USF iPad Quintet lets their tablets do the rocking

By CHRISTOPHER SPATA | TBO.com
Published: January 30, 2013 Updated: January 30, 2013 - 10:09 AM

Roadies, it could be time to start looking for a new line of work.

A high-tech band of local musicians is proving that the days of lugging around heavy guitars and drum kits from gig to gig may soon be as outdated as sending out demos on cassette tapes.

Touch, the University of South Florida's iPad Quintet, takes the stage Friday at the School of Music Concert Hall for a performance played entirely on their Apple tablets.

The band, made up of music professors David Williams and Clint Randles, and graduate students Chris Morris, Victor Ezquerra and Nick Stefanic, will switch between dozens of musical apps as their fingers coax a mix of rock and hip hop covers, classical pieces and original tunes from their touch screens.

Williams, the School of Music's associate director, said the band's use of iPads is part of the natural evolution that's always happening in music. Instruments come and go as technology and listener's ears change.

"There was a time when the lute was the most popular instrument in all of Europe. People probably thought that lutes would never go away," Williams said. "In the '60s every pop song had a guitar. Check the iTunes top songs on any given day now. I'd be surprised if half of them had a guitar, and I dare you to find a clarinet or a violin."

"Instruments don't completely die, but they certainly disappear from popular music as others take their place."

And according to Williams, that's exactly what iPads are, just another instrument that takes time, skill and hours of practice to play well.

"The main thing to remember is that it's humans who create music," he said. "A trumpet isn't going to make music until a human being goes and picks it up, and neither is an iPad."

In many ways, Touch's show will look a lot like a traditional rock concert. There will be lights and fog machines and video screens, along with people standing up on their seats and singing along to songs by Coldplay and Blake Shelton, Williams said.

But technology is allowing the band to interact with the crowd in new ways. The audience is encouraged to bring their own tablets or phones loaded with drum apps to play along with the African-inspired finale. The audience's live tweets will guide the action on stage during an improvisational "Wizard of Oz" piece featuring actors from the USF theater department.

"These devices are portable, so it makes sense for the audience to have them too," Williams said. "In the theater world they talk about the fourth wall, the invisible barrier between the audience and the stage. In the classic music world that wall is always there too. One of our main goals with this show is to break it down."

The concert also features USF dance students, poets from the school's English program and a live painting by an artist whose brush strokes will direct the quintet's music.

As far as the future of iPad musicians, Williams said he's excited about the new ways technology will let humans be musical. When asked if he thought that teenagers with dreams of rock stardom would soon begin to pick up tablets in lieu of guitars, his answer was confident.

"We don't need a crystal ball," he said. "I think we're already there."

Source: http://www2.tbo.com/entertainment/music/2013/jan/30/usf-ipad-quintet-lets-their-tablets-do-the-rocking-ar-620297/

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