Magic Instruments Magic instruments are musical devices that possess supernatural qualities or have the ability to produce enchanting sounds. These instruments have been part of myths and legends across cultures for centuries, often associated with magical beings and powerful deities. One of the most famous magic instruments is the lyre of Orpheus. In Greek mythology, Orpheus was a legendary musician who possessed the power to charm the gods and even move inanimate objects with his music. His lyre, given to him by the god Apollo, was believed to possess the ability to calm wild animals and control the forces of nature. In Norse mythology, there is the Gjallarhorn, a mystical trumpet played by the god Heimdall.

MI Guitar by Magic Instruments Can Make Us All Guitar Heroes

Remember a few years back when everyone – even your young-at-heart grandmother – was playing Guitar Hero? We’re not sure how many of those play-by-numbers “guitarists” eventually graduated to strumming a real guitar, but looking back now it seems like it was prescient of what was to come: the MI Guitar by Magic Instruments.

The four dials are built-in audio controls for adjusting volume, bass/treble tonal balance, reverb and chorus effects.

Designed as a genuine musical instrument fashioned after the electric guitar – albeit simplified into an almost iconographic form – the MI Guitar is the instrumental equivalent of a plug-and-play experience, a device engineered for near immediate satisfaction instead of frustration.

San Francisco design firm Ammunition kept the classic silhouette of a guitar as a foundational form, integrating complex software with musical intelligence developed by Magic Instruments with a simplified user interface. The results are an electric instrument anyone can pick up and strum to their favorite songs in minutes, all without musical training.

The neck of the guitar continues into the bridge, creating a single connection point for strumming and changing chords.

Of course, this being the age of connected devices, there’s also a companion mobile app for both iOS and Android users, each containing a catalog of thousands of popular songs for MI Guitarists to download and use as the equivalent of sheet music. The eventual experience lives somewhere between the simplicity of a guitar-based video game and a real electric guitar (leaning more toward former than latter), a pretty cool entry-level digital music device which gives everyone the opportunity to graduate from air guitarist to music maker.

The MI Guitar is available for presale now on Indiegogo, and the first products will ship by early 2017.

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.

Magic Instruments Guitar

Meet the Magic Instruments Guitar. It's currently on Indiegogo where it's utterly smashed through its funding goal with tons of time left.

The best way to get to grips with what it is and what it does is to take a look at the videos.

Now, I know that, if you're reading my stuff, you have a dog in the fight. You've probably already spent some time (likely lots) learning to play an actual guitar.

But, how you do you feel about something like this?

Is it a terrible travesty—why should playing an instrument be easy? Is it a weird flash-in-the-pan that'll utterly fizzle out and never be heard from after a few months? Is it a fantastic idea that allows people to play some music, that they may love, without having to spend so much time learning?

I have a lot of thoughts on this, but I certainly have a bias too so you should bear that in mind.

Have a look at another video for an idea of how the instrument is played.

What's seems to be clear from this video is that, playing this isn't just a matter of pressing a button. Actually, it seems to mean pressing a sequence of buttons in order to pick relevant major, minor, seventh, etc. chords. This is all well and good when you're following along in the companion app, but—personally—I can't help feeling that the mental effort and physical action of this could easily be employed to learning the notes of a real guitar. Or keyboard. Or recorder. Or whatever.

Granted this thing gives you a massive head-start on having to learn chord shapes and, if you're picking up a guitar for the first time, chords are a big deal. Also, it's probably a bit easier on a beginner's fingers, and the smart app can guide you along as you play.

Actually, the companion app seems to be the key to this from Magic Instrument's perspective. While the guitar will work just fine without it, you'll need the app to get song lyrics and chord progressions. This will be a service you pay for—either by individual song (or block of songs), or by monthly subscription.

Like I say, I'm bringing my own biases and preconceptions to this. I'm unlikely to be buying one of these (or ever repairing one). I'm not the target market and, given the current funding situation, that target market seems to have spoken. The writer from whom I first learned about this was incredibly excited about the idea. So who am I to question it?

I certainly wouldn't want to deprive anyone of playing a musical instrument. The MI page has a quote from Matt Bellamy, "For people who don't have time to learn guitar, Magic Instruments is the ultimate shortcut…"

Am I missing something? It's easy to be dismissive of something like this if you're already over the hurdle of knowing some chords. I can't help feeling that time expended on this could be better spent with an actual musical instrument, and the potential of a much broader experience.

Tell me what you think? I need opinions on this to help me process it. Thoughtful thoughts in the comments, please.

Magic instruments

More powerful than any simple musical instrument, magical musical instruments can change the world around them. Where do we find them?

In the opera Die Zauberflöte, both the hero, Tamino, and the comic hero, Papageno, are given magical musical instruments. As befits their different role, each character’s instrument has a different power. The golden flute given to Tamino will protect him and sustain him, changing the passions of men: the sad will be joyful and the lonely will fall in love. He tests the flute while searching for Pamina, calming all the wild animals in the forest around him.

Russell Thomas as Tamino in Julie Taymor’s production of The Magic Flute’, 2010
(Photo by Sara Krulwich/The New York Times) (The Metropolitan Opera)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), K. 620 – Act I: Andante – Wie stark ist nicht dein Zauberton! (Herbert Lippert, Tamino; Budapest Failoni Chamber Orchestra; Michael Halász, cond.)

