The Incredible Self Playing Guitar (better than a human?) 

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“I picked electrical engineering because I felt like I couldn’t Google it.” What an incredible statement. 😂

The most in time jam partner you've ever had.🎸Thanks for sharing this story. :)

That's so cool! It sounds completely unique, and honestly quite fun. More importantly, I think it's pretty apparent that it's not going to be replacing human guitarists. It's not trying to. They mentioned player pianos; those have existed for over 100 years, and they still haven't replaced human pianists. All sorts of music automation have been introduced, but human musicians still find jobs and make amazing music. As he said "It's not possible to replace artistry." So I love this thing, and I'm wishing Michael all the best.

Awesome engineering feat. You can tell lots of dedication went into this. Any music that makes people smile like that is the reason we all play. Hats off Michael 👏. Great work! Thanks for sharing Sammy. Make that thing play Crazy Train and we'll talk

Great video! I've never seen anything like this. Congrats to the inventor, superb accomplishment.

I like that the name is an anagram of muzak.

This is so cool. Can’t wait to see how it gets better. The thing that’s unreplaceable about humans for now is that with human playing, the artistry is linked to an individual person’s story. It’s the same reason why it’s so hard to make something like a lab-made steak appealing - it’s good without a story (or at least without a story that’s relatable to most humans). In order for a robotic guitar player to achieve artistry on the level of a human, we will first have to build robots with stories that are relatable on a human level. I do think we’ll actually get there (and maybe even within our lifetimes - if we don’t burn up the earth first), but we aren’t there yet. The story of this particular guitar and the way it plays is really the story of its creator and it’s creation, which in itself makes it interesting, but the artistry is in the story of its creation, not in the playing itself.

The way I see it good engineering can be a kind of artistry as well. Seeing this thing in person is not so different from seeing a musician you like, lots of hard work and practice went into a final result that sounds good and is very interesting and impressive. It's obviously a very different experience and by no means replacing a human as I think everyone agrees, but otherwise it's very cool and enjoyable and inspiring to see.

I love how excited he is to share this with people. Its a really cool machine. Looks like we're on our way to Animusic.

This reminds me alot of Animusic stuff back in early 2000, but in this case, man made it real. This is such a fascinating project and I would love to see how this kind of engineering would work with different instruments.

reminds me of working with vocal synths (kind of like text to speech but for singing - hatsune miku is a famous example). it's kind of its own skill set to be able to tune it to sound realistic (or not) and discover the way humans control their pitch, as well as explore what it can do that humans can't

This could be the most over-engineered looper pedal 😅 Awesome video, can’t wait for more of Sammy G’s adventures

The lack of dynamics reminds me of MIDI files that were popular in the early internet days, and unexpectedly sparks a bit of nostalgia. So yeah, this self playing guitar robot made me feel something!

I'd never thought of a self playing guitar so for Michael to have the idea and fortitude and the passion! 9,000 hrs made me think of 10,000 hrs to master an actual guitar. Some people collect stamps. Michael did this . Thanks Sammy G.🙏

Amazing video to showcase a new and unique product. Excited to see what becomes of Kuzma Self Playing Guitars in the future!

As a programming and robotics professor, and a musician, I see this as amazing.

This guy is an artist. He is using his invention as a tool to create performance art around the world. I'm not threatened at all by this, I'm intrigued. Much like those self playing pianos, it's not meant to replace anything, just perform its own form of unique entertainment. This isn't the AI that's taking your jobs, this is the old school automated parlor piano updated for the new age. Very cool, thanks for making this!

of course he uses it for a blues jam

That was really cool to see, definitely a great engineering feat. Look forward to how he builds and iterates on it further. Thanks for putting together the video Sammy!

I am excited about the potential for such a device being used with audio measurement tools for testing, measuring and evaluating the sound qualities of guitars. It could eliminate or verify many of the hoodoo claims about the factors that influence how a particular guitar sounds.

This is by far the best self playing project I've ever heard! Well done man, impressive!

Been following and watching for a few years. I'm a music lover and always appreciate your perspective. Want to say something about the energy being back, but that would imply it went somewhere. Good vibes Sammy G!

Great job on the vid! Would love to see more exploring music things in the wild in this style!

Love this type of content!

In a live application this could be beneficial for a one guitar band in that the rhythm wouldn't fall out behind the player when they are doing leads. As a guitarist for 30 plus years,I think this has enormous potential. Technology is our friend people.

Absolutely wild! As an art piece, robotic musician and overall cool piece of gear, you can tell it a passion project. Very cool! Great video

Cool project guitar and really cool video! thanks!

That was so nice to watch you both jamming

Super cool video! As a civil engineer learning guitar, it’s cool to see something like this! Thanks for making the video and bringing this cool thing to others!

Hey sammy!!! Keep up the good work, we appreciate it!!!

I've dreamed of something just like this back in the early 90's. Even pretty similar to how I imagined it would look to with the slide arm fretting the notes. Crazy!

It is incredible. Amazing creation.

Player pianos, and orchestrions, and band organs didn't replace keyboardists. I dig it! Autonomous music is it's own THING. It is not new. Building these devices is an art in itself!

this was really cool, thanks for the show case

What I love about this is that its timbre is almost like a hybrid guitar-harpsichord type sound, and it's interesting how it really sounds quite distinct from an actual guitarist during a duet.

That's insanely awesome 🔥

This could definitely get to the point that it has "the feel" to where it can do slides and bends and different pick velocity etc.. I could also imagine getting to a point that it can take a midi input, then you could have a real guitar being played by a keyboard or midi written on a pc, which would be amazing. Then you could play an actual guitar with a keyboard instead of using samples. Then imagine having a similar thing that can play other instruments like cello or flute etc. That would be incredible! The real point isn't that it _couldn't_ replace guitarists, because it definitely could. The thing is that it _won't_ replace guitarists. Just like perfect samples where people can't tell the difference doesn't stop people from playing instruments, because people enjoy playing instruments. Machines didn't replace wood carving and hand built guitars. Not because machines can't do as good/better faster. It's because there are people who have a passion for doing those things. It did replace them in terms of a large source of employment, but people will still do it. Just like cameras didn't replace painters, and movies didn't replace stage plays, and audiobooks didn't replace books, etc etc etc. Just like musicians who are way better than me don't make me quit playing myself. I don't and probably never will make a single penny from making music, but I still do it because I love it.

It's so weird that everyone is hung up on it lacking human feeling. Dude said he wanted to make it like a player piano but a guitar. Solid work, sounds cool, I'm stoked to see what else he does with it.

Very cool concept

that jam was wild to watch. def enjoyed it.

That would be cool to have as a juke box, especially for classical music. I like it

I was talking about building one of these around 20 years ago. Glad to see that someone actually did 😊

That is incredibly awesome.

I went to World Expo 88 in Brisbane, Australia, and one of the exhibits was a robotic guitar-playing machine that had a separate hammer above every fret on every string.

Creative young man , awesome invention

that guy is sick! and i like this style of video, love to see it :)

What a great practice partner!

I understand the tinkering value in such project. Tinkering for the sake of it can be huge amounts of fun. BTW: For dynamics you need a system to pick with different degrees of resistance against the strings.

Thank you for the video and kudos to Michael for his project! As others have pointed out, though, these kinds of instruments have been around for a while. Besides player pianos and old orchestrions (that added mallet instruments and cymbals etc. to self-playing pianos), the history of self-playing instruments goes to at least the 1700s when Jacques de Vaucanson presented his mechanical flute player and tambourine player to the public. More specific to this video, self-playing guitars have even been available commercially via the company Ragtime Automated Music, headed by Ken Caulkins, whose done all kinds of automated instruments (guitars, basses, banjos, steel pans, percussion, keyboards etc) and orchestrion-combinations for amusement parks and so on. According to their brochure (found on their website) a midi-capable automated guitar costs somewhere around 15000-20000 bucks. Someone else here made a comment on mechanical vs. electric engineering, and - while not having first-hand knowledge on the issue - I feel they were onto something. For example, if you look at Caulkins's guitars, you can see that they solve the fretting issue very efficiently by drilling holes onto the neck and attaching mechanisms through the neck instead of the cumbersome from-the-side approach seen here. But to be fair, these mechanisms each have their pros and cons (through-the-neck fretting mechanisms can't do slides, for instance). Anyway, I think that it is also important to bring up Pat Metheny's Orchesrion project from 2010. While there are many artists that have been using robotics in their music, I believe that Metheny's project is noteworthy for its scale and ambition. Over a decade ago already, he amassed a large orchestra of self-playing instruments, composed challenging and _dynamic_ music for it, and toured the world with it! Since then, Metheny has made use of smaller versions of the Orchestrion every now and then, and apparently is using some of these automated instruments even right now as part of his Dream Box solo tour. But the 2010 Orchestrion was something else in its ambition and scale. Rarely have I witnessed a large crowd audibly gasp in unison, but that happened when I was lucky enough to attend a concert of the Orchestrion tour. Once the curtain fell and revealed a large wall full of self-playing instruments, one could hear the crowd gasp aloud. Metheny commissioned automated instruments from various inventors and builders, including the aforementioned Caulkins. The Orchestrion features a Yamaha Disklavier (a self playing piano), various mallet instruments, guitars, bass, drums & percussion, and a bottle-organ. Later on an accordion was added, among other instruments. A key contributor was a company called Lemur (or Lemurbots) headed by Eric Singer. The video here mentioned the issue of dynamics. The Yamaha Disklavier was revolutionary for its use of solenoids, which allowed for a proper - or at least usable (as Metheny describes it in his Making of -video of the Orchestrion Project DVD) - dynamic range. Singer's company took this solenoid-based approach and applied it to various other instruments, including their GuitarBot, which is a weird, guitar-like instrument. The really pretty sounding bottle-organ used in Metheny's project came from the Peterson company (known mostly for their tuners), and later additions to the Orchestrion came from Europe-based inventors such as the DeCap brothers. Besides these, Metheny also used a guitar built by the italian artist Paolo Angeli. This guitar features added mechanisms such as a kind of fan that can strum the guitar (and which is mounted in the sound box, so as to not intrude with the human-player) and hammers that can strike the strings (less of a harpsichord-sound if one uses hammers -- which is precisely the key difference between a harpsichord and a piano). So one can, as far as I understand, kind of play oneself and with the automated mechanisms at the same time - on one guitar. On the Orchestrion Project DVD one can see Metheny controlling some of the added mechanisms on the Angeli-guitar via foot switches. Paolo Angeli has posted many videos of his own adventurous playing as well. On the already mentioned Orchestrion DVD one can also see and hear Metheny build up a whole piece by looping sections via conventional guitar looping, but also by playing stuff on the guitar that controls the robot-instruments in real time via MIDI. Metheny loops robotic marimbas, vibes, piano, bass, bottle organ from his guitar as well as all the drums. So the Orchestrion allows one to jam with the robotic instruments in real time, controlling the whole ensemble from the guitar (via MIDI) and various foot switches. I know there are many others working in this general field besides the names mentioned here, but hopefully this long-winded comment is of some use for people that are perhaps eager to learn more about these kinds of instruments. Thanks again for the video!

I like this format it's giving me rob scallon vibes but you make it your own. Great job 👍

So soulful.

See that empty auditorium at 0:23? About 2 decades ago I went to the World Fair in Brisbane, Australia, where the Japan stand had a beautiful gold plated robot guitar player in a mini-auditorium that would flawlessly play all the popular classical guitar pieces known to man. Over the course of the week I was there, every time I walked past the auditorium it was either completely empty, or only had one or two people who would watch curiously for a few minutes then leave. I don't think anyone can think that robots will replace humans in this context. Though as a software developer and guitar player myself, I applaud the technical artistry that has gone behind this project.

