GRADUS

GRADUS is a device I have designed and built to augment the classical guitar, turning it into a wireless, kinesthetic midi controller. The process of developing GRADUS has been one with much trial and error, going through many prototypes as I explored how I could find more cohesion between my different musical endeavors, bridging different aspects of my musicianship as a concert guitarist, composer, music technologist, and improvisor. I finally settled on GRADUS being something that allowed me to use exaggerated, hyperbolic guitar histrionics (I took the wonderful Kazuhito Yamashita as inspiration) while making these gestures something functional to the music making process itself —it has really changed me as a musician. The software that accompanies GRADUS is capable of a vast array of music activities, sometimes cuing and conducting an electronic chorus deriving its musical content from contrapuntal algorithms and, sometimes, manipulating sounds from my guitar or voice, glitching them and sending them around a multi-channel soundspace; and processing them with various effects.