. The next time you break the beam, a melodically correct note is played next. What you add is rhythm and pace. You can break the beam methodically with one finger four times a second, or you can dance through the beams like they are piano keys with all of your fingers.
About 20 or so pre-programmed songs come with beamz, each with a background rhythm section, and 12 instruments with pre-programmed melodies that change with each stanza. Additional songs can be purchased from the website for a few dollars as the company creates them.

The cost for Beamz is a bit high considering that it is just six door chime beams connected to a USB port, but the value of being able to create music is immeasurable.