Papageno is given a set of silver bells, but is not told what they do. When he’s rescuing Pamina, Papageno finds that his silver bells cause his enemies to start dancing and singing.

Papageno and his bells enchanting Monostatos, 2019 (Photo by Tristam Kenton) (Royal Opera House)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), K. 620 – Act I Act I: Andante – Schnelle fuss, rascher Mut (Elisabeth Norberg-Schulz, Pamina; Georg Tichy, Papageno; Wilfried Gahmlich, Monostatos; Budapest Failoni Chamber Orchestra; Michael Halász, cond.)

Too plain for you? How about Schwanda and his magical bagpipes? In Jaromir Weinberger’s 1926 opera Švanda dudák (Schwanda the Bagpiper), our hero, the best bagpiper in his region, is persuaded to go off on adventures by Babinský the thief. In his travels, he unfreezes the heart of the ensorcelled Ice Queen, enchants the crowd into not killing him, and then, when sent to Hell for a lie, plays a fugue on his bagpipes, which has to be magical in and of itself! The Polka and Fugue have become a common extracts from the opera.

Schwanda the Bagpiper, 2019 (Musikteater im Revier)

Jaromir Weinberger: Švanda dudák (Schwanda, the Bagpiper) – Polka und Fugue (Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra; Dimitri Mitropoulos, cond.)

If we move out of the world of opera and into other spheres where magic has a place, we can move into the video-game world where imagination holds sway. One franchise in particular that uses musical instruments is The Legend of Zelda, which has musical instruments that are also magical musical instruments, with powers.

The 1993 LOZ game Link’s Awakening revolves around the player’s quest to collect 8 magical musical instruments so that they can play the iconic tune The Ballad of the Windfish, this will awaken the Windfish and permit you to escape from Koholint Island.

Links Awakening DX – Ballad of the Windfish

The 1998 game LOZ: Ocarina of Time uses an instrument called the ocarina as its focus. The hero, Link, starts out with a simple ocarina but it’s turned into the Ocarina of Time by Zelda. Now Link can move through time (there are scenes with child Link and adult Link, each with different powers).

In this video performance of the music from LOZ, at 06:38, the ocarina theme is played on an ocarina. Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra – The Legend of Zelda – Suite

In the sequel to this game, LOZ: Majora’s Mask, the Ocarina of Time again has an important role in that, on a world that is supposed to be hit by its moon in 3 days, the Ocarina can move you back time by 3 days – you retain all your powers, connections, and loot, but you have three days to try to solve the problem again. Through the game, Link learns new melodies for the instrument and with each new piece of music, he can control the flow of time and open passageways. With the Ocarina and the new melodies, he can move back to the beginning of the play by playing the Song of Time, speed up time by playing the Song of Double Time or move to the next morning or evening by playing the Inverted Song of Time. Magic flutes, magic bells, magic bagpipes, and a magical ocarina – what’s your musical instrument? For more of the best in classical music, sign up to our E-Newsletter

In Norse mythology, there is the Gjallarhorn, a mystical trumpet played by the god Heimdall. The sound of this instrument is said to be so powerful that it can be heard throughout all the realms and signifies the beginning of Ragnarok, the final battle of the gods. Another notable magic instrument is the shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute often associated with Zen Buddhism.

It is believed that playing this instrument can induce a trance-like state, allowing the player to enter a deep meditative state or even communicate with spirits. The harp of Dagda is a magical harp from Celtic mythology. When played, it had the power to control the emotions and moods of those who heard it. It could bring joy or sadness, peace or war, depending on how it was played. Magic instruments have also found their way into folklore and fairy tales. The Pied Piper of Hamelin, for example, used his pipe to lure away the rats from the town, and later the children when the townsfolk refused to pay him. The magical sound of his pipe irresistibly enchanted those who heard it. Overall, magic instruments continue to inspire and captivate our imagination. They symbolize the power of music to transcend the ordinary and transport us into realms of wonder and enchantment. Whether they are played by gods, mythical heroes, or ordinary mortals, these instruments remind us of the magical qualities music holds and its ability to connect us to the supernatural..

Reviews for "From Charms to Spells: The Role of Magic Instruments in Spellcasting"

1. Emily - 2/5

I was really disappointed with "Magic Instruments". While the concept of using technology to create music sounds intriguing, the execution fell flat for me. The instrument itself felt clunky and unnatural to play, making it difficult to produce the sound I wanted. Additionally, the sound quality was mediocre at best, lacking the rich tones and depth of traditional instruments. Overall, I found "Magic Instruments" to be a gimmick that couldn't compare to the authentic experience of playing a real instrument.

2. Jeremy - 1/5

I had high hopes for "Magic Instruments", but it turned out to be a complete letdown. The instrument's interface was confusing and unintuitive, making it frustrating to navigate and create music. The instrument's limited range of sounds and lack of customization options left me feeling bored and uninspired. I would not recommend wasting your time and money on this product when there are much better alternatives available.

3. Susan - 2/5

"Magic Instruments" promised to revolutionize the way we create music, but it failed to deliver. The instrument's software was glitchy and often crashed, causing me to lose my progress and patience. Playing the instrument felt awkward and unnatural, and the lack of proper feedback made it difficult to improve my technique. Overall, I found this product to be unreliable and not worth the investment.

The Role of Magic Instruments in Fantasy Literature