Yes, dynamics probably should be your next adventure. In addition, the "angles" of the pic and how it travels through the string creates the tonal variety. 😊 For a keyboard player or midi file to actually play a guitar and have it respond appropriately is the ultimate goal, in my opinion. In that sense, it could replace a real guitar player, but not the human element of the performance! 😉 I think this is a worthy thing to pursue, as many people who cannot play the guitar will now have access to its beautiful sounds!!! Great interview, and please keep up the hard work. We all appreciate it! 👍

That was definitely cool!

That is really cool. I like the guy who invented it too. He seems pretty chill.

That's awesome! Its amazing the technology available today. I actually live A few counties over from Peoria Illinois! I thought that was so cool!

So cool!

Wow Michael Kuzma! that is very impressive and I'm glad he put forethought into how it wont replace human musicians and also that he doesn't plan to mass produce it, for very understandable reasons. This is an amazing invention, I wish I could get one for my grandpa but I understand that can't happen by the very nature of it not being mass produced lol.

Interesting stuff, good project for a student to combine interests. Somehow it reminds me of a time decades ago when I was in Dublin and there was an older guy busking with what he called 'the piano guitar'. He'd modded an acoustic with a contraption that struck the strings with hammers (like in a piano) in response to some keys sort of like an accordion has and he fretted the notes normally. His technique was obviously drastically different and the sound of the strings too so he got really unique sounds and his ability to strike different string combos rapidly as well as play fast runs with the keys made his basic covers pretty intricate. There's still room to innovate after all these centuries.

Lovely guy, fun invention. Cheers.

Incredible. An amazing invention.

That is extremely cool, also could be very helpful to composers and songwriters with disabilities.

this was awesome

In Wisconsin there is a museum with a pneumatic, self playing guitar. The museum is called House on the Rock. Compressed air operates the mechanism, and mechanical fingers strum and pluck the strings. Not operated by a computer,..it is more like a player-piano. It is too hard to put into words how it works.

I've been ideating the mechanics of a robotic guitar for years but never had the initiative to ever try to realize it, so kudos to Kuzma. I had an idea that the bridge hold each string in individual motorized tensioners so that it could perform some vibrato or microtonal stuff. That, or hold the strings over a bar like a Bigsby and press on each string on the tailpiece-side of the bar.

And contest entered! I mod Twitch for a musician who plays Takamine. The quality is solid. This is an instrument worth having just based on the manufacturer.

I love how you chose Blues to Jam

love to pair something like this with that Polyend percussion system and make a full robot band

Now someone will want to put a neural interface into this. Great job, good vid!

The House on the Rock has a ton of self playing instruments, and I assumed that included guitar. But thinking back, I think they only had stringed instruments that used a bow mostly.

Good job Samurai, interviewing is not the easiest and you did great.

Damn, Sammy G was in my home state just a few towns from where I live. If this guitar is at Bradley, I'm definitely going to visit and see this beauty in action.

It brought me joy

So, so cool. This is awesome technology that takes us all a little bit further every day.

I'd love to hear it play Fracture by King Crimson.

A concert of robot instruments would be fun to watch.

Fascinating.😎 This machine should play for me. When I play guitar myself it sounds bad...

would love to see a bass version of this

This would be perfect for objective tone comparisons between guitars, pickups, tonewoods, etc. Remove all human factors from the equation to isolate any variable you choose.

I love this kid, Brilliant

Heh, I live in Peoria and went to Bradley yet had no idea this thing existed. I did recognize Dingledine Music Center right away, though. Very cool that this thing exists at all, let alone in my back yard.

Wow that must have been a lot of work and money. So cool. Good job

There's a place called "The House On The Rock" in Spring Green Wisconsin that has had self playing guitars for many decades.

I don't have a guitar but always wanted one I hope I get it. Btw love your videos brother love from India❤

It seems like a fretless setup would be appropriate. Then it could arbitrarily change temperament and simulate the microtones of bending without having to physically bend strings.

