CLARENCE ADOO TRUST
Headspace
What is Headspace?
Headspace can be described as a virtual instrument as the sounds are created through a computer using synthesised sounds. If anyone says it can't be a real instrument, then you must have to look at the similarity between this and a synthesiser. They are very similar in the way they produce sound, the key difference is how the instrument is controlled.
As an accomplished pianist, Clarence will have played a synthesiser many times. Since the accident, he had electronic controls installed in his house that he operates with a blow tube, so a instrument that is like a synthesiser, but controlled by head movements and breath is ideal for him.
The instrument's inventor Rolf Gehlhaar, who describes himself as a 'German-born English-resident American' warns against complacency.
"It is a real musical instrument and like any instrument you need to put effort into practising it", he says.
As an accomplished pianist, Clarence will have played a synthesiser many times. Since the accident, he had electronic controls installed in his house that he operates with a blow tube, so a instrument that is like a synthesiser, but controlled by head movements and breath is ideal for him.
The instrument's inventor Rolf Gehlhaar, who describes himself as a 'German-born English-resident American' warns against complacency.
"It is a real musical instrument and like any instrument you need to put effort into practising it", he says.
Clarence and Headspace
German-born American composer-cum-inventor Rolf Gehlhaar was asked to devise an instrument that Clarence could play. The result was the Headspace Instrument, a computer-based "virtual" instrument, but a real instrument nonetheless. It could be classed as a wind instrument as it is controlled by Clarence's breath, but is assisted by head movements.
Clarence explains:
"The headset I am wearing has sensors either side and when I move my head it moves a mouse on the screen- the blow tube down the side works as the left click of the mouse and the blowing activates different notes and keys. The sensors on top of this head set - they allow me to move the mouse left and right. The mouthpiece is like the left click of the mouse and that enables me to get it started. From starting to learn to play the equipment it took ten minutes to be able to play Auld Lang Syne with only two mistakes."
The Headspace Instrument has been an extremely significant part of Clarence's rehabilitation. It has facilitated his return to performing and feeling the buzz of being on stage. In short, it has been the platform for making a comeback. It can make a variety of sounds and doesn't look at all like a trumpet, but to Clarence the benefits of performing again are similar:
"There isn't a great deal of difference between using Headspace and playing the trumpet, except that you don't feel the instrument vibrating and the sound comes out 20 feet away in the auditorium. In blowing through the tube, which is in effect the mouthpiece, less air is required, but precision is still necessary, even although I can't feel any feedback as a result of paralysis."
The impetus for the instrument came from a friend of Clarence, the renowned trombonist John Kenny, who is also a friend of Rolf's. John went on to create the Headspace Ensemble consisting of himself, trumpeter Torbjörn Hultmark, sound projectionist/composer Chris Wheeler, and of course Clarence on Headspace Instrument. When John was commissioned to write and perform a piece of music for the St.Magnus Music Festival in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands, John chose to write something which included the Headspace Instrument and so the Headspace Ensemble made its debut at the festival on 22 June 2005.
Clarence's reaction to the concert was: "It makes me feel like a musician again."
April 2007 saw the Headspace Ensemble perform its first overseas concert at the Fundação Casa da Música in Porto, Portugal.
In the following video blog by Lloyd Coleman, Clarence demonstrates Headspace (May 2015):
Clarence explains:
"The headset I am wearing has sensors either side and when I move my head it moves a mouse on the screen- the blow tube down the side works as the left click of the mouse and the blowing activates different notes and keys. The sensors on top of this head set - they allow me to move the mouse left and right. The mouthpiece is like the left click of the mouse and that enables me to get it started. From starting to learn to play the equipment it took ten minutes to be able to play Auld Lang Syne with only two mistakes."
The Headspace Instrument has been an extremely significant part of Clarence's rehabilitation. It has facilitated his return to performing and feeling the buzz of being on stage. In short, it has been the platform for making a comeback. It can make a variety of sounds and doesn't look at all like a trumpet, but to Clarence the benefits of performing again are similar:
"There isn't a great deal of difference between using Headspace and playing the trumpet, except that you don't feel the instrument vibrating and the sound comes out 20 feet away in the auditorium. In blowing through the tube, which is in effect the mouthpiece, less air is required, but precision is still necessary, even although I can't feel any feedback as a result of paralysis."
The impetus for the instrument came from a friend of Clarence, the renowned trombonist John Kenny, who is also a friend of Rolf's. John went on to create the Headspace Ensemble consisting of himself, trumpeter Torbjörn Hultmark, sound projectionist/composer Chris Wheeler, and of course Clarence on Headspace Instrument. When John was commissioned to write and perform a piece of music for the St.Magnus Music Festival in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands, John chose to write something which included the Headspace Instrument and so the Headspace Ensemble made its debut at the festival on 22 June 2005.
Clarence's reaction to the concert was: "It makes me feel like a musician again."
April 2007 saw the Headspace Ensemble perform its first overseas concert at the Fundação Casa da Música in Porto, Portugal.
In the following video blog by Lloyd Coleman, Clarence demonstrates Headspace (May 2015):