Betteridge's Law of Headlines strikes again! This is very cool, but I doubt it's the first self-playing guitar. Beginning in the 19th century there were "Orchestrions" and "dance organs" that went far beyond player pianos and mechanical organs to incorporate mechanically played percussion, wind instruments, and strings. I can't find references to one specifically with a guitar in it, but surely someone tried it. I did find the recent cool Mechanical Circle Guitar" by Anthony Dickens that does the right hand plucking and strumming, and a paywalled 2010 New York Times article about Pat Metheny's "Orchestrion", and Eric Singer's robot orchestra including some kind of robot-guitar. What makes Orchestrions so impressive is there were no electronic back then, and most were driven pneumatically rather than electric. Besides the ones plonking away in fun fairs, the rich would have massive "hi-fi" ones built into their homes; the rise of vinyl records and the stock market crash killed the industry. I visited a mechanical musical instrument museum in England that had one with violins activated by spinning disks, plus a spell-binding piano roll "recording" of George Gershwin's idiosyncratic performance of his own "Rhapsody in Blue", with the dynamics and phrasing all punched into a paper roll. Google "mechanical instrument musem" or "orchestrion" and enjoy, and go visit a museums of them while people still know how to maintain them. I look forward to the Conlon Nancarrow of self-playing guitar composing pieces specifically for the capabilities of this musical instrument.

Sounds like live midi guitar, live. As a engineering challenge I'm impressed of the result. Would I listen it play a full night at a bar, propably not but it's not far from it tbh!

Damn those shoes are on point

DUDE!!!! having 1 of theses to play with you as a practice buddy to or just to have live music playing in the background😮😮 Like on the practice front I have seen so many people learn at a faster rate when they got the song playing as a back track and if you can adjust it to play at slower tempos to learn with... that would be amazing, pair this up with a good teacher who will help develop the proper techniques I see it being an amazing aid that's just going to hit on a different level then playing with a video or program

Cool. This could be used as a secondary guitar to back up a solo busker who doesn’t necessarily make enough on the street to pay another player to back them up. Probably too costly for now with the cost being over a hundred grand in but if it does catch on, an affordable model may be available in a few years! Nice job! 👍

Now we need the bass version.

He said it perfectly, it’s the player piano of the acoustic guitar. Piano players found long ago there was nothing to fear from a player piano, the same is true here. And automation of musical instruments have existed for a very long time; and make great museum pieces. It’s a very cool combination of electromechanical servos and was exactly the type of projects I worked on in school. If he wanted he would have an amazing career in robotics or manufacturing machine design (of course me and many of my colleagues went completely into software after we left school, so you never know). What would be a fun endeavor is to attempt to pull a live stream from a mic and attempt to improvise an accompaniment. It would take some pretty low latency stream processing and a very interesting set of algorithms, but it has been done in VSTs, so it’s not impossible.

Cue comments about Compressorhead and That One Love Machine that also physically play their instruments, including guitars :) I like the perspective though; used to be one of those "but where's the FEEL" dudes but grew up. Great project from a true engineer that sees the fun and the art of it.

What a cool guy, and awesome invention! I can't imagine the sort of non-sense he's had to hear from the uber-traditional guitar players out there who are scared of fretboard wood from an ever so slightly different species of tree. AND, the sort of hypersensitivity folks have right now around anything that looks like it could contribute to creating art. Sammy asked good questions, but I bet that, instead of questions about his inspiration, his own experience with the instrument, or basic inquiry into how the thing works, he's having to answer insane questions about whether it can replace a human guitarist. LOL, aside from how amazingly complex and technically advanced it is, in terms of what you need to do in order to make it play (and what limits impact what it can play), it should be about as scary as a music box. Glad Sammy put the comparison to the player piano in there. I only say all this because the guy seemed pretty excited about his invention, pretty well spoken and travelled, and unfortunately, we live in a time where I bet he gets so much grief he doesn't get to feel as accomplished as he should. Really cool story, great video, and exciting time to be alive!

jamming to that guitar looks fun,

totally awsome perfect for playing the boring rythm parts that make your hand tired and everyone can solo or sing with a live instrument. these could be incredibly teaching and songwriting aids.

I would like to see this with a midi input and hook up a keyboard or even a keytar. The possibilities are endless.

Super cool

That thing is freaking cool! Of course, I see it on one of the coolest YT guitar channels. 